quotations about character
Your character becomes distorted
In the quest for an identity
Why hide behind the truth
Of what you are?
NAPALM DEATH
"Blind to the Truth", From Enslavement to Obliteration
Character has more effect than anything else. Let a number of loud-talking men take up a particular question, and one man of character, of known integrity and beauty of soul, will outweigh them all in his influence.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Our characters are the result of our conduct.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Many people allow others to mold and influence their lives. These people are negative. Strong and positive people will mold their own character and make their circumstances and environment whatever they desire.
WALTER MATTHEWS
Human Life from Many Angles
There are sometimes beauties in a character which would never have appeared but for a defect, and defects which would never have appeared but for a beauty.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims
Decided ends are sure signs of a decided character.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
MALCOLM FORBES
attributed, It Happened Last Night, 1972
Character calls forth character.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Character is power, character is influence, and he who has character, though he may have nothing else, has the means of being eminently useful, not only to his immediate friends, but to society, to the church of God and to the world.
PETER EDWARD KERN
Kern Genealogy
Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.
MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN
The Neurotic's Notebook
Character is what a person is in the dark.
GRENVILLE KLEISER
Dictionary of Proverbs
By nothing do men show their character more than by the things they laugh at.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset. A man should give us a sense of mass.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
If one could only tear down his character, as old buildings are torn down, and build it up anew, as these are rebuilt! And so, in effect, it can be. A noble property of character is, that it is susceptible of improvement.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
BRUCE LEE
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
We become familiar with the outsides of men, as with the outsides of houses, and think we know them, while we are ignorant of so much that is passing within them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We judge nothing so hastily as character, and yet there is nothing over which we should be more cautious.... I have always found that the so-called bad people improve on closer acquaintance, while the good fall off.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
Character is like stock in trade; the more of it a man possesses, the greater his facilities for making additions to it.
TRYON EDWARDS
A Dictionary of Thoughts
Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons nor be judged from glimpses got in the press of affairs or on few occasions. It needs perspective, as a great building.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
Character, like porcelain-ware, must be painted before it is glazed. There can be no change of color after it is burned in.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit