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

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

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

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

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

Confucius

10.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

11.

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

12.

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.

13.

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

14.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

15.

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

Taylor, Bayard

16.

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

17.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

18.

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

Fitzwater, P. B.

19.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

20.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

21.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

Churchill, Winston

22.

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

23.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

24.

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

Joan Didion

25.

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

26.

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.

27.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

28.

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

Merikare

29.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

30.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

31.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

32.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

33.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

34.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

35.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

36.

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

37.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

38.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

39.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

40.

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

41.

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

Seneca

42.

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

Hall, Manly

43.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

44.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

45.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

47.

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

Guideposts

48.

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

Proverb, Chinese

49.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

50.

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.