Motivational Quotes

Character

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

- Proverb, Chinese

Best Quotes about Character

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

Mohammed

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Lubbock, Sir John

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

Hermann Hesse

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

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

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

10.

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

Angelou, Maya

11.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

Linall Jr. A. L.

12.

If an ass goes traveling it will not come home a horse.

Proverb

13.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

14.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

15.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

16.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

17.

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

Howell, Harry

18.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

19.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

20.

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

21.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

25.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

26.

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

27.

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

Seneca

28.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

32.

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

Royal, Darrell

33.

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.

34.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

35.

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

Thurber, James

36.

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

Taylor, Bayard

37.

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

38.

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.

39.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

40.

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

41.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

43.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

44.

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

Freeman, Robert

45.

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

46.

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.

47.

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

Solon

48.

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

49.

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

Lippmann, Walter

50.

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