Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards, himself his own dungeon.

Pandita, Saskya

10.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

12.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

13.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

14.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

15.

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

16.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

17.

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

Proverb

18.

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

Joan Didion

19.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

20.

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

21.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

22.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

23.

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

24.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

25.

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

Angelou, Maya

26.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

27.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

28.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

29.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

30.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

31.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.

32.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

33.

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

Crisp, Quentin

34.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

35.

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

36.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

37.

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

38.

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

39.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

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

Seneca

46.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

47.

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

Collins, Marva

48.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

49.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

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

Aristotle