Motivational Quotes

Character

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

- Lincoln, Abraham

Best Quotes about Character

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.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

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

Baldwin, Faith

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

Hall, Manly

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

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

Character is a victory, not a gift.

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

10.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

Shakespeare, William

11.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

12.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.

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

Gill, Vince

14.

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.

Confucius

15.

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.

16.

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

Proverb

17.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

18.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

19.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

James, William

20.

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

21.

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

22.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

23.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Robbins, Anthony

24.

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.

25.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

26.

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

Michener, James A.

27.

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

28.

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

Haliburton, Thomas C.

29.

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

30.

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

31.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Chambers, Oswald

32.

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.

33.

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

34.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

35.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

36.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

37.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

38.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Seneca

39.

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

Elihu Burritt

40.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

41.

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

42.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

43.

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

44.

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

Guideposts

45.

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

46.

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.

47.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

48.

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

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

49.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.