Quotes About Character

Having good character doesn’t mean always following the crowd.

Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway. – Mignon McLaughlin

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement. – George Will, in Newsweek

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

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help. – Judith S. Martin

Sports do not build character, they reveal it. – Heywood Hale Broun

Character is much easier kept than recovered.  – Thomas Paine

Your life may be the only Bible some people read.  – Author Unknown

Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul. – From Words of Life 1966 by Charles L. Wallis

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.  – Oscar Wilde

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln (More Abraham Lincoln Quotes)

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. – Anne Frank

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 (More Abraham Lincoln Quotes)

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. – Laurence J. Peter

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. – Abraham Lincoln

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. – Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. – Billy Graham (More Billy Graham Quotes)

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

Don’t try to be different.  Just be good.  To be good is different enough.  – Arthur Freed

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. – More John Wooden Quotes

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others. – Haim Ginott

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else’s traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man’s character is, the better it fits him. – Cicero

Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up. – Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street. – Elbert Hubbard

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

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

Misfortunes one can endure – they come from outside; they are accidents. But to suffer for one’s own faults – ah, there is the sting of life. – Oscar Wilde