Character Quotes

Every one is as God made him and often a great deal worse.

Miguel de Cervantes

The great hope of society is individual character.

William Ellery Channing

You must look into people as well as at them.

Lord Chesterfield

Human improvement is from within outward.

Talent is nurtured in solitude character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Goethe

O Douglas O Douglas! Tender and true.

Sir Richard Holland

Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits that which he has and that which he thinks he has.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng But in ourselves are triumph and defeat.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Who knows nothing base Fears nothing known.

In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot I do not dare to draw a line Between the two where God has not.

In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.

Phaedrus

Every man has his follies - and often they are the most interesting things he has got.

Indecision is like a stepchild: if he doesn't wash his hands he is called dirty if he does he is wasting the water.

African proverb

Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and overlook the motive and of learned folk to discount the deed and lay open the soul of the doer.

Learn to say 'No' it will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.

Anonymous

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

Anonymous

Every man in the world is better than some one else. And not as good as some one else.

William Saroyan

In Victorian times the purpose of life was to develop a personality once and for all and then stand on it.

Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.

I'm not the heroic type really. I was beaten up by Quakers.

A person's reputation is a mixture of what his friends enemies and relatives say behind his back.

Anonymous

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

He's an honest man - you could shoot craps with him over the telephone.

The man whose conscience never troubles him must have it pretty well trained.

Anonymous

Conscience is a treacherous thing and mine behaves badly whenever there is a serious danger of being found out.

Too often when conscience tries to speak the line seems to be busy.

Anonymous

He liked to like people therefore people liked him.

Generous people are rarely mentally ill people.

When wealth is lost nothing is lost When health is lost something is lost When character is lost all is lost!

Anonymous

Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value - and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself anything goes.

Ayn Rand

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

Aristotle

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Character is perfectly educated will.

Novalis

Character is long-standing habit.

Plutarch

Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.

La Rochefoucauld

If you think about what you ought to do for other people your character will take care of itself.

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

James A. Froude

The clock struck eleven with the respectful unobtrusiveness of one whose mission in life is to be ignored.

Saki

Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.

Adlai Stevenson

My specialty is detached malevolence.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Every one is as God made him and oftentimes a good deal worse.

Cervantes

Character is that which can do without success.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character is what God and the angels know of us reputation is what men and women think of us.

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

Stendhal

Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits that which he has and that which he thinks he has.

If I take care of my character my reputation will take care of itself.

D L Moody

A wise and an understanding heart.

Bible

I'm not hard I'm frightfully soft. But I will not be hounded.

Margaret Thatcher

If Ford Madox Ford were placed stark naked in a room totally empty he would contrive to turn it into a mess.

If I try to be like him who will be like me?

Yiddish Proverb

Individualism is rather like innocence there must be something unconscious about it.

Louis Kronenberger

It is thus with most of us we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

Lord Ronald said nothing he flung himself from the room flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

Stephen Leacock

Oozing charm from every pore He oiled his way around the floor.

Alan Jay Lerner

Self-denial is not a virtue it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.

George Bernard Shaw

The first time you meet Winston [Churchill] you see all his faults and the rest of your life you spend in discovering his virtues.

Lady Constance Lytton

The proper time to influence the character of a child is about 100 years before he is born.

Dean William R. Inge

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