Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Voltaire

Best Quotes about Character

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

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

Brown, Les

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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.

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

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

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

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

Francis Thompson

10.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

11.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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

13.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

Akhenaton

14.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

15.

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

Freeman, Robert

16.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

17.

Honor is the inner garment of the Soul; the first thing put on by it with the flesh, and the last it layeth down at its separation from it.

Akhenaton

18.

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

Hermann Hesse

19.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

20.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

21.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

22.

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

Thomas, John M.

23.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

24.

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.

25.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

26.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

27.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

28.

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

Voltaire

29.

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

Aristotle

30.

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

Crisp, Quentin

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Thurber, James

34.

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

Hall, Manly

35.

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

36.

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

37.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

38.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

39.

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

Marie Leneru

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

43.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

44.

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.

45.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

50.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva