Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Mason, John L.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

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

Freeman, Robert

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

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

Character is simply habit long continued.

Plutarch

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

Richter, Jean Paul

10.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

11.

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

12.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

13.

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

Thurber, James

14.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

18.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

19.

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

20.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Greeley, Horace

24.

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

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

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.

27.

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

28.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Lincoln, Abraham

30.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

31.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

32.

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

Proverb, Chinese

33.

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

Merikare

34.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

35.

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

Lippmann, Walter

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

39.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Maurois, Andre

40.

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

Proverb

41.

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

42.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

43.

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

Angelou, Maya

44.

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

45.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

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.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

48.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

49.

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

Baldwin, Faith

50.

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