Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Taylor, Bayard

Best Quotes about Character

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

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

Solon

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

Hermann Hesse

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.

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

Proverb

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

Confucius

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

Lippmann, Walter

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

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.

10.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

11.

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.

12.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

13.

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

14.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

15.

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

16.

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

17.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John

18.

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

Shakespeare, William

19.

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

Michener, James A.

20.

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

21.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

23.

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

Francis Thompson

24.

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

25.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

26.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

27.

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.

28.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

32.

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

33.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

34.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

35.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

36.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

37.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

38.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

39.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

41.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

43.

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

44.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

45.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

46.

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

Thurber, James

47.

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

48.

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

Angelou, Maya

49.

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

50.

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