Motivational Quotes

Character

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

- Oscar Levant

Best Quotes about Character

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

Angelou, Maya

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

Lincoln, Abraham

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

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

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Jefferson, Thomas

10.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

13.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

14.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

15.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

16.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

17.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

18.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

19.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

20.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

21.

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

Baldwin, Faith

22.

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

Solon

23.

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

Maritain, Jacques

24.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

25.

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

Michener, James A.

26.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

27.

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

Karr, Alphonse

28.

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

29.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

30.

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

31.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

32.

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.

33.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

34.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

35.

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

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

38.

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

39.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

40.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

41.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

42.

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

43.

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

Greeley, Horace

44.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

45.

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

46.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

47.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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