Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Brown, Les

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

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

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

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

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Lois McMaster Bujold

11.

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

12.

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

Francis Thompson

13.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

14.

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

Guideposts

15.

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

Angelou, Maya

16.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

17.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

18.

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

Voltaire

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Mason, John L.

22.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

23.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

24.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

25.

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

26.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

27.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

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.

31.

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

Proverb

32.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

33.

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

34.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

35.

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

36.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

38.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

39.

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

Estrange, L.

40.

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

41.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

42.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

43.

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

44.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

46.

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

Thurber, James

47.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

48.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

49.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

50.

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

Marden, Orison Swett