Motivational Quotes

Character

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

- Milton, John

Best Quotes about Character

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

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

Chambers, Oswald

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

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Jefferson, Thomas

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

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

Lincoln, Abraham

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

10.

During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Baruch, Bernard M.

11.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

12.

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

13.

If a man character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Thackeray, William M.

14.

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.

15.

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

James A. Froude

16.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Washington, Booker T.

17.

Too many lives are needed to make just one.

Montale, Eugenio

18.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

Proverb, Chinese

20.

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.

21.

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

Reagan, Ronald

22.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

23.

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

24.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Rohn, Jim

25.

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

26.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Limbaugh, Rush

27.

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

28.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

29.

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

Aquinas, St. Thomas

30.

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

Horace

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

33.

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

Lippmann, Walter

34.

The highest qualities of character must be earned.

Abbott, Lyman

35.

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

36.

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

Guideposts

37.

Character is victory organized.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

38.

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

Shakespeare, William

39.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

40.

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

Euripides

41.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

42.

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

Hermann Hesse

43.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Estrange, L.

44.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

45.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Camus, Albert

46.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

47.

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

48.

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