Motivational Quotes

Character

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

- Proverb

Best Quotes about Character

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

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

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

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

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

Thoreau, Henry David

10.

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.

11.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

12.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.

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

Thomas, John M.

14.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

15.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

16.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

17.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

18.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

19.

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

Freeman, Robert

20.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

21.

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

22.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

23.

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

Guideposts

24.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

25.

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

Howell, Harry

26.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

27.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

28.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

29.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

30.

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

31.

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

Karr, Alphonse

32.

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

33.

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

Solon

34.

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

35.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Euripides

39.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

40.

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

Merikare

41.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

42.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

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

44.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

45.

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

46.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

47.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

48.

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

Elihu Burritt

49.

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