Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Thurber, James

Best Quotes about Character

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.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.

Richard Greenberg

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Aristotle

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.

Elihu Burritt

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

10.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

11.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

Trotsky, Leon

12.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

13.

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

Voltaire

14.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

18.

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

Baldwin, Faith

19.

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.

20.

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

21.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

22.

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

Francis Thompson

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

26.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

27.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

28.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

29.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

30.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

31.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Disraeli, Benjamin

32.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

33.

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

34.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

35.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

36.

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.

37.

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

38.

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

Lippmann, Walter

39.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

40.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

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

42.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

43.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

44.

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

Angelou, Maya

45.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

46.

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

47.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

48.

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

49.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

50.

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