Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Peter The Great

Best Quotes about Character

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

Thackeray, William M.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

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

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

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

Howell, Harry

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

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

13.

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

Confucius

14.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

15.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

16.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

17.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

18.

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.

19.

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

20.

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

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.

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

23.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Horace

27.

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

Buddha

28.

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

29.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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.

31.

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.

32.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

33.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

39.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

40.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

41.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

42.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

43.

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

Euripides

44.

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

45.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

46.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

47.

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

Maritain, Jacques

48.

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