Beauty or Character: A question

Before I got married I received a lot of counsel from different people but the one that got to me was the one a colleague at work gave me, she asked me a question " what did our parents do right that made their marriages last longer than the modern day marriages? " I told her I had no idea, she told me many things but I will talk about Beauty and Character.

What is the most thing to look out for before getting married, Beauty or Character? What is the criteria to use in choosing a life partner, most people say that Beauty is the most important while some talk about character. We all have our personal conviction about this subject matter.
Personally I would say that both beauty and character are very important criteria in choosing a life partner, since you are going to spend the rest of your life with this person you need someone that has both, after all the say "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". You need a partner that when you are walking with him or her you would be proud of, we see that people always have a specification on how they want their partner to look like , but is this very important? yes it is but not paramount. Character is important too , you need to be with someone that has a good character and understanding also. We as human beings are not perfect but there is a level decorum we must posses.
Imagine having a beautiful wife at home but she is a nag, you as a man would be scared of going back home from work, I had a Professor in University who would stay in the office till 9pm before going back home, one day I asked him why he always stayed back , he told me his wife is a nag and complains over every little thing no matter how insignificant the matter was or having a husband who can't control his anger and beats you up at every little provocation , no matter how beautiful or handsome he or she is you won't enjoy that marriage.
When choosing a partner remember that beauty is not all that matters, character also plays an important role in our choice if not the most important role in our choice of a partner. There is a saying that "beauty will fade" but it's hard to change someone's character or personality so let's all take this into consideration when making a choice.
What's your own view on this, you can drop it on the comment box