Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Thurber, James

Best Quotes about Character

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.

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

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

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

Richter, Jean Paul

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

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

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

Merikare

10.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

11.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

12.

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

13.

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

Reagan, Ronald

14.

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

15.

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

James A. Froude

16.

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

Confucius

17.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

18.

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

Marie Leneru

19.

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

Howell, Harry

20.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

21.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

22.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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.

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

Michener, James A.

25.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

29.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

30.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

31.

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

32.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

33.

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

Proverb

34.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

35.

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.

36.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

37.

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

38.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Elihu Burritt

43.

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.

44.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

45.

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.

46.

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

Richards, Mary Caroline

47.

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.

48.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

49.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

James, William

50.

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

Baldwin, Faith