Quotes about Character
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to
think critically…intelligence plus character – that is the goal of
true education. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist.
They are wrong: it is character. (Albert Einstein)
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an
individual and of nations alike. (Theodore Roosevelt)
What a man’s mind can create, man’s character can control.
(Thomas Edison)
Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only
character endures. (Horace Greeley)
When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. When character is lost, all is lost. (anonymous)
I dream of the day when all Americans will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Children develop character by what they see, by what they hear, and by what they are repeatedly let to do. (James Stenson)
How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seedtime of character? (Henry David Thoreau)
We must remember that education is not enough. Intelligence plus character – that is the true goal of education. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
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. (Frank Outlaw)
Character is the inward motivation to do what is right, whatever the cost. (International Association of Cities Character)
The qualities of a great man are “vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character”. (Dwight Eisenhower)
Character is the only secure foundation of the state. (Calvin Coolidge)
With all the power that a President has, the most important thing to bear in mind is this: You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character is the most important qualification the President of the United States can have. (Richard Nixon)
Character is a word that seems to define almost all human activity and then some…Power is what you do and character is what you are…All leaders must face some crisis where their own strength of character is the enemy. (Richard Reeves)
In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant…He doesn’t have to be clever; you can hire clever… You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can’t buy courage and decency, you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him…He needs to have, in that much maligned word, but a good one nonetheless, a “vision” of the future he wishes to create. But a vision is worth little if a president doesn’t have the character – the courage and heart – to see it through. (Peggy Noonan)
I can tell you without hesitation being president of this country is entirely about character. (film “The American President)
It is the character that supports the promise of our future – far more than particular government programs or policies. (William J. Bennett)
Character is power. (Booker T. Washington)
Perseverance
Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries. (James A. Michener)
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. (Henry Kaiser)
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. (Joshua J. Marine)
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all. (Sam Ewing)
Nothing in this world can take place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. (Calvin Coolidge).
You just can’t beat the person who never gives up. (Babe Ruth)
Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs. (Malcolm Stevenson Forbes)
Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the smaller ones. (Winston Churchill)
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. (George Washington)
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. (James A. Froude)
Character is simply habit long continued. (Plutarch)
Character is a by-product; It is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty. (Woodrow Wilson)
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. (Theodore Roosevelt)
Diligence is the mother of good fortune. (Miguel de Cervantes)
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. (Henry Ford)
The secret to success is constancy to purpose. (Benjamin Franklin)
Virtually nothing on earth can stop a person with a positive attitude who has his goal clearly in sight. (Denis Waitley)
Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing you’re not growing. (H. Stanley Judd)
Responsibility
The price of greatness is responsibility. (Sir Winston Churchill)
Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs. (Joan Didion)
I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. (Bob Dylan)
The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice. (Mahatma Gandhi)
We must be the change we wish to see. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Nothing is more important for the public wealth than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. (Benjamin Franklin)
Respect
Self respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. (Abraham J. Heschel)
He who does not have the courage to speak up for his rights cannot earn the respect of others. (Rene G. Torres)
Courage:
Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared. (Eddie Rickenbacker)
Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway. (John Wayne)
Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway. (Robert Anthony)
It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.(Unknown)
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believer your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. (Maya Angelou)
One person with courage is a majority. (Thomas Jefferson)
Courage is contagious. When a brave person takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. (Billy Graham)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. (Mark Twain)
Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, she or he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. (Robert F. Kennedy)
Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. (W. Clement Stone)
Self Discipline
Discipline means choices. Every time you say yes to a goal or objective, you say no to many more. True discipline isn’t on your back needling you with imperatives; it is at your side, nudging you with incentives. When you understand that discipline is self-caring, not self-castigating, you won’t cringe at its mention, but will cultivate it. (Sybil Stanton)
Optimism
Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. (Abraham Lincoln)
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. (Alexander Graham Bell)
Enthusiasm is the element of success in everything. It is the light that leads and the strength that lifts people on and up in the great struggles durance of difficulty, and makes pleasure of duty. (Bishop Doane)
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. (Helen Keller)
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. (Martin Luther)
Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours. (Richard Bach)
Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. (Sir Winston Churchill)
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done Without hope and confidence. (Helen Keller)
Honesty
Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of Wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation. (Thomas Jefferson)
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an ‘Honest Man’. (George Washington)
Caring
No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. (Aesop)
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an hones compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. (Leo Buscaglia)
Beautiful hands are they that do deeds that are noble, good and true; beautiful feet are they that go swiftly to lighten another’s woe. (McGuffy’s Second Reader)
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. (Duguet)
Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tries, and a touch that never hurts. (Charles Dickens)
Integrity & Trustworthiness
Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of a second rate version of someone else. (Judy Garland)
It is easier to fight for one’s principles that to live up to them. (Alfred Adler)
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Conviction is worthless unless converted into conduct. (Thomas Carlyle)
Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. (William Penn)
The only guide to a man is his conscience. (Winston Churchill)
How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. (William Shakespear)
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. (Beverly Sills)
The only people you should ever want to get “even” with are those who have helped you. (John Honeyfeld) Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance, to choose, one’s own way. (Viktor Frankl)
The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self. (Whitney Young)
General
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeds to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. (Tao Ching)
Be at war with your vices, and at peace with your neighbors. (Ben Franklin)
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to lose it. (Warren Buffett)
Ordinary people, even weak people, can do extraordinary things through temporary courage generated by a situation. But the person of character does not need the situation to generate his courage. It is a part of his being and a standard approach to all life’s challenges. (Michael Josephson)
Why are surprised when fig trees bear figs? (Margaret Titzel)
The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no, but the kind of man the country turns out. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. (William Jennings Bryan )
The strong man is the man who can stand up for his rights and not hit back. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. (Theodore Roosevelt)
Try not to become a man of success but rather a man of value. (Albert Einstein)
There never was a good knife made of bad steel. (Benjamin Franklin)
Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. (Napolean Hill)
Our attitudes propel us forward toward our victories or bog us down in defeat. They are the foothold beneath us in every step we take. They are what others see most of the personality within us; they describe us projecting the image we present to the world around us. Our attitudes make us rich or poor, happy or unhappy, fulfilled or incomplete. They are the single most determining factor in every action we will ever make. We and our attitudes are inextricably combined; we are our attitudes and our attitudes are us. (Shad Helmstetter)
I divide the world into learners and non-learners. There are people who learn, who are open to what happens around them, who listen, who hear the lessons. When they do something stupid, they don’t do it again. And when they do something that works a little bit, they do it even better and harder the next time. The question to ask is not whether you are a success or a failure, but whether you are a learner or a non-learner. (Benjamin Barber)
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
