Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Proverb, Chinese

Best Quotes about Character

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

Howell, Harry

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

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 consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

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

10.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

11.

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

12.

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

Crisp, Quentin

13.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

14.

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

Lippmann, Walter

15.

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

Freeman, Robert

16.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

17.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

18.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

19.

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

Francis Thompson

20.

Character is another thing that is formed in youth and reformed in marriage.

21.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

22.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

23.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

24.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

30.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

31.

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.

32.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

33.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

34.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

35.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

36.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

37.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

38.

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

39.

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

40.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

41.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

42.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

43.

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

James A. Froude

44.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

45.

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

Solon

46.

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

Proverb

47.

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

48.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

49.

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.

50.

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

Karr, Alphonse