Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Best Quotes about Character

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

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

Marie Leneru

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

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

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

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

Estrange, L.

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

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

10.

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

Leneru, Marie

11.

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

Hermann Hesse

12.

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

13.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

King Jr. Martin Luther

14.

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

Proverb

15.

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

Thurber, James

16.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

17.

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.

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

24.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

25.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

Dyke, Henry Van

26.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

27.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

28.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

29.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Chambers, Oswald

33.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

34.

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

Angelou, Maya

35.

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

Petrarch, Francesco

36.

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

Merikare

37.

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

38.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

39.

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

Lippmann, Walter

40.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

41.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

42.

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.

43.

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

44.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace

45.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

46.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.