Inspirations

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

- Aeschylus

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

- Henri Frederic Amiel

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

- St. Thomas Aquinas

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

- Aristotle

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.

- Fred Astaire

If you don't run your own life, somebody else will.

- John Atkinson

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

- Roger Babson

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

- Faith Baldwin

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 M Baruch

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

- Henry Ward Beecher

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

- Bible

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

- Jacqueline Bisset

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

- George D Boardman

Character is victory organized.

- Napoleon Bonaparte

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

- Christian Nevell Bovee

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

- Les Brown

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

- William M Bulger

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

- Abigail Van Buren

Integrity has no need of rules.

- Albert Camus

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

- Thomas Carlyle

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

- Oswald Chambers

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.

- William Ellery Channing

You must look into people, as well as at them.

- Lord Chesterfield

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

- Lord Chesterfield

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself stan ding unmoved.

- Marcus T Cicero

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

- Henry Clay

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

- Marva Collins

When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

- Confucius

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

- Confucius

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character�

- Stephen R Covey

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

- Stephen R Covey

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

- Benjamin Disraeli

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

- Benjamin Disraeli

You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.

- Norman Douglas

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

- Henry Van Dyke

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

- L. Estrange

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

- Euripides

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

- P. B Fitzwater

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

- Edward M Forster

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the dev otion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

- Clarence Francis

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

- Anne Frank

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

- Felix Frankfurter

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

- Robert Freeman

Human improvement is from within outward.

- James A Froude

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

- Charles De Gaulle

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

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

- Oliver Goldsmith

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

- Horace Greeley

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

- Guideposts

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

- Thomas C Haliburton

Character is our destiny.

- Heraclitus

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

- Napoleon Hill

Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.

- John Howe

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

- Harry Howell

Character is the result of two things: Mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

- Elbert Hubbard

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

- Henry James

I have often thought the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: ''This is the real me!''.

- William James

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

- William James

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

- Thomas Jefferson

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

- Alphonse Karr

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

- Helen Keller

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.

- Grenville Kleiser

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

- Ann Landers

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

- Georg C Lichtenberg

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

- Rush Limbaugh

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

- A L Linall 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

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

- Abraham Lincoln

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

- Sir John Lubbock

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.

- John Luther

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

- Thomas B. Macaulay

Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.

- Og Mandino

It is well to think well. It is divine to act well.

- Horace Mann

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

- Orison Swett Marden

While an original is always hard to find, he is easy to recognize.

- John Mason

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

- Andre Maurois

Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.

- Merikare

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

- James A Michener

A man's reputation is what other people think of him; his character is what he really is.

- Jack Miner

Character is what you are in the dark.

- Dwight L Moody

Character development is the aim of education.

- O'Shea

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

- Thomas Paine

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

- Thomas Paine

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

- Plato

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

- Titus Maccius Plautus

Character is simply habit long continued.

- Plutarch

One can easily judge the character of a person by the way they treat people who can do nothing for them.

- Proverb

Some people are born hammers, others anvils.

- Proverb

Wherever man goes to dwell his character goes with him.

- African Proverb

If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.

- Chinese Proverb

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

- Chinese Proverb

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

- Mary Caroline Richards

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another s.

- Jean Paul Richter

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: initiative, imagination, individuality, and independence.

- Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

- Anthony Robbins

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

- Jim Rohn

Football doesn't build character. It eliminates weak ones.

- Darrell Royal

Character is the foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character.

- R. C Samsel

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

- Sri Swami Sivananda

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity.

- Roy L Smith

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.

- Bayard Taylor

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

- Isiah Thomas

You must regulate your life by the standards you admire when you are at your best.

- John M Thomas

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

- Henry David Thoreau

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserv es.

- Leon Trotsky

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.

- Source Unknown

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

- Source Unknown

Character is like the foundation of a house -- it is below the surface.

- Source Unknown

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

- Source Unknown

Clothes don't tell the character of the man, but they just as well talk for him as against him.

- Source Unknown

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

- Source Unknown

Nothing marks the character of a young man more than failure.

- Source Unknown

The test of any man's character is how he takes praise.

- Source Unknown

You can't truthfully explain your smallest action without fully revealing your character.''

- Source Unknown

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Character is power.

- Booker T Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

- Booker T Washington

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

- Walt Whitman

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.

- Woodrow T Wilson

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

- John Wooden

Inspire-U-2-Have-Character

Get Inspired for Virtue 4: Justice and Civic Strengths

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

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.

If you don't run your own life, somebody else will.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgment will always be in demand under all conditions.

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

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.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23:7]

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades.

Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.

Character is victory organized.

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.

You don't get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Integrity has no need of rules.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.

Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.

You must look into people, as well as at them.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself stan ding unmoved.

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character�

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

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

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm... you can not buy loyalty. You can not buy the dev otion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Character is not made in a crisis -- it is only exhibited.

Human improvement is from within outward.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

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

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

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

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

When God measures man, He puts the tape around his heart -- not his head.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

Character is our destiny.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Character is the result of two things: Mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Good character is like a rubber ball -- thrown down hard -- it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball -- thrown for gain -- shattered and cracked.

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

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece-by thought, choice, courage and determination.