Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Proverb

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

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

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

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

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

Mason, John L.

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

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

Hermann Hesse

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

Freeman, Robert

10.

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

Francis Thompson

11.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

12.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

13.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

14.

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

James A. Froude

15.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

16.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

17.

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

Leneru, Marie

18.

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

Maritain, Jacques

19.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

20.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

21.

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Aristotle

27.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

28.

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

Brown, Les

29.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

30.

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.

31.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

32.

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.

33.

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

Voltaire

34.

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

Estrange, L.

35.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

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.

38.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

39.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

40.

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

41.

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

Bisset, Jacqueline

42.

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

43.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

44.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

45.

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

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.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

48.

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

49.

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

Guideposts

50.

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