235
God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible.
- Rick Warren
233
We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.
- John C. Maxwell
232
When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.
- Billy Graham
231
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.
- Henry Ward Beecher
230
Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.
- Rick Warren
229
Great character, like massive roots, grow deep when water is sparse and winds are strong.
- Charles Swindoll
227
No man is poor who does not think himself so. But if in a full fortune with impatience he desires more, he proclaims his wants and his beggarly condition.
- Jeremy Taylor
226
What happens outwardly in your life is not as important as what happens inside you. Your circumstances are temporary, but your character will last forever.
- Rick Warren
225
Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber.
- Rick Warren
223
Cheerfulness is the friend and helper of all good graces, and the absence of it is certainly a vice.
- James H. Aughey
222
It is not the situation which makes the man, but the man who makes the situation. The slave may be a freeman. The monarch may be a slave. Situations are noble or ignoble, as we make them.
- Frederick W. Robertson
221
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
220
The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.
- Helen Keller
219
Never decide on anything or start to do anything while emotion is agitating like a roaring sea. Again, during that time even our conscience is rendered unreliable.
- Watchman Nee
218
Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.
- Billy Graham
217
God never alters the robe of righteousness to fit the man. Rather He alters the man to fit the robe.
- John Hagee
215
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.
- George Washington
213
You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.
- Leonard Ravenhill
212
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
211
Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of 'the image of Christ' must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.
- J. C. Ryle
210
If God gave us the strength in the past, He will supply what we need for future challenges.
- Crystal McDowell
209
Consider how impossible nobility of character would be if our goodness were untried innocence instead of victorious virtue.
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
208
Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. "Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness."
- John Wesley
207
God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you're tempted to express the exact opposite quality. Character development always involves a choice, and temptation provides that opportunity.
- Rick Warren
205
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
- Isaac Newton
204
God is interested in developing your character. At times He lets you proceed, but He will never let you go too far without discipline to bring you back. In your relationship with God, He may let you make a wrong decision. Then the Spirit of God causes you to recognize that it is not God's will. He guides you back to the right path.
- Henry Blackaby
203
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
202
One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character.
- Andrew Murray
200
Building a better you is the first step to building a better America.
- Zig Ziglar
199
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.
- Henry Drummond
198
A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerated the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable.
- Billy Graham
197
Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.
- Charles Spurgeon
196
Your commitments can develop you or destroy you, but either way, they will define you.
- Rick Warren
195
As the excellence of steel is strength, and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character.
- A. W. Tozer
194
Cheerfulness sharpens the edge and removes the rust from the mind. A joyous heart supplies oil to our inward machinery, and makes the whole of our powers work with ease and efficiency; hence it is of the utmost importance that we maintain a contented, cheerful, genial disposition.
- James H. Aughey
193
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.
- Francis de Sales
192
Zeal without humanity is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment.
- Owen Feltham
191
The swift wind of compromise is a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune.
- Chuck Swindoll
190
One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
189
The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.
- Francois Fenelon
188
Sacrifice alone, bare and unrelieved, is ghastly, unnatural, and dead; but self-sacrifice, illuminated by love, is warmth and life; it is the death of Christ, the life of God, and the blessedness and only proper life of man.
- Frederick W. Robertson
187
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; do noble things, not dream them all day long; and so make life, death, and that vast forever one grand, sweet song.
- Charles Kingsley