Best Character Quotes

The 20th Anniversary of Character Counts! Week is October 20-26! You can Register for Character Counts! Week through the Josephson Institute to receive free character-based lesson plans and activities for celebrating the week. You can read more of my posts about Character Counts! Week here: Character Counts! Week posts.

In honor of Character Counts! Week, here are some of my favorite character quotes:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” John Wooden

“How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.” John Wooden

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think I do. That is character.” Theodore Roosevelt

“Courage combined with integrity is the foundation of character.” Brian Tracy

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” Phillips Brooks

“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” Anne Frank

“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

“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

“Action is character.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Habits change into character.” Ovid

“Character is simply habit long continued.” Plutarch

“Character is power.”Booker T. Washington

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller

“We are put in situations to build our character… not destroy us.” Nick Vujicic

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

“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures.” Horace Greeley

“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“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

“Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.” Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant

“Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.” T. Alan Armstrong

“If it is a cliché to say athletics build character as well as muscle, then I subscribe to the cliché.” Gerald Ford

“The victories of character are instant, and victories for all.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” Bruce Lee

“Your mind has a way of putting limitations on your goals. When you persevere, you develop character. Nobody knows their ceiling.” Paul Molitor

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

“Character is the real foundation of all worthwhile success.” John Hays Hammond

“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

“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

“The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Author Unknown

What is your favorite character quote?

Photo Credit: Stock Photo by Nataliya Dvukhimenna.

Note: I have lots of word-art inspiration at the Bits of Positivity Facebook page and on Pinterest!