Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Joan Didion

Best Quotes about Character

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

Character is a victory, not a gift.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

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.

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

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

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

Baldwin, Faith

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

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

Chesterfield, Lord

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Bible

14.

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

Michener, James A.

15.

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

Hermann Hesse

16.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

17.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

18.

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

Voltaire

19.

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

20.

Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.

Buddha

21.

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.

22.

Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.

Drummond, Henry

23.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

24.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

25.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

26.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

27.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

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

Maritain, Jacques

30.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

33.

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

34.

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

35.

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

Horace

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

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

38.

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

Taylor, Bayard

39.

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

Guideposts

40.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

41.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

42.

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

43.

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

Solon

44.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Cicero, Marcus T.

45.

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

46.

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

47.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

48.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

49.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

Aristotle

50.

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.