Motivational Quotes

Character

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.

Best Quotes about Character

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude

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

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

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

Francis Thompson

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

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

Richter, Jean Paul

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

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

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

10.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

11.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

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

Frankfurter, Felix

16.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

Shakespeare, William

17.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

18.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

19.

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

Greeley, Horace

20.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

21.

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.

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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

Thurber, James

24.

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

25.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

26.

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.

Reagan, Ronald

27.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

28.

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

29.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

30.

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.

31.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

32.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

33.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

34.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

35.

No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders

36.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Lippmann, Walter

40.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

41.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

42.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

43.

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

Buddha

44.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

45.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

46.

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

47.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

48.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

49.

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

Royal, Darrell

50.

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