Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Jefferson, Thomas

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Petrarch, Francesco

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Marden, Orison Swett

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

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

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

Guideposts

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

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

10.

Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.

Gill, Vince

11.

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

Joan Didion

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

15.

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

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

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.

19.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

20.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

21.

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

22.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

23.

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

James A. Froude

24.

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

25.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Lincoln, Abraham

26.

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

27.

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

Crisp, Quentin

28.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

29.

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

30.

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

Maritain, Jacques

31.

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

32.

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

Michener, James A.

33.

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

Solon

34.

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

35.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

36.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

37.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

38.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

39.

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

40.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

Francis, Clarence

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.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

44.

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

45.

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

Proverb

46.

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

Hall, Manly

47.

For character too is a process and an unfolding... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Eliot, George

48.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

49.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van