Motivational Quotes

Character

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

- Greeley, Horace

Best Quotes about Character

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

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

Euripides

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

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

Chesterfield, Lord

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

15.

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

16.

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

Leneru, Marie

17.

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

Royal, Darrell

18.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

19.

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

Smith, Roy L.

20.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

21.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Gill, Vince

25.

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.

26.

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

27.

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

Lubbock, Sir John

28.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

29.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

30.

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

Taylor, Bayard

31.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

32.

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

Joan Didion

33.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

34.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

35.

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

Elihu Burritt

36.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

37.

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

38.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

39.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

40.

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

41.

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

Nathaniel Emmons

42.

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

43.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

44.

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

Horace

45.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

46.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Keller, Helen

47.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

48.

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

49.

Character is a victory, not a gift.

50.

Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market.

Bounds, E. M.