Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Karr, Alphonse

Best Quotes about Character

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Frankfurter, Felix

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

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

Euripides

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

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

Richter, Jean Paul

10.

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

W. Somerset Maugham

11.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

12.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence

Virgil

13.

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

Proverb

14.

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

Elihu Burritt

15.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

16.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

17.

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

Thurber, James

18.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

19.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

20.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character

Covey, Stephen R.

21.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Boardman, George D.

22.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

Hepburn, Katharine

23.

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

Michener, James A.

24.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

Forster, Edward M.

25.

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

Aristotle

26.

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.

27.

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

Angelou, Maya

28.

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

29.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

30.

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

31.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

35.

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

36.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

37.

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

Greeley, Horace

38.

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

Francis Thompson

39.

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.

40.

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

41.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

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.

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

Gill, Vince

44.

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.

45.

The higher character a person supports the more they should regard their smallest actions.

46.

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

Elmer G. Letterman

47.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

48.

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

Voltaire

49.

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

50.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African