Character Quotes

I was going to sue for defamation of character, but then I realised I have no character.

Charles Barkley, "they said it" in Sports Illustrated

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

Tyron Edwards

In making up the character of God, the old theologians failed to mention that He is of infinite cheerfulness. The omission has caused the world much tribulation.

Michael Monahan

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876

Thoughts lead on to purposes purposes go forth in action actions form habits habits decide character and character fixes our destiny.

Tryon Edwards

It violates right order whenever capital so employees the working or wage - Earning classes as to divert business and economic activity entirely to its own arbitrary will and advantage without, the social character of economic life, social justice, and the common good.

Pope Pius XI

The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.....

Douglas Noel Adams

Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.

William Golding

When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Confucius

In later life, as in earlier, only a few persons influence the formation of our character the multitude pass us by like a distant army.

Jean Paul Friedrich Richte

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.

Freeman John Dyson

A person without character is just as body without soul.

Ranjan

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.

Henry David Thoreau

It is the highest form of self - Respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.

Dr. Dale E. Turne

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor to change the character of our thought.

Lin Yutang

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

Faith Baldwin

Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.

Philip Dormer Chesterfield

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character - Building value of privation for the poor.

John Kenneth Galbraith

Character is power.

Booker T. Washington

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

Elihu Burritt

It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy - From lack of character.

Dag Hammarskjld

What makes a good follower The single most important characteristic may well be a willingness to tell the truth. In a world of growing complexity leaders are increasingly dependent on their subordinates for good information, whether the leaders want to hear it or not. Followers who tell the truth and leaders who listen to it are an unbeatable combination.

Warren Bennis

Probably the most distinctive characteristic of the successful politician is selective cowardice.

Richard Harris

In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory.

Cicero

Through his mastery of storytelling techniques, he has managed to separate his character, in the public mind, from his actions as president. ... He has, in short, mesmerized us with that steady gaze.

Jean Nathan Mille

Common - Sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.

W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

One can acquire everything in solitude - Except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

Albert Einstein

The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious and may revolutionize a whole town.

Eleanor H. Porte

The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.

Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless".

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

James Albert Michene

Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle and physical skill, are articles of commerce. They are bought and sold. You can hire them by the year or by the hour. The only thing in the world not for sale is character.

Antonin Scalia

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Theodore Roosevelt

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.

Bernard Mannes Baruch

Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

Charles Reade

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Heywood