Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Shakespeare, William

Best Quotes about Character

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Greeley, Horace

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

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

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

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

10.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

11.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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

Hermann Hesse

13.

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

Hall, Manly

14.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

15.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

16.

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

Francis Thompson

17.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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.

21.

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

Taylor, Bayard

22.

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

23.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

24.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

25.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

26.

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

Hay, Colin

27.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

28.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

29.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

30.

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

31.

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

32.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

33.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

34.

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.

35.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

36.

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

James A. Froude

37.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

38.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

39.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

40.

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

Royal, Darrell

41.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

42.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

43.

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.

44.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

45.

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

Baldwin, Faith

46.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

47.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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