Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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.

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

Lincoln, Abraham

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

11.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

12.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

13.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

14.

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

15.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

16.

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

Euripides

17.

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.

18.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

19.

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

Freeman, Robert

20.

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

Thomas, John M.

21.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

22.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

23.

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

Buddha

24.

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

Angelou, Maya

25.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

26.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

27.

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

Thackeray, William M.

28.

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

Maritain, Jacques

29.

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

30.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

31.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

32.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Mohammed

36.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

37.

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

Royal, Darrell

38.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

39.

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

Estrange, L.

40.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

41.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

45.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

46.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

Francis, Clarence

47.

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

Solon

48.

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

49.

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.

50.

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

Seneca