Inspirational Quotes on Character

“Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance together to make the perfect man. This method of sanctification, nevertheless, is in the true direction. It is only in the details of execution that it fails.”

“Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the animal in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to the natural man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an eternal life must be surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day?”

“You can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and the reflection of the love of God upon your character. That is the universal language.”

“Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.”

“You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.”

“Man is at the bottom an animal, midway, a citizen, and at the top, divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.”

“Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile, some have a sad expression, some are pensive and diffident, others again are plain, honest and upright.”

“None love to speak so much, when the mood of speaking comes, as they who are naturally taciturn.”

“Happiness is not the end of life; character is.”

“The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one.”

“The cynic puts all human actions into two classes - openly bad and secretly bad.”

“He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.”

“Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.”

“No man can quench his thirst with sand, or with water from the Dead Sea; so no man can find rest from his own character, however good, or from his own acts, however religious.”

“Suspicion is far more to be wrong than right; more often unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.”

“There is no such things as "best" in the world of individuals.”

“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”

“In common discourse we denominate persons and things according to the major part of their character; he is to be called a wise man who has but few follies.”

“Satirists do expose their own ill nature.”

“The storms of winter often bring out the defects in a man's dwelling, and sickness often exposes the gracelessness of a man's soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith is good.”