Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

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

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

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

Karr, Alphonse

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.

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

Shakespeare, William

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

10.

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

Aristotle

11.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

12.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

13.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

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

15.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

16.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

17.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

18.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

19.

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.

20.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

21.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

23.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

24.

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

Horace

25.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

26.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

27.

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

28.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

29.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

30.

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

31.

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

32.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

33.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

34.

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

35.

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.

36.

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

37.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

38.

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

39.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Chesterfield, Lord

40.

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.

41.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

42.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

43.

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.

44.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Royal, Darrell

48.

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

49.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

50.

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.