Motivational Quotes

Character

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

- Maritain, Jacques

Best Quotes about Character

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

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

When about to commit a base deed, respect thyself, though there is no witness.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

10.

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

11.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

12.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

13.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

14.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

15.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

16.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

17.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

18.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

19.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

20.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

21.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

22.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

23.

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

Elihu Burritt

24.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

25.

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

26.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

27.

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

Guideposts

28.

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

29.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

30.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Angelou, Maya

31.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

32.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

33.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

34.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

35.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

36.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

37.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

38.

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

Hall, Manly

39.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

40.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

41.

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

42.

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

43.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

44.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

45.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Lincoln, Abraham

46.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

47.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

48.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

49.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.