Character Quotes

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

Plutarch

There are many kinds of smiles, each having a distinct character. Some announce goodness, and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bitterness, and pride; some soften the countenance by their languishing tenderness, others brighten by their spiritual vivacity.

Johann Kaspar Lavate

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

Character is who you are when no one is looking.

Allan Williams

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.

Patrick Overton

What made the deepest impression upon you? inquired a friend one day of Lincoln, when you stood in the presence of the Falls of Niagara, the greatest of natural wonders? - - - - The thing that stuck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls, Lincoln responded with the characteristic deliberation, was where in the world did all that water come from?

Author Unknown

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

Solon

In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Tyron Edwards

History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances.

Donald Creighton

There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle.

Mahatma Gandhi

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

Freeman John Dyson

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menande

Certainly it is a world of scarcity. But the scarcity is not confined to iron ore and available land. The most constricting scarcities are those of character and personality.

William R Allen

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

Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf

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

Horace Mann

I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.

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

Knowledge is essential to conquest; only according to our ignorance are we helpless. Thought creates character. Character can dominate conditions. Will creates circumstances and environment.

Anne Besant

The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.

Isabelle Eberhardt

It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Johann von Goethe

Acceptance without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western religion, rejection without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western science.

Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters".

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves.

Dietrich Bonhoeffe

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

Lin Yutang

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

George Washington

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

John Locke

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

Eleanor H. Porte

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

Strong feelings do not necessarily make a strong character. The strength of a man is to be measured by the power of the feelings he subdues not by the power of those which subdue him.

William Carleton

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Thomas Paine

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, The Confucian Analects

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

H. Jackson Browne, P. S. I Love You

Education has for its object the formation of character.

Herbert Spence

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

Cicero