Motivational Quotes

Character

A rich man has no need of character.

- Proverb, Hebrew

Best Quotes about Character

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

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

Mohammed

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

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.

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

Karr, Alphonse

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

Angelou, Maya

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

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

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

10.

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

Thurber, James

11.

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

Euripides

12.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

13.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

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

Voltaire

17.

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

Michener, James A.

18.

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

19.

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.

20.

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

21.

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

22.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

23.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

24.

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

Francis Thompson

25.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

26.

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

Proverb, Chinese

27.

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

James A. Froude

28.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

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.

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

31.

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

Confucius

32.

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

33.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

34.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

35.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

36.

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

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.

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

39.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

40.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

41.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

Taylor, Bayard

43.

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

44.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

45.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

46.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

47.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

48.

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

49.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

50.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline