Motivational Quotes

Character

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

- Washington, Booker T.

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

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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

Freeman, Robert

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

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

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

10.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

12.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

13.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

14.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Michener, James A.

15.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

Euripides

19.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

20.

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

21.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

22.

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

Shakespeare, William

23.

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

24.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

25.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

26.

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

27.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

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

Thomas, John M.

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

33.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

34.

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

35.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

36.

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.

37.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

38.

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

Leneru, Marie

39.

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

Elihu Burritt

40.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

Brown, Les

41.

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

42.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

43.

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

Thurber, James

44.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

45.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

46.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

47.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

48.

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

49.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

50.

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