Character Quotes

"The Seven Social Sins are: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle.From a sermon given by Frederick Lewis Donaldson in Westminster Abbey, London, on March 20, 1925."

Frederick Lewis Donaldson

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."

Charlotte Brontë

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

Maya Angelou

"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing."

August Wilson

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Abraham Lincoln

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."

Maya Angelou

"Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside."

Cassandra Clare

"I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate."

Charlotte Brontë

"In youth, it was a way I had,To do my best to please.And change, with every passing ladTo suit his theories.But now I know the things I knowAnd do the things I do,And if you do not like me so,To hell, my love, with you."

Dorothy Parker

"In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard."

Nicholas Sparks

"Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

Harper Lee

"Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?"

Cornelia Funke

"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."

Martin Luther King Jr.

"A man's true character comes out when he's drunk."

Charlie Chaplin

"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.""And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.""And yours,"he replied with a smile, "is wilfully to misunderstand them."

Jane Austen

"To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society."

Theodore Roosevelt

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’."

John Burroughs

"Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are."

Shannon L. Alder

"Reputation is what others think of us; character is what God knows of us. When you have spent what feels like eternity trying to repair a few moments of time that destroyed the view others once had of you then you must ask yourself if you have the problem or is it really them? God doesn’t make us try so hard, only enemies do."

Shannon L. Alder

"I must be a great leader because many people follow me. Most of the people are police officers, if that gives you any indication of my character."

Jarod Kintz

"What makes a good leader? I ask myself this every day, and then as I begin to list off characteristics I realize I’m describing myself. Am I the ideal leader? Let’s just say that if I were running for political office, I know who I’d vote for—twice."

Jarod Kintz

"It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice. But the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late."

Wendelin Van Draanen

"Talent is a gift, but character is a choice."

John C. Maxwell

"When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you."

Shannon L. Alder

"Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures - character."

Harry S. Truman

"Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past."

Fred Rogers

"Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody."

Justin Cronin

"Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence."

Marcus Aurelius

"Solid character will reflect itself in consistent behavior, while poor character will seek to hide behind deceptive words and actions."

Myles Munroe

"The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it"

D.L. Moody

"If you want to discover the true character of a person, you have only to observe what they are passionate about."

Shannon L. Alder

"A woman can't do anything about her appearance. Either she's pretty or she isn't. But her character is quite another matter."

Julie Garwood

"At the end of your lives you will not be judged by academic successes, the degrees or diplomas earned, the positions held, the material wealth acquired, or power and prestige, but rather on the basis of what you have become as persons and what you are in conduct and character."

Howard W. Hunter

"On the left side of a strong woman, stands a strong man; he is strengthened by her character."

Ellen J. Barrier

"A woman may be beautiful but have poor character. A man may be a business genius, making money left and right, but lack common courtesy, sensitivity, and compassion."

Myles Munroe

"Trust is always a good idea. For someone else."

Sherrilyn Kenyon

"I was tired of being me."

Rachel Ward

"I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood."

Ludwig Feuerbach

"That wasn't love; that was stupidity."

Sherrilyn Kenyon

"Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists."

Criss Jami

"It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is."

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it."

Jane Austen

"A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture—is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character…"

John Stuart Mill

"Self-leaders are still true leaders even if they have no known followers. True leaders inspire by the influence of their characters and general self-made brands. Leadership is defined by the virtues of one's behaviour."

Israelmore Ayivor

"The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man."

Ludwig Feuerbach

"Self-leaders do not look for followers because they are busily pursuing their influencial dreams that followers will trace and ask for. Followers look for influence and that can be obtained from self-leaders."

Israelmore Ayivor

"A truly good person will speak truth, act with truth, and stand for Truth. A truly good person is not afraid to think from their heart; therefore, allowing nonconformist decisions, viewpoints, and perspectives to lead their life. By following their heart, they stand with their conscience, and only with God."

Suzy Kassem

"Worthy character is best forged from a life of consistent, correct choices centered in the teachings of the Master."

Richard G. Scott

"When you mature in your relationship with God you realize how suffering and patience are like eating your spiritual vegetables."

Criss Jami

"To be too knowing is a downfall."

Laura Linney

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