Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

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.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

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

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

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

10.

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

Angelou, Maya

11.

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.

12.

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.

13.

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

14.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

15.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

16.

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

17.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

18.

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

19.

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

20.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

21.

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

22.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

23.

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

24.

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

25.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

Hermann Hesse

26.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

27.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

28.

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

Bible

29.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain, Jacques

30.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

31.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

32.

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

33.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

Guideposts

34.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

35.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Gaulle, Charles De

36.

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

Lippmann, Walter

37.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

38.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

39.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

40.

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.

41.

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

Michener, James A.

42.

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.

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

47.

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

48.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

49.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Landers, Ann

50.

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