Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Thoreau, Henry David

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Howell, Harry

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

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

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

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

Hall, Manly

10.

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

Thurber, James

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Hermann Hesse

14.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

15.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

16.

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

Angelou, Maya

17.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

18.

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

Estrange, L.

19.

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

Voltaire

20.

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

Horace

21.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

22.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

23.

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

Michener, James A.

24.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

25.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

26.

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

James A. Froude

27.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

28.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Euripides

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Mohammed

32.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

33.

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

Seneca

34.

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

Buddha

35.

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

Proverb

36.

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

Leneru, Marie

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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.

40.

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

Guideposts

41.

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

Taylor, Bayard

42.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

43.

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

44.

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

45.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Disraeli, Benjamin

46.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

47.

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

48.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

49.

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

Proverb

50.

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.