Motivational Quotes

Character

A rich man has no need of character.

- Proverb, Hebrew

Best Quotes about Character

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

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.

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

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

Crisp, Quentin

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

10.

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

11.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

12.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

13.

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

14.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

15.

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

Seneca

16.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

17.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

18.

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

Lippmann, Walter

19.

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

20.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

25.

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

26.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

27.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

28.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

29.

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.

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

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

32.

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

Thurber, James

33.

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.

34.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

35.

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

36.

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.

37.

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

38.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

39.

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.

40.

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

41.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

42.

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

43.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

44.

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

45.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

46.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

50.

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.