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

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

Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.

Elias Boudinot

The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are purely imaginary.

Franklin P. Adams

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

Japanese Prove

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

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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

Abraham Lincoln

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

Stendhal

If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, Here comes number seventy - One.

Richard M. Devos

If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time.

Benito Mussolini, The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, 1935

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

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity.

Alexander Hamilton

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

Anon.

Poverty is the schoolmaster of character.

Antiphanes

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 possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune...

Samuel Smiles

Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose.

J. S. Habgood

We are a kind of Chameleons, taking our hue - The hue of our moral character, from those who are about us.

John Locke

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

Eleanor H. Porte

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Education has for its object the formation of character.

Herbert Spence

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

Pride sullies the noblest character.

Claudianus

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.

Ricthe

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

Albert Einstein

It seems to me that perfection of means and confusion of goals seems to characterize our age.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

One can acquire everything in solitude - Except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

One can acquire everything in solitude, except character.

Marie Stendhal

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

Tryon 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

Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.

Paxton Hood

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

John Wooden

The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.

Claiborne Pell

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves.

Benjamin Franklin