Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Guideposts

Best Quotes about Character

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

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

Royal, Darrell

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

Joan Didion

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Thoreau, Henry David

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Mason, John L.

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

10.

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.

11.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

12.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

13.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

14.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

15.

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

Gill, Vince

16.

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

Voltaire

17.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

18.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

19.

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

Michener, James A.

20.

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

21.

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

Horace

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

26.

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

Maritain, Jacques

27.

If anyone tells you someone has changed their character; don't believe it.

Mohammed

28.

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

Proverb

29.

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

30.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

Lippmann, Walter

31.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

32.

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

33.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

34.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

35.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

36.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

37.

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

38.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

39.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

40.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

41.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

42.

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

Karr, Alphonse

43.

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

Solon

44.

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things

Confucius

45.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

46.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Carlyle, Thomas

47.

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

48.

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

Hermann Hesse

49.

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

Chesterfield, Lord

50.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Wooden, John