Motivational Quotes

Character

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

- Richter, Jean Paul

Best Quotes about Character

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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.

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

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.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

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

Petrarch, Francesco

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

10.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

11.

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

Proverb, Chinese

12.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

13.

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

14.

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

Hermann Hesse

15.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

16.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

17.

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

18.

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

Seneca

19.

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

20.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

21.

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

22.

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

Aristotle

23.

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

24.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

26.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

27.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

28.

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

Gill, Vince

29.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

30.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

31.

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

Francis Thompson

32.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

33.

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

Royal, Darrell

34.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

Babson, Roger

35.

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

36.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

37.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

38.

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!.

James, William

39.

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.

40.

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

Crisp, Quentin

41.

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

42.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

43.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

44.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

46.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

47.

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

Confucius

48.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

49.

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

Collins, Marva

50.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.