Motivational Quotes

Character

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

- Abbott, Lyman

Best Quotes about Character

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

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

Guideposts

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.

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Bisset, Jacqueline

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

Confucius

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

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

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

10.

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

Thomas, John M.

11.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

12.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

13.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

14.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

15.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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.

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

Freeman, Robert

18.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

19.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

20.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

21.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

22.

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

23.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

24.

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

25.

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.

26.

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

Shakespeare, William

27.

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.

28.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

29.

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

30.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

31.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

32.

A rich man has no need of character.

Proverb, Hebrew

33.

My father told me that if you saw a man in a Rolls Royce you could be sure he was not a gentleman unless he was the chauffeur.

Arran, Earl of

34.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

35.

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

Royal, Darrell

36.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.

Nathaniel Emmons

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Howell, Harry

40.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

41.

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

Merikare

42.

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

Joan Didion

43.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

44.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

45.

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

Elihu Burritt

46.

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

47.

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

48.

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.

49.

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

50.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.