Motivational Quotes

Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

- Luther, John

Best Quotes about Character

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

10.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

11.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

12.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and averaging them -- we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is the silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

13.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

14.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

15.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Jefferson, Thomas

16.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

17.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

18.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

19.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

20.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

21.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

22.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

23.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

24.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

25.

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

26.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

27.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

28.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

29.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

30.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

32.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

33.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

34.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

35.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

36.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

37.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

38.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

39.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

40.

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

41.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

42.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

43.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

44.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

45.

To succeed is nothing, it's an accident. but to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Marie Leneru

46.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

47.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

48.

Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house --in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.

Miller, Arthur

49.

For character too is a process and an unfolding... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Eliot, George

50.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana