Character Building Quotations

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You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
Henry David Thoreau

Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word.
Lord Chesterfield

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.
Daniel Webster

The essential thing is not knowledge, but character.
Joseph Le Conte

It requires less character to discover the faults of others, than to tolerate them.
J. Petit Senn

A good name will shine forever.
Proverb

A fair reputation is a plant, delicate in its nature, and by no means rapid in its growth. It will not shoot up in a night like the gourd of the prophet; but, like that gourd, it may perish in a night.
Jeremy Taylor

Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
George Dana Boardman

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choices of good and evil we have made through life.
John C. Geikie

Reputation is for time; character is for eternity.
J. B. Gough

Character is a diamond that scratches every other stone.
Cyrus A. Bartol

In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface.
Hippolyte Taine

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself.
Arthur Schopenhauer

Every man, as to character, is the creature of the age in which he lives. Very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of their times.
Voltaire

It is of little traits that the greatest human character is composed.
William Winter

Character and personal force are the only investments that are worth anything.
Walt Whitman


Character is, for the most part,
simply habit become fixed.
C. H. Parkhurst

Actions, looks, words and steps form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
Johann Kasper Lavater

Let us not say, Every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, Every man is the architect of his own character.
George Dana Boardman

Fate is character.
William Winter

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.
Ralph Waldo Emerson