Builds Character Quotes & Sayings

What builds character? It's a commitment to integrity, hard work, honor and keeping your word. All of that comes straight out of the Sigma Nu Creed. The guy who wrote that meant it. The whole idea is to think about those words and make them a part of who you are. — Bill Courtney

A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harbouring of grovelling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master. — James Allen

Practice builds habits. Our habits are our character. When it comes to virtue, practice makes a very great difference - or rather, all the difference. — Eric Greitens

They are ordinarily men to whom forms are of paramount importance. Their field of action lies among the external phenomena of life. They possess the vast ability in grasping, and arranging, and appropriating to themselves the big, heavy, solid unrealities, such as gold, landed estate, offices of trust and emolument, and public honors. With these materials, and with deeds of goodly aspect, done in the public eye, an individual of this class builds up, as it were, a tall and stately edifice, which, in the view of other people, and ultimately in his own view, is no other than the man's character, or the man himself. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

My experiences in life are getting bigger and better. The more stuff I do, the more stuff I talk about - having kids, traveling, going through relationship problems, dealing with things in my own family. All that stuff builds character. — Kevin Hart

Character isn't something that magically appears simply by virtue of having a birthday and a describable physical identity; it is something that is built by action and error, out of anxiety and a longing that compels great efforts in the face of eternal hopelessness. A character in a story fights to get what s/he wants, just as the dramatic writer must fight to penetrate his or her own stubborn habits, prejudices and expectations, to get to the heart of the story. Drama builds character - that's why it exists, both inside and outside the screenplay. — Billy Marshall Stoneking

Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It's a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment. — Zack W. Van

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

You need to learn independence. You have to be independent - it builds character. — Mike Tyson

But at the heart of character is the ability to restrain our desires. As a man grows in character, he builds the muscles of self-restraint. — Richard E. Simmons III

You think football builds character. It does not. It reveals character. — Bill Courtney

So I believe in singing to such an extent that if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others. This seems to be about the most important thing a school could do for you. — Brian Eno

True leadership is often the mantle of the meek, who are rarely are prepared for such responsibility; which builds character in those who embrace it. — M.J. Stoddard

Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I'm pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good. — Brooke Shields

Futurists are already predicting the day mankind builds its replacement, Artificial Intelligence. Daniel Wilson shows what might happen when that computer realizes its creators are no longer needed. Lean prose, great characters, and almost unbearable tension ensure that Robopocalypse is going to be a blockbuster. Once started I defy anyone to put it down. — Jack Du Brul

The person who builds a character makes foes. — Neil Young

Stress builds character and failure breeds motivation. I guess I'm a Optimist. — Noel DeJesus

I don't need another 'adversity builds character' speech, Darren. That man is a chauvinistic pig. Where's your adversity?"
Darren raised a brow. "I'm looking at it. — Rachel E. Carter

Facing the sagging middle when writing a novel, while inevitable, may be
overcome by pre-planning. I divide my collection of proposed scenes into three acts, each scene inciting tension that builds toward the final crisis in Act Three. If by Act Two the emotional river isn't spilling over the banks, I reassess the plot so that once the writing is flowing I don't slide into a dry creek. The central character should be struggling to navigate life well into the end of Act One, even if her fiercest antagonist is only from within. — Patricia Hickman

Losing builds character. You know who said that? A loser! Guy who got his ass stomped every day, basketball, football, baseball, lose, lose, lose and lose. All right, I'm talking about me. — Christopher Titus

Humility is a powerful, grounding force, if we'll allow its rightful place in our lives. It is not haughty or boastful or proud. It centers & grounds us in our wisdom, while gently reminding us of all we still have to learn. It dismantles our ego, while opening our hearts. It builds bridges instead of walls. It unified rather than divides. — Sharon E. Reed

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness. — Faith Baldwin

Your exercise of faith builds character. Fortified character expands your capacity to exercise greater faith. Thus, your confidence in making correct decisions is enhanced. And the strengthening cycle continues. The more your character is fortified, the more enabled you are to exercise the power of faith for yet stronger character. — Richard G. Scott

The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where, in space and time, greatens the heart to the limit of the souls ideal, and builds out the supreme character. — Joshua Chamberlain

Everyone is gonna have a bad day, everyone is gonna have a bad game. The questions are: How do you recover? What builds your character? I decided one day early on in high school that I wanted to be great at basketball, not just a good basketball player. — Gilbert Arenas

Ah, there you are," said Scarsbury. "George Lovelace was beside himself. He wanted to assemble a search party for you." Simon regretted his spiteful thoughts about George's horsemanship. "Let me guess," said Simon. "Everyone else said 'Nah, being left for dead builds character. — Cassandra Clare

Failure's not a bad thing. It builds character. It makes you stronger. — Billy Dee Williams

A vital team characteristic is the ability to overcome adversity. Any team acquires experience and endurance as it learns to fight back. This in turn builds the kind of character which seldom crumbles at a time of crisis or testing. — Tom Landry

The Metropolitan Police Service is still, despite what people think, a working-class organisation and as such rejects totally the notion of an officer class. That is why every newly minted constable, regardless of their educational background, has to spend a two-year probationary period as an ordinary plod on the streets. This is because nothing builds character like being abused, spat at and vomited by members of the public. — Ben Aaronovitch

Adversity builds character and character takes you places money can't. — T.I.

The first kind builds character. You cannot grow without this kind of problem, any more than you can build muscles without exercise. — John C. Wright

Roughing it builds a boy's character, but only certain kinds of roughing it. — Margaret Atwood

Suffering builds character and impels you to penetrate life's secrets. It's the path of great artists, great religious leaders, great social reformers. The problem is not suffering per se, but rather our identification with our own ego: our divided, dualistic, cramped view of things. 'We are too ego-centered,' Suzuki tells Cage.' The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow. We seem to carry it all the time from childhood up to the time we finally pass away. — Kay Larson

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels. — George Henry Lewes

Growing up as a girl is always traumatizing, especially when you have the deadly combination of greasy skin and getting your boobs at ten. But I think it's good to grow up that way. It builds character. — Tina Fey

Character builds on characters. Very few recognised them as a character, others should look for it until they get one. — Vikram Roy

It went on. Each lie I told required another to thicken the paste over the previous. It was useless, like when I learned to crochet and made a long string of loops. Being useless builds character, Miss Paulsen had said. Perhaps she was home now, drinking a weak Earl Grey from last night's tea bag, massaging her taffied scalp. — Ruta Sepetys

It's not always easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character, it forces you to make decisions based upon your beliefs and not what other people think. In life, and in business, you have to stand for what you believe in and sometimes you have to stand alone. But, what makes you a leader is having the courage of your convictions. — Queen Latifah

They say everything you go through in your childhood builds character and inner strength. — Curtis Joseph

The Hays Code stated: "When right standards are consistently presented, the motion picture exercises the most powerful influences. It builds character, develops right ideals, inculcates correct principles, and all this in attractive story form. If motion pictures consistently hold up for admiration high types of characters and present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind. — Ben Shapiro

Haiku does not express emotion from the inside out by displaying the mind of a character. Haiku builds the emotional thrust, makes the artistic statement from the outside in, from the physical world to the mind of the reader. — Harley King

Flawed Human Parents + Shit Life Throws At You = Childhood That 'Builds Character. — Deb Caletti

I've made mistakes but the beauty of life is that each regret builds character and makes us a better person — Vitor Belfort

There are two kinds of family. There's the family of your flesh, and the one of your heart. One builds character, the other rewards it. — Sheila Roberts

There is a kind of wisdom that grows in the heart from living in places such as you have been. It builds integrity and strong character. ~Then'diel — K. Farrell St. Germain

I believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others. — Brian Eno

People with high levels of self-confidence have the right view of failure, understanding that they are temporary in nature, and mostly transient. They understand that failure not only builds character, but also resilience. People with a low level of self-confidence view failure as fatal, and it stops them dead in their tracks. — Charles Lamont

Over time, is it easier or harder to sustain your influence within your organization? With charisma alone, influence becomes increasingly more difficult to sustain. With character, as time passes, influence builds and requires less work to sustain. — John C. Maxwell

Suffering builds character. - Miranda Tate — Greg Cox

Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires. — D. Todd Christofferson

Terrifying ... A Dark Matter is populated with vivid, sympathetic characters, and driven by terrors both human and supernatural. It's the kind of book that's impossible to put down once it has been picked up. It kept me reading far into the night. Straub builds otherworldly terror without ever losing touch with his attractive cast of youngsters, who age beautifully. Put this one high on your list. — Stephen King

My success symbolizes loyalty, great friends, Dedication, hard work, routine builds character. In a world full of snakes, rats and scavengers — Nas

I've never been part of the minority before, never have had to struggle to belong, so I figured I'd milk the experience for all it was worth. Don't they say adversity builds character? — Apol Lejano-Massebieau

Nice. I like a little desperation in
a guy. It builds character. — Stacey Kade

FAMILY. The ties that bind. The cement that builds character, strength of purpose, mutual respect, values. — David R. Wommack

I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs, Neal told Kel at lunch. — Tamora Pierce

I want to sleep with people, steal, get run out of town, leave my fingerprints on every scene. We have a name for it, our generation. It's our Baghdad."
"Your what?"
"My Baghdad," Tommy said laughing, knowing it was dumb, savoring the dumbness, and maybe also its truth. "The situation you get into knowing it's fucked-up but you keep doing it anyway, making it an even bigger disaster. Everyone gets one, but that's how you learn. It builds character, makes you dirty and real. You know you're a superpower when you can lose every war and still be a superpower. Maybe you're a superpower because you can afford to lose them. Same here. There should be a Web site that records all the risks a person has taken, all the famous people they've met, all their gnarly trips and bad decisions. Like a Web site that ranks who's lived the most."
"Isn't that called Facebook?" Mills asked. — Christopher Bollen

While determination builds character, quitting is habit forming. — Frank Sonnenberg

A church split builds self-righteousness into the fabric of every new splinter group, whose only reason for existence is that they decide they are more moral and pure than their brethren. This explains my childhood, and perhaps a lot about America, too. The United States is a country with the national character of a newly formed church splinter group. This is not surprising. Our country started as a church splinter group. The Puritans left England because they believed they were more enlightened than members of the Church of England, and they were eager to form a perfect earthly community following a pure theology. — Frank Schaeffer

Great leaders possess tremendous long-term clarity about what they're trying to accomplish both personally and in their careers. And it's this long-term perspective that builds character, wisdom, and self-discipline. Long-term thinking is the hallmark of high-performance living, yet it's often neglected in favor of the treadmill of urgent activities of the moment. — Tommy Newberry

Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels; one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them something else. — Thomas Carlyle

Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can't stay down. We can't allow life to beat us down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we didn't think we could be that strong. — Gail Devers

Dad: Honey, have you seen my glasses? I cant find them. Mom: I haven't seen them. Calvin: (with glasses, to Dad) Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character! — Bill Watterson

I naturally gravitate to darker characters. Gotham. Batman's suit. It's all dark; he's very interesting. It all comes from his builds and guts. — David Finch

My brother said that at Eton, students were told caning builds character. I suppose girls are caned less because we aren't thought to have much character."
"Which is the sort of thing males say when they don't know any women. — Mary Jo Putney

It pays to cultivate popularity. It doubles success possibilities, develops manhood, and builds up character. — Orison Swett Marden

Concentrating when it's the hardest is what builds character — Barbara Delinsky

Everyone in this world is dealt a different hand-some better, some worse than others-but what's more important is how you play that hand. This is what builds character. And with great character comes great reward. — Christine Ha

Life is full of challenges. How you handle these challenges is what builds character. Never be afraid to be who you are. — Erin Brockovich

The only fear that builds character, is the fear of God. — Anthony Liccione

Pressure builds character and allows to handle what else is coming. — Sarah Palin

When I read of the vain discussions of the present day about the Virgin Birth and other old dogmas which belong to the past, I feel how great the need is still of a real interest in the religion which builds up character, teaches brotherly love, and opens up to the seeker such a world of usefulness and the beauty of holiness. — Olympia Brown

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

I hate the man who builds his name On ruins of another's fame. Thus prudes, by characters o'erthrown, Imagine that they raise their own. Thus Scribblers, covetous of praise, Think slander can transplant the bays. — John Gay

Plot, or evolution, is life responding to environment; and not only is this response always in terms of conflict, but the really great struggle, the epic struggle of creation, is the inner fight of the individual whereby the soul builds up character. — William Wallace Cook

I wish I had played team sports. I think every kid should. Teamwork builds character - teaches people about leadership and cooperation. — Mo Rocca

Losing builds character. So, if you're the loser in your family, don't worry. 'Cos twenty years form now, that perfect can do no wrong brother of yours is going to show up at your house, bald, fat, divorced, with six kids who all hate him and he's going to ask you for money. And because of your character, you're going to look him right in the eyes and you're going to say, You know what, I'll give you some money. If you mow my lawn and detail my car. Oh yeah, then you can shampoo the tail. Loser. — Christopher Titus

That said, nothing builds reader involvement more surely than a character whose moral struggle pervades the tale. When readers hope, beg, and plead with you to let a character turn toward the light, you have readers where you want them. A character who is good is good; a character — Donald Maass

Well," Etta said weakly, "she's always told me a good challenge builds character."
"Then we'll have an excess of it," he said dryly. — Alexandra Bracken

No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess. — W. Somerset Maugham

Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. — D. Todd Christofferson