Motivational Quotes

Character

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Best Quotes about Character

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

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

Character is a victory, not a gift.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

Trotsky, Leon

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

10.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

11.

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

12.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

13.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

14.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

15.

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

16.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

17.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

18.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

19.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

20.

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

21.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

22.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

26.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

27.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

28.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

29.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

30.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

31.

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

32.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

33.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

34.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

35.

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

36.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

37.

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

Hall, Manly

38.

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

Joan Didion

39.

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

40.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

41.

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

42.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

43.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

44.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

45.

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

46.

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.

47.

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

Thackeray, William M.

48.

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

49.

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Greeley, Horace

50.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.