"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character." - Henry Clay "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." - Albert Einstein "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein "Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "What goes on around you... compares little with what goes on inside you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day." - Heinrich Heine "Every man has three characters -- that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has." - Alphonse Karr "Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended." - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld "A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents." - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg "Should any man tell you that a mountain had changed its place, you are at liberty to doubt it if you think fit; but if any one tells you that a man has changed his character, do not believe it." - Mahomet II, the Great "Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche "Character is much easier kept than recovered." - Thomas Paine "Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul." - Alexander Pope "Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence." - Jean Paul Friedrich Richter "The most brilliant qualities become useless when they are not sustained by force of character." - Joseph Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Segur "Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait." - Horace Smith and James Smith "The most careful reasoning characters are very often the most easily abashed." - Madame de Stael "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 "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." - Abraham Lincoln "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln