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Inspirational Quotes About Character

Whether they were heroes, poets, scholars, or leaders, the brightest minds in human history have thought and written about values and their meanings. Use the search field on the left to search our quotation database by author, value, or specific word contained in the quote.

The following quotes have been tagged with Character

Index_card_top “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.”
 
Conan O'Brien (born 1963);
Tv Host, Comedian


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Index_card_top “Judge me not by physical size or appearance, but judge me by the size of my character.”
 
Cornelius Kilgore (born 1973);
Military
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Index_card_top “Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.”
 
Marcus Aurelius (121-180);
Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
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Index_card_top “Life is less about what you do, and more about how and why you do those things. This is called character.”
 
Josh Verseput (born 1985);



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Index_card_top “Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”
 
Zig Ziglar (born 1926);
Motivational Author, Speaker
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Index_card_top “Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.”
 
Tyron Edwards - Theologian
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 08/12/10
“Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear.”
 
Orson Scott Card (born 1951);
American Author, Critic, Public Speaker And Conservative Political Activist.


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Index_card_top “Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.”
 
Phillip Brooks -


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Index_card_top “Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.”
 
Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682);
Scholar, Essayist
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Index_card_top “The only guide to a man is his conscience.”
 
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965);
British Statesman, Prime Minister, Author, Nobel Prize Winner
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Index_card_top “Every experience is a stitch in the fabric of your character.”
 
Gary Clausing - Musician


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Index_card_top “The true test of a person's character is how they treat the people in life that they don't need.”
 
Lee Corso (born 1936);
Sports Broadcaster


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Index_card_top “Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.”
 
Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970);
1st French President (Fifth Republic)
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Index_card_top “Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self-respect springs.”
 
Joan Didion (born 1934);
Journalist, Essayist, Novelist


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Index_card_top “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.”
 
Albert Einstein (1879-1955);
Theoretical Physicist, Philosopher, Nobel Prize Winner
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Index_card_top “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 (1803-1882);
Philosopher, Poet, Author, Essayist
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Index_card_top “Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary. The stream retreats to its source. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.”
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882);
Philosopher, Poet, Author, Essayist
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Index_card_top “What lies behind us, and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882);
Philosopher, Poet, Author, Essayist
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Index_card_top “Action is character.”
 
F. Scott Fiztgerald (1896-1940);
Novelist, Screenwriter
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Index_card_top “You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.”
 
Malcolm S. Forbes (1919-1990);
Publisher
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Index_card_top “Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward.”
 
Henry Ford (1863-1947);
Founder Of Ford Motor Company
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Index_card_top “I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. ”
 
Robert Frost (1874-1963);
Poet
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Index_card_top “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.”
 
Horace Greeley (1811-1872);
Editor And Publisher


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Index_card_top “Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect, are the qualities which make a real gentleman, or lady, as distinguished from the veneered article which commonly goes by that name.”
 
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895);
Biologist
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Index_card_top “With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.”
 
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948);
Lawyer, Politician, First Governor General Of Pakistan


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Index_card_top “Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.”
 
Elmer G. Letterman - Author


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Index_card_top “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
 
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865);
16th U.S. President
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Index_card_top “Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.”
 
Dr. William Claire Menninger (1899-1966);
Psychiatrist


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Index_card_top “Honest towards ourselves and towards anyone else who is our friend; brave towards the enemy; magnanimous towards the defeated; polite always: this is how the four cardinal virtues want us to act.”
 
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900);
Scholar, Writer, Philosopher
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Index_card_top “The most unambiguous sign that a person holds men in low esteem is this: That he either acknowledges them merely as means to his ends or does not acknowledge them at all.”
 
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900);
Scholar, Writer, Philosopher
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Index_card_top “Watch your thoughts; for they become words. Watch your words; for they become actions. Watch your actions; for they become habits. Watch your habits; for they become character. Watch your character for it will become your destiny. ”
 
Frank Outlaw -


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Index_card_top “Character is much easier kept than recovered.”
 
Thomas Paine (1737-1809);
Scholar, Intellectual, Writer
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Index_card_top “Your soul...is a dark forest. But the trees are of a particular species, they are genealogical trees.”
 
Marcel Proust (1871-1922);
Novelist
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Index_card_top “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
 
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919);
26th U.S. President
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Index_card_top “Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.”
 
George Santayana (1863-1952);
Philosopher, Poet, Essayist, Novelist
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Index_card_top “In thy face I see The map of honor, truth, and loyalty.”
 
William Shakespeare (1564-1616);
Dramatist, Poet
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Index_card_top “Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.”
 
William Shakespeare (1564-1616);
Dramatist, Poet
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Index_card_top “...all true fame...is to be acquired only by noble deeds and high achievements and the establishment of a character founded upon the principles of truth, uprightness, and inflexible integrity.”
 
Alexander H. Stephens (1812-1883);
Confederate Vice President During The U.S. Civil War


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Index_card_top “... life is moral responsibility. Life is several other things, we do not deny. It is beauty, it is joy, it is tragedy, it is comedy, it is psychical and physical pleasure, it is the interplay of a thousand rude or delicate motions and emotions, it is the grimmest and the merriest motley of phantasmagoria that could appeal to the gravest or the maddest brush ever put to palette; but it is steadily and sturdily and always moral responsibility.”
 
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911);
Novelist, Short Story Writer


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Index_card_top “What is permissible is not always honorable.”
 
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43);
Roman Orator
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Index_card_top “Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.”
 
Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933);
Author, Educator, Clergyman
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Index_card_top “Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.”
 
William Arthur Ward (1921-1994);
Author, Educator, Motivational Speaker
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Index_card_top “Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.”
 
J. C. Watts (born 1957);
Politician


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Index_card_top “Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.”
 
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959);
Architect
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Index_card_top “Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.”
 
Aristotle (384-322);
Philosopher
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Index_card_top “A man's character is his fate.”
 
Heraclitus (535-475);
Philosopher


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Index_card_top “What you do when you don't have to will determine what you will be when you can't help it.”
 
Unknown -
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Index_card_top “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
 
Helen Keller (1880-1968);
Author, Lecturer, Activist
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Index_card_top “If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”
 
Beryl Markham (1902-1986);
Author, Adventurer


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Index_card_top “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. ”
 
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865);
16th U.S. President
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Index_card_top “Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”
 
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826);
3rd U.S. President
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 09/10/10
“You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. ”
 
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004);
40th U.S. President
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 01/07/11
“To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy. ”
 
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894);
Essayist, Poet, Novelist
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Index_card_top “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me - all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”
 
Jackie Robinson (1919-1972);
Major League Baseball Player, Civil Rights Activist


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Index_card_top “There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
 
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790);
Politician, Writer, Scientist
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 03/23/11
“Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of the fire. Happiness is something we are. ”
 
John B. Sheerin -


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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 07/11/11
“I believe that when you realize who you really are, you understand that nothing can stop you from becoming that person.”
 
Christine Lincoln -


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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 07/19/11
“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind rather than on outward circumstances.”
 
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790);
Politician, Writer, Scientist
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 09/26/11
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
 
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900);
Novelist, Playwright
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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 12/12/11
“Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. ”
 
Virginia Satir (1916-1988);
American Author And Psychotherapist


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Index_card_top This Quote Was Our Daily Quote On: 03/30/12
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. ”
 
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862);
Naturalist, Author, Philosopher
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