To enjoy the things we ought, and to hate the things we ought, has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
~ Aristotle

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.
~ Christian Nestell Bovee

You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him up to a heavy load.
~ Paul “Bear” Bryant

A crisis is not only character building; it is character revealing.
~ Rick Casterline

Every one is the son of his own works.
~ Miguel de Cervantes

Character is not cut in marble; it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing…
~ George Eliot

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

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you’ll have left is your character.
~ Vince Gill

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.
~ Billy Graham

We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions;
We sow our actions, and we reap our habits;
we sow our habits, and we reap our characters;
we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.
~ Charles Albert Hall

A man’s character is his fate.
~ Heraclitus

The hell to be endured hereafter . . . is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be none. The drunken Rip van Winkle in Jefferson’s play excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, ‘I won’t count this time!’ Well, we may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve-ends and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering it, and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes.”
~ William James, in Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals, page 77

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

To succeed is nothing, it is an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different, it is character.
~ Marie Leneru

Good character is like a rubber ball – Thrown down hard – it bounces right back. Good reputation is like a crystal ball – Thrown for gain – shattered and cracked.
~ A. L. Linall, Jr

The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
~ Thomas Babington Macaulay

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.
~ Andre Maurois

But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself his own dungeon.
~ John Milton

Character is a perfectly educated will.
~ Novalis

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

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.
~ Plutarch

A man never shows his own character so plainly as by his manner of portraying another’s.
~ Jean Paul Richter

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.
~ Jean Paul Richter

A man should endeavor to be as pliant as a reed, yet as hard as cedar-wood.
~ The Talmud

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