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Character is the inner strength that allows you to deal with life’s difficulties

• Character: Strength and originality in a person’s nature.  Oxford Dictionary
• Character: The quality of being determined and able to deal with difficult situations.  Cambridge Dictionary
• If we are strong, our character will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.  John F. Kennedy
• Strength,  Integrity,  Personality,  Reputation

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Character is what you do when no one is looking

• Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• Character is determined in the presence of temptation, and the absence of an audience. Alexandra Larsen
• 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
• The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. Thomas B. Macaulay
• Courage is doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone. Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• Character is what you are in the dark. Dwight L. Moody
• The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. Thomas Babington Macaulay

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Character is living life by your own internal compass independent of what others do

• We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the colour of our moral character, from those who are around us.  John Locke
• You don’t build your character by doing what everybody else is doing.  Carlos Ghosh
• Values,  Principles

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Character is doing what is right

• Character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay.  Michael Josephson
• The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.  Margaret Chase Smith
• Character comes from following our highest sense of right, from trusting ideas without being sure they’ll work.  Richard Bach
• Character is the final decision to reject whatever is demeaning to oneself or to others and with confidence and honesty choose what is right.  Arthur Trudeau
• Freedom is not only the opportunity to choose. Freedom is the strength of character to choose and to do what is right.    Matthew Kelly
• Morality and ethics,  Right action

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Character is a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests

• Character isn’t what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be. It isn’t a stable, easily identifiable set of closely related traits, and it only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are organized. Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context.  Malcolm Gladwell
• Habit

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Character is closely related to personal integrity and honesty

• Character simply stated is doing what you said you were going to do.  Hyrum W. Smith
• Character usually refers to those personal attributes that are relevant to moral conduct, self-mastery, will-power, and integrity. Haslam
• Courage combined with integrity is the foundation of character.  Brian Tracy
• Dealing honestly and objectively with yourself; intellectual honesty and personal courage are the hallmarks of great character. Brian Tracy
• Truthfulness is the main element of character.  Brian Tracy
• I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.  George Washington
• Integrate these principles and habits deep within your nature; into your basic character: integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, simplicity, modesty.  Stephen Covey
• Integrity (from the same roots as the word integrated) comes when a person’s words and behaviours match up. True integrity—the true test of character—is to live what you say is important to you—even when you don’t feel like it—to live your values above and beyond your moods. James Arthur Ray
• Integrity is organic fertilizer for your character.  Brian Johnson
• Telling the truth is not solely a matter of moral character; it is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• True integrity—the true test of character—is to live what you say is important to you—even when you don’t feel like it—to live your values above and beyond your moods.  James Arthur Ray
• Integrity,  Honesty

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Character is what truly defines us

• A man can define many things beautifully in his life, but his character is one beautiful thing that can define him instantly and completely.  Anuj Somany

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Learn to tell the difference between character and personality

• Learn how to ultimately tell the difference between your ego personality that is seeking to survive and avoid being hurt and your character that seeks to confidently deliver your talents, gifts, and skills.  Michael Bernard Beckwith
• It’s easy to tell if you are living from character or personality: If things aren’t going your way, personality pouts while character remains unruffled and learns from the experience. When you are not in psychologically or emotionally safe territory, personality panics. Character, on the other hand, rides the vicissitudes of life with even- mindedness. Personality endeavours to extract happiness from its experiences, whereas character realizes that happiness is an inherent quality of being that infuses experiences with happiness.  Michael Bernard Beckwith
• When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character.  Somerset Maugham
• Personality

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Character is who you really are; reputation is who people think you are

• Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. Dale Carnegie
• Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.  Abraham Lincoln
• Your reputation is in the hands of others. That’s what the reputation is. You can’t control that. The only thing you can control is your character.  Wayne Dyer
• If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.  Dwight Lyman Moody
• Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.  Elbert Hubbard
• Character is made by what you stand for; reputation by what you fall for.  Robert Quillen
• Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.  Thomas Paine
• Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.
• Reputation is an interpretation, more or less accurate, of character.  Austin O’Malley
• Reputation is character minus what you’ve been caught doing.  Michael Lapoce

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Inner character is far more valuable than outer fame

• Fame is a vapour, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.  Horace Greeley
• Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.  Aesop
• What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.  Jawaharlal Nehru
• I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!  Theodore Roosevelt
• Fame

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Character is the real criterion of greatness and worth

• Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.  Eleanor Roosevelt
• Most people define greatness through wealth and popularity and position in the corner office. But what I call everyday greatness comes from character and contribution.  Stephen Covey
• Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.  Orison Swett Marden
• I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man’s word should be as good as his bond; that character – not wealth or power or position – is of supreme worth.  John Davison Rockefeller
• Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.  Bruce Lee
• Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.  R.J. Palacio
• The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.  Dwight David Eisenhower
• Greatness,  Self-worth

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Character is power

• Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them.  Og Mandino
• Some say knowledge is power, but that is not true. Character is power.  Sathya Sai Baba
• Character is power.  Booker T. Washington
• Power

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Character shapes our lives and our destiny

• Our character is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.  George Santayana
• Character is destiny.  Heraclitus
• A man’s character is his fate.  Heraclitus
• Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.  Tryon Edwards
• Character, not circumstances, make the man.  Booker T. Washington
• If you create a character, you create a destiny.  Andre Maurois
• Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.  Theodore Roosevelt
• A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.  Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Character is the sum and total of a person’s choices.  B. Fitzwater
• What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny.  Anaïs Nin
• Destiny

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Character creates happiness

• Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.  George Santayana
• A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.  Seneca
• True happiness means forging a strong spirit that is undefeated, no matter how trying our circumstances.  Daisaku Ikeda
• Happiness is not the end of life: character is.  Henry Ward Beecher
• The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.  Plato
• Happiness

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Character brings respect

• Character is the foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character.  C. Samsel
• Respect,  Self-respect

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Character and success are intertwined

• Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you’ll have left is your character.  Vince Gill
• Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.  John Wooden
• Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.  John Wooden
• Character is that which can do without success.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• One of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that, on the whole, success depends more upon character than upon either intellect or fortune. William Edward  Hartpole Lecky
• Character is more important than intelligence for success.  Gilberte Beaux
• There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self- He is still a King.   Orison Swett Marden
• Character is more important than talent.  Edwin Louis Cole
• Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.  Aristotle
• Good luck is the willing handmaid of a upright and energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.  James Russell Lowell
• It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.  Marcus Tullius Cicero
• The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.  Zig Ziglar
• Success

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Our character powers the decisions, commitments and promises we make

• Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.  Cavett Robert
• Character simply stated is doing what you said you were going to do.  Hyrum W. Smith
• It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.  Zig Ziglar
• Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution long after the emotion with which it was made has passed.  Brian Tracy
• Character is doing what you don’t want to do but know you should do.  Joyce Meyer
• A man of personality can formulate ideals, but only a man of character can achieve them.  Herbert Read
• Decision making,  Commitment

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Character is important for effective relationships with others

• The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won’t be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.  Stephen Covey
• Principles for healthy relationships

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Character wins trust

• One of the keys to your influence and your effectiveness in communicating your message to others is your example and conduct. Your example flows naturally out of your character—the kind of person you truly are—and not who others say you are or who you may want others to think you are. Your character is constantly communicating to others who you are. Because of what your character communicates, people will either trust or distrust you and your efforts with them.  Stephen Covey
• Quality relationships are built on principles – especially the principle of trust. And trust grows out of trustworthiness, out of the character to make and keep commitments, to share resources, to be caring and responsible, to belong, to love unconditionally.  Stephen Covey
• Trust

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Character translates into effective leadership

• Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.  H. Norman Schwartzkopf
• My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.  General Montgomery
• Leadership

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Without character, we are lost

• A man without character is like a ship without a rudder.  Karl G. Maeser
• When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.  Billy Graham

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Building character is one of life’s most worthwhile and rewarding pursuits

• The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Don’t worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.  Laura Schlessinger
• Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.  Euripides
• Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Character is like my fingerprint; it identifies me from everyone else in the world. It says who I am and where I am headed.  Eric Thomas
• Happiness is not the end of life: character is.  Henry Ward Beecher
• A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.  Charles H. Spurgeon

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Character is forged by life, day by day…

• Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.  Heraclitus
• Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.  Phillips Brooks
• Character isn’t inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action.  Helen Gahagan Douglas
• Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. Go out into life, you will find your chance there, and only there.   James Anthony Froude
• Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.  Samuel Butler
• The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character, everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything.  Orison Swett Marden
• Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint – this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art. And so it is with life.  Each step, each deed, each brief choice builds gradually, day by day, to shape both character and destiny.   Richelle E. Goodrich
• Every situation, every moment, provides the opportunity for self-growth and development of your character.  David Reynolds

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… by life’s experiences …

• We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.   Henry David Thoreau
• Every experience is a stitch in the fabric of your character.  Gary Clausing
• Character develops itself in the stream of life.  Johann Wolfgang von Goeth
• Life is a series of experiences, each 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
• Experience

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… and especially by life’s challenges and trials

• Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and achieved. Helen Keller
• Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.  Tony Robbins
• The conquering of adversity produces strength of character, forges self- confidence, engenders self- respect, and assures success in righteous endeavor. Richard G. Scott
• Trials, temptations, disappointments — all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it.  James Buckham
• A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities. Charles de Gaulle
• For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward. Henry Ford
• I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person.  Rita Mero
• Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own. Charles de Gaulle
• Talents are best nurtured in solitude: character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.  Goethe
• Character like a photograph, develops in darkness.  Yousef Karsh
• But we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.  Romans 5:5
• We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. Without them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence.  G. Wells
• The diamond cannot be polished without friction, not man perfected without trials.  Confucius
• Character: What you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.
• A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go though the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.  Mildred White Struven
• A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.  Cicero
• Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.  Seneca
• What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.  Friedrich Nietzsche
• With any trial and circumstance, a person’s true color either shines or darkens.  Shannon Walker
• While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best.  Tom Allen
• Challenge,  Adversity

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Character is built through firmness of purpose

• Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.  Lord Chesterfield Stanhope
• Will is character in action.  William McDougall
• The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself.  Bo Bennett
• The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all opposition, until they attain their goal. There may be no heroic connotation to the word ‘persistence,’ but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel.  Napoleon Hill
• Purpose

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Character is built through effort, persistence and discipline

• Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.  Napoleon Hill
• Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.  James A. Michener
• By constant self-discipline and self-control, you can develop greatness of character.  Grenville Kleiser
• Courage combined with integrity is the foundation of character.  Brian Tracy
• 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
• Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.  Calvin Coolidge
• It is not eminent talent that is required to ensure success in any pursuit, so much as purpose–not merely the power to achieve, but the will to labour energetically and perseveringly. Hence energy of will may be defined to be the very central power of character in a man–in a word, it is the Man himself.  Samuel Smiles
• The force, the mass of character, mind, heart, or soul that a man can put into any work is the most important factor in that work.  P. Peabody
• Perseverance,  Effort,  Self-discipline

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Character is built through courage and guts

• People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.  Eleanor Roosevelt
• Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.  Elbert Hubbard
• Dealing honestly and objectively with yourself; intellectual honesty and personal courage are the hallmarks of great character.  Brian Tracy
• Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece–by thought, choice, courage and determination.  Jackson Brown
• Guts are a combination of confidence, courage, conviction, strength of character, stick-to-itiveness, pugnaciousness, backbone, and intestinal fortitude. They are mandatory for anyone who wants to get to and stay at the top.  A. Benton
• Courage

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Character is built through habit

• Habits change into character.  Ovid
• Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character. Stephen Covey
• Action is character.  Scott Fitzgerald
• Character is long-standing habit.  Plutarch
• Character is simply habit long enough continued.  Plutarch
• Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.  James Allen
• A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink- drop soileth the pure white page.  Hosea Ballou
• Plant a thought, reap an act. Plant an act, reap a habit. Plant a habit, reap a character. Plant a character, reap a destiny.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.  Tryon Edwards
• Habit

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Character is built through our thoughts and thinking

• A noble character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking.  James Allen
• Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.  Marcus Aurelius
• A man is literally what he thinks. His character is the sum of his thoughts.  James Allen
• Even as water carves monuments of stone, so do our thoughts shape our character.  Hugh B. Brown
• Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.  William Hazlitt
• Thinking

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Character is built through the choices we make

• .. is a habit, the daily choice of right over wrong.
• Choices determine character.  Brandon Mull
• Choice,  Free will

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Character is built through the actions we take

• Character isn’t inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains.  Helen Gahagan Douglas
• Character is what emerges from all the little things you were too busy to do yesterday, but did anyway.  Mignon McLaughlin
• Everything in human character goes to wreck, under the reign of procrastination, while prompt action gives to all things a corresponding and proportional life and energy.  William A. Alcott
• The within is ceaselessly becoming the without. From the state of a man’s heart proceed the conditions of his life; his thoughts blossom into deeds, and his deeds bear the fruitage of character and destiny.  James Allen
• Action

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Character is built through taking responsibility for your life

• Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs.  Joan Didion
• Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming. Jim Rohn
• People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.  Ivan Turgenev
• The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.  Anne Frank
• Don’t say, ‘That’s the way I am—it’s my character.’ It’s your lack of character. Esto vir!—Be a man!   Josemaria Escriva
• Responsibility

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Character is built through living by your deepest values

• A man’s character is determined by how hard he fights for what he believes in.  Aben Kandel and Warren Duff
• Character—the courage and conviction to live by our deepest values—is the key muscle that serves spiritual energy.  Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Values,  Principles

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Character is built through true education

• Character development is the great, if not the sole, aim of education. O’Shea
• Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King Jr.
• True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character. David O. McKay
• Education

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Character is built through simplicity

• Simplicity of character is no hindrance to the subtlety of intellect.  John Morley
• Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.  William Hazlitt
• Simplicity is clearly a sign of a pure heart, i.e., a single purpose. Also, because environment has an undeniable influence on character, simplicity of living would help to stimulate and maintain such singleness of purpose.  Richard Gregg
• In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Simplicity

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We weaken our character through negative attitudes and actions

• Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.  Albert Einstein
• To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.  Katharine Hepburn
• Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.  Francois de La Rochefoucauld
• Character is much easier kept than recovered.  Thomas Paine
• Negativity,  Attitude

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We weaken our character through lies

• Little lies are very dangerous, because there are so many of them, and because each one of them scours upon the character as diamond- pointed.  Henry Ward Beecher
• Lying

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We weaken our character through self-pity

• To whine means to indulge in self-pity. This leads to personal deterioration. It insidiously weakens character. It robs of strength. Anybody who is persistently sorry for himself is in the twilight zone.  Floyd Poe
• Self-pity

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Thoughts on character development in children

• The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born.  William Inge
• When it comes to developing character strength, inner security and unique personal and interpersonal talents and skills in a child, no institution can or ever will compare with, or effectively substitute for, the home’s potential for positive influence.  Stephen Covey
• Children pay little attention to their parents’ teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully.  Mason Cooley
• There is in youth a purity of character which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored; a fringe more delicate than frost- work, and which, when torn and broken, can never be re-embroidered.  Henry Ward Beecher

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We reveal our character by the way we treat others

• The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.  Abigail Van Buren
• 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
• The real judges of your character aren’t your neighbours, your relatives, or even the people you play bridge with. The folks who really know you are waiters, waitresses, and clerks.  Katherine Piper
• You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.  James D. Miles
• If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.  J.K. Rowling
• It is the final test of a gentleman—his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.  William Lyon Phelps

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We reveal our character in crisis, confusion and misfortune

• A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.  Ralph W. Sockman
• The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.  Jon Holt
• If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.  Simone Weil
• Difficulties are things that show a man’s nature.  Epictetus
• The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.  Plutarch
• Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.  Walter Anderson
• I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life.  Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character.   Walter Anderson
• Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times.  Jack Gantos
• True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure – the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.  Robert McKee
• The road less travelled is sometimes fraught with barricades bumps and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested.  Katie Couric
• Adversity,  Confusion

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We reveal our character by how we react to mistakes and failure

• Success builds character. Failure reveals it.  Dave Checketts
• They say losing builds character. I have all the character I need.  Ray Malvasi
• To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.  Somerset Maugham
• Mistakes,  Failure

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We reveal our character by what we laugh at

• A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.  George C.Lichtenberg
• Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.  Jean Iris Murdoch
• Laughter

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We reveal our character by our dreaming

• Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Dreams are the touchstones of our character.  Henry David Thoreau
• Dreaming

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We reveal our character through our opinions and judgements

• A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another’s.  Jean Paul
• Judge a man’s character by what he finds ridiculous.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.  Audrey Hepburn
• It is not only easier to find fault with another person than to examine one’s own character, it is also tempting.  Martin Dansky
• People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.  Edmund Burke
• Opinion,  Judgement

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We reveal our character in anger …

• You only really get to know people when you’ve had a jolly good row with them. Then and then only can you judge their true characters!   Anne Frank
• You can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.  Dale Carnegie
• Anger

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… and how easily we understand and forgive

• Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.  Lawrence G. Lovasik
• Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.  Dale Carnegie
• Instead of condemning people, try to understand them. Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain– and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.  Lawrence G. Lovasik
• It requires less character to discover the faults of others, than to tolerate them.  J Petit Senn
• Understanding,  Forgiveness

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We reveal our character by how we treat the powerless

• The difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know.  Robert I. Sutton

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We reveal our character by how we treat animals

• Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent, honourable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us.  Matthew Scully
• Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.  Arthur Schopenhauer
• If you want to know the character of a man, find out what his cat thinks of him.
• Animals

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We reveal our character by how we act

• You can’t truthfully explain your smallest action without fully revealing your character. Mignon McLaughlin

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We reveal our character by the words we use

• If we divine a discrepancy between a man’s words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.  Charles Horton Cooley
• In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.  Plutarch
• Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.  Cesar Chavez
• Be impeccable with your word,  Words,  Right speech

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We reveal our character through our dependability

• Dependability is a fundamental virtue, without which all of the nobler and finer qualities of character are greatly discounted, and without it the complicated society in which we live could not be maintained.  Bryant S. Hinckley
• Dependability is sincerity plus will power. Dependability is merely an outcropping of character.   Roy L. Smith
• I could never think well of a man’s intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.  Nathaniel Emmons
• Character simply stated is doing what you said you were going to do.  Hyrum W. Smith
• There is nothing dependable that is not backed by character.  Roy L. Smith
• Integrity

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We reveal our character by admitting our errors and failings …

• It is a strength of character to acknowledge our failings and our strong points, and it is a weakness of character not to remain in harmony with both the good and the bad that is within us.  Magdeleine Sable
• It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.  Dale E. Turner
• We must have a weak spot or two in our character before we can love it much.  Oliver Wendell Holmes

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… and our readiness to apologise

• It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.  Stephen Covey
• Apologising

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We reveal our character in defeat and victory

• There was a saying that a man’s true character was revealed in defeat. I thought it was also revealed in victory.   Alison Goodman
• Defeat,  Victory

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We reveal our character by our relationship with money and spending

• Thrift is not an affair of the pocket, but an affair of character.  W. Straus
• Prosperity is a more refined and severer test of character than adversity, as one hour of summer sunshine produces greater corruption than the longest winter day. Eliza Cook
• Money is always on its way somewhere. What you do with it while it is in your keeping and the direction you send it in say much about you. Your treatment of and respect for money, how you make it, and how you spend it, reflect your character.  Gary Ryan Blair
• A man’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character – how he makes it and how he spends it.  James Moffatt
• Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.  Thomas Jefferson

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We reveal our character by what we love and what we don’t

• The best way to define a man’s character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt most deeply and intensely active and alive.  William James
• To enjoy the things we ought, and to hate the things we ought, has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.  Aristotle

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Some fun ways we reveal character

• The way you make an omelette reveals your character.  Anthony Bourdain
• To find a man’s true character play golf with him.  G. Wodehouse
• You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.  Ronald Reagan
• A signature always reveals a man’s character – and sometimes even his name.  Evan Esar

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Other ways that character is revealed

• It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.  Arthur Schopenhauer
• You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.  Seneca
• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.  Abraham Lincoln
• It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgement, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.  Dale Turner
• A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.  Mark Twain
• An intuitive grasp of your character is formed by exploring scenes of profound emotional import-moments of overwhelming shame, joy, fear, pride, regret, forgiveness.  David Corbett
• By not biting the bait of societal myths about perfection, you will reveal your own unique character.  Michael Bernard Beckwith
• In all tests of character, when two viewpoints are pitted against one another, in the final analysis the thing that will strike you the most, is not who was right or wrong, strong or weak, wise or foolish…. but who would go to the greatest lengths in considering the other’s perspective.  Mike Dooley
• Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.  Francois de la Rochefoucauld
• One can acquire everything in solitude except character.  Stendhal
• Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
• A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk.  Charlie Chaplin

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• Sudden success in golf is like the sudden acquisition of wealth; it is apt to unsettle and deteriorate the character.  G. Wodehouse
• Football doesn’t build character; it eliminates the weak ones.  Darrell Royal
• Sports do not build character.  They reveal it.
• If you wish to hide your character do not play golf.  Percey Boomer
• To find a man’s true character play golf with him.  G. Wodehouse
• The only way of really finding out a man’s true character is to play golf with him; in no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.  G. Wodehouse
• The way you make an omelette reveals your character.  Anthony Bourdain
• You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans. Ronald Reagan
• A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk.  Charlie Chaplin
• A signature always reveals a man’s character – and sometimes even his name.  Evan Esar
• You can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they do life’s menial tasks. For example, I saw my neighbour washing dishes, and I could immediately tell that he was an adulterer by the way my wife’s naked body glistened through his kitchen window.  Jarod Kintz
• A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty – he has suffered longer. Mae West
• Wrinkles: Something other people have… you have character lines.
• Wrinkles are something other people have, similar to my character lines.
• Reputation is character minus what you’ve been caught doing.  Michael Lapoce
• Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.  Oscar Levant
• Character: What you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.
• A child hands his report to his parents and says “Look this over and see if I can sue for defamation of character.”
• 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
• He has all the characteristics of a dog except loyalty.  Sam Houston
• I feel very humble; but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.  Bob Hope
• Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.  Elbert Hubbard
• Rumour: A favourite weapon of the assassins of character.  Ambrose Bierce
• The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character.  Lyndon Johnson
• They say losing builds character. I have all the character I need.  Ray Malvasi
• If I could store any character quality in a cookie jar, I’d store patience. Chocolate-chip patience cookies. And I’d eat them all at one sitting.  Jarod Kintz
• The difficulty with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but must live with a character.  Peter De Vries

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