Motivational Quotes

Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

- Luther, John

Best Quotes about Character

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

Taylor, Bayard

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Lincoln, Abraham

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

To succeed is nothing -- it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.

Leneru, Marie

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

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.

Hume, David

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

Proverb

10.

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

Solon

11.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

12.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

13.

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

14.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

15.

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.

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

19.

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

20.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

21.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

22.

Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.

Crisp, Quentin

23.

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

24.

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

Michener, James A.

25.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

26.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

27.

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

28.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Freeman, Robert

29.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

30.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

31.

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.

32.

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

33.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

34.

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

35.

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

36.

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

37.

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.

38.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

39.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

40.

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

Hermann Hesse

41.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great