quotations about character
How often we hear persons say, he or she is a bad character, or a good character, without their knowing anything about the person so spoken of. Many a scoundrel has left his situation with the best of characters, and many a good man has left his without one at all. Anyone who really knows anything of the British army must be aware that they are not all saints that wear the "good conduct medal" in it, and many a good soldier has been discharged without a character. How unfit we all are, as a rule, to form an unprejudiced opinion of the good qualities or vice versa of our fellow men, every philosopher at any rate must be aware, and how much we all take our colour from surroundings, and are the creatures of circumstances, everyone who has studied human nature, and the history of civilisation, must have had brought clearly before his perception. There is now in human nature, born in it, a rather larger amoung of evil than good, and the thoughts of men as a rule are, I fear, oftener bad than good, but if, when persons have the fortune, at a very early age, to be well trained and brought up, and all their habits and surroundings lead on the right road, they have a much better chance of growing up what people call outwardly good characters, but God alone knows if they are clean or unclean within. If, on the other hand, they are born, nursed, and reared in an atmosphere of wickedness, how can they grow up outwardly good; yet many of these outward sinners are perhaps the best of the two characters, for within their bosoms there may be a perpetual yearning to be good and do good, but they are so weak and wicked from habit they do not know how to start, and they do not know what prayer means. The growth of character then, as a rule, must be gradual, built up, and strengthened by quietly striving to do one's duty as a Christian, and daily, and perhaps hourly, asking for renewed and increased strength at the Throne of grace. Feel then for fallen humanity, and look to your own character, as most likely it requires perpetual watching.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
Short Essays
The greatest architecture is building character.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
In books and in life, you need to read several pages before someone's true character is revealed.
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
attributed, "5 Lessons You Can Learn from Classic Novels"
Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
My Day
Most people realize their weak and undesirable characteristics, but, in many cases, people believe that this is their natural temperament and cannot be changed. This conclusion manifestly is erroneous. Many people are too self-indulgent to make an effort to modify or correct an undesirable characteristic, yet their characters are being modified and changed by association with people of more positive, and they unconsciously transmit these thoughts to the subconscious mind, and it never fails to act in accordance with whatever decree they make.
WALTER MATTHEWS
Human Life from Many Angles
There is something in the character of every man which cannot be broken in--the skeleton of his character; and to try to alter this is like training a sheep for draught purposes.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
A great and frequent error in our judgment of human nature is to suppose that those sentiments and feelings have no existence, which may be only for a time concealed. The precious metals are not found at the surface of the earth, except in sandy places.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
A man must be very inert to have no character at all.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
The ideal of character always runs beyond the attainment.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Problems of Life: Selections from the Writings of Rev. Lyman Abbott
The characters of man's heart, blotted and confounded as they are with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible only to him that searcheth hearts.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Fortunes are made by taking opportunities: character is made by making them.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article is difficult to be mistaken.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help
We never know a great character until something congenial to it has grown up within ourselves.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.
HENRY CLAY
The Clay Code
So many different characters live within us
All looking for love
JANET JACKSON
"Looking for Love"
Our character is our will; for what we will we are.
HENRY EDWARD MANNING
Towards Evening: Extracts from the Writings of Cardinal Manning