Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Character is our destiny.

Heraclitus

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

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

Mason, John L.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

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

Michener, James A.

10.

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

Hermann Hesse

11.

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

Crisp, Quentin

12.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

13.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

14.

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

Gill, Vince

15.

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.

16.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

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.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

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

20.

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

21.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

22.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

23.

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.

24.

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

25.

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

26.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

27.

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

Proverb

28.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Chambers, Oswald

31.

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

32.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

33.

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

34.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

35.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

36.

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

37.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

38.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

39.

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

40.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

41.

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

Freeman, Robert

42.

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

Euripides

43.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

Luther, John

44.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

45.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

46.

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

Maritain, Jacques

47.

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

Thoreau, Henry David