Motivational Quotes

Character

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

Best Quotes about Character

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

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

Lippmann, Walter

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

10.

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

Francis Thompson

11.

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

12.

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

Greeley, Horace

13.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

14.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

15.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

16.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

17.

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

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon

18.

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

Confucius

19.

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

20.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

21.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

22.

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

Elihu Burritt

23.

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

24.

A man's character is his fate.

Heraclitus

25.

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

26.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

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

Hall, Manly

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

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

Shakespeare, William

31.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Lubbock, Sir John

32.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

33.

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.

34.

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

Mason, John L.

35.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Character development is the aim of education.

O'Shea

39.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

40.

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

Proverb

41.

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

Proverb, African

42.

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.

43.

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

44.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

45.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

46.

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

47.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

48.

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

Crisp, Quentin

49.

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

Karr, Alphonse

50.

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.