Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Thoreau, Henry David

Best Quotes about Character

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

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

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

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Collins, Marva

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

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

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

Hay, Colin

10.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

11.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

12.

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

Thurber, James

13.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

14.

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

Horace

15.

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

Thomas, John M.

16.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

17.

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

Euripides

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Crisp, Quentin

22.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

23.

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

24.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

25.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

26.

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

27.

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

28.

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

29.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

30.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

31.

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

32.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

33.

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

Maritain, Jacques

34.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

35.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

36.

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

37.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

38.

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

39.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

40.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

41.

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

Shakespeare, William

42.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

43.

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

Voltaire

44.

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

45.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

46.

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

Greeley, Horace

47.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

48.

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

49.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

50.

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