Motivational Quotes

Character

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

- Pandita, Saskya

Best Quotes about Character

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

Hay, Colin

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

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.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

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

Confucius

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

Frankfurter, Felix

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

Angelou, Maya

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Nathaniel Emmons

10.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

11.

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

Baldwin, Faith

12.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

13.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

14.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

15.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

Guideposts

20.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

21.

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

Shakespeare, William

22.

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

Freeman, Robert

23.

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

24.

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

25.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

26.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

27.

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

28.

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

29.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

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.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

34.

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

35.

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

36.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

37.

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

38.

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

Horace

39.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

40.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

41.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

42.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

43.

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

44.

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

45.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

46.

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

47.

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

Elihu Burritt

48.

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