ON CHARACTER ...

Character: The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life, is the source from which self respect springs.
- Joan Didion, writer



Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady



The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.
- Proverbs 27:21



Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
- James Michener, novelist



Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.
- Horace Greeley, newspaper editor, reformer



I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.
- Wendell L. Willkie, politician



If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice how he acts when he loses money.
- New England proverb



Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
- Alexander Hamilton, statesman



Tell me whom you love, and I will tell you who you are.
- Arsene Houssaye, French writer



Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)



A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)



The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.
- Isabelle Eberhardt



When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
- Japanese Proverb



Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)



Your habits determine your character, and your character fixes your destiny. Your habits are either the best of servants or the worst of masters.
- Nikita Koloff



When duty calls, that is when character counts.
- William L. Safire



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



You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
- James A. Froude



Character like a photograph, develops in darkness.
- Yousef Karsh



Nothing is more human than substituting the quantity of words and actions for their character.
- Robert Musil



Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
- Frank Outlaw



Characters live to be noticed. People with character notice how they live.
- Nancy Moser



Character isn't inherited.
- Helen Gahagan Douglas



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



A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble.
- Charles Spurgeon



Character is like a tree and reputation a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Abraham Lincoln



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

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



Thoughts lead on to purposes;
purposes go forth in action;
actions form habits;
habits decide character; and
character fixes our destiny.
- Tyron Edwards



The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
- Earl Warren (1891-1974) US politician, jurist



A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
- Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)



During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.
- Bernard M. Barunch



The discipline of desire is the background of character.
- John Locke (1632-1704)



Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe



Character is what you are in the dark!
- Lord John Whorfin



A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
- Nelson Mandela



It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames...
We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have cotenants in this house we live in.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Guardian Angel



Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
- Erich Fromm, Man for Himself



Personality is born out of pain. It is the fire shut up in the flint.
- J. B. Yeats



In my opinion, simple kindnesses, polite behavior, and integrity in the moment of choice are the stuff of daily character hygiene.
- J. W. Pfeiffer