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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Proverb

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Hepburn, Katharine

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

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

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

10.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

11.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

12.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

13.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

14.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

18.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

19.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

20.

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

Francis Thompson

21.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

Leneru, Marie

25.

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.

26.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

27.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

28.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

29.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

30.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

31.

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

32.

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

33.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

34.

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

Thackeray, William M.

35.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

36.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

37.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

38.

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

Howell, Harry

39.

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

40.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

41.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

42.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

43.

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

44.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

45.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

46.

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

47.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

48.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

49.

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

50.

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