Character Quotes

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

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

Confucius, The Confucian Analects

Parents can only advise their children or point them in the right direction. Ultimately people shape their own characters.

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Freedom and indedendence form my character.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Founder of modern Turkey 24. 04. 1921

Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.

Arnold Toynbee

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

Samuel Johnson

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

Donald Creighton

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

History is made at night. Character is what you are in the dark.

Lord John Whorfin

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

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Thomas Paine

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

Japanese Prove

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

Johann von Goethe

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

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.

John Ashcroft

A man is what he is, not what men say he is. His character no man can touch. His character is what he is before his God and his Judge; and only he himself can damage that. His reputations what men say he is. That can be damaged; but reputation is for time, character is for eternity.

John Ballantine Gough

Character can not be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Kelle

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

Henry David Thoreau

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.

Elmer G. Letterman

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

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

Albert Einstein

A man of character in peace is a man of courage in war.

Sir James Glove

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

A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.

Anonymous

Character is what can do without success.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.

Phillips Brooks

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

To display the greatest powers, unless they are applied to great purposes, makes nothing for the character of greatness.

William Hazlitt, on the Pleasure of Hating

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day

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

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

Franklin P. Adams

Sow and act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap destiny.

Frances E. Willard

One can acquire everything in solitude - Except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Heywood

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

Albert Einstein

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

Isabelle Eberhardt