Quotes to Inspire -- All of these quotes are inspiring and may help people acknowledge and live up...

“Quote Unquote” Library of Quotations

Organized and compiled by the Josephson Institute of Ethics

9841 Airport Blvd., #300 • Los Angeles, CA 90045

www.josephsoninstitute.org www.charactercounts.org

The purpose of this quote library is to collect and organize insightful or provocative thoughts related to character and ethics. Many of these quotes are inspiring and may help people acknowledge and live up to the principles that distinguish a good life. Other quotes are witty and light-hearted, while still others may strike some readers as wrong-headed, even corrosive or cynical. The point of this section is not to "endorse" the thoughts herein but to provide an educational resource for readers to use at their discretion. As always, your feedback, corrections and additions are welcome!

CATEGORIES:

• CARING, COMPASSION, KINDNESS, GENEROSITY, FORGIVENESS

• CHARACTER • CHOICE, FREEDOM • CITIZENSHIP, CIVIC VIRTUE, CIVILITY • CONSCIENCE • CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION, PROBLEM-

SOLVING • COURAGE, FEAR, WORRY • CRIME, CORRUPTION, CHEATING • CRITICISM, JUDGMENT, REPUTATION • EDUCATION, CHILD-REARING, ROLE-MODELS • ETHICS, MORALITY • FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, PEACE • THE FUTURE, FATE, CHANGE, SECURITY • GOOD & EVIL • HAPPINESS • HONESTY, PROMISE-KEEPING, TRUTH • HOPE, FAITH, IDEALISM, OPTIMISM,

ATTITUDE, CONFIDENCE • HUMAN NATURE & HUMAN FOLLY • IDEOLOGY, RIGIDITY, NARROW THINKING • INDIFFERENCE, MORAL BLINDNESS,

RATIONALIZATION

• INTEGRITY, HYPOCRISY, IDENTITY • KARMA • LEADERSHIP, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE • LOYALTY, FRIENDSHIP, GRATITUDE • MEMORY, THE PAST • MONEY, BUSINESS, GREED • OBSTACLES, ADVERSITY, SADNESS,

SUFFERING • PASSION, ENTHUSIASM • PERSEVERANCE, PATIENCE • PRINCIPLE, EXPEDIENCY, VALUES • PURPOSE, WILL, AMBITION • RESPECT, TOLERANCE, ACCEPTANCE,

DIVERSITY • RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY • SANCTIMONY, CYNICISM, PETTINESS, ENVY,

ANGER • SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY • TRUST, DECEPTION, BETRAYAL • VANITY, FAME, POPULARITY, PRIDE • VIRTUE, VICE • WISDOM • MISCELLANEOUS

Josephson Institute of Ethics – 9841 Airport Blvd., #300 – Los Angeles, CA 90045 www.josephsoninstitute.org - www.charactercounts.org - ©2004 Josephson Institute

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— CARING, COMPASSION, KINDNESS, GENEROSITY, FORGIVENESS — “I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.” — Stephen Grellet, 18th/19th-century French/American religious leader "Men are only great as they are kind." — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft) "What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th-century French philosopher “A kind word is like a spring day.” — Russian proverb "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." — Aesop, ancient Greek moralist “Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.” — Henry F. Amiel "If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it." — Lucy Larcom "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." — Edith Wharton, 19th-century American author “Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.” — Frank A. Clark “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” — Albert Pike, 19th-century Scottish Rite Freemason “We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.” — Seneca, Roman statesman and author “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” — Mohandas Gandhi, 20th-century Indian nonviolent civil rights leader “If one man dies, it is a tragedy; if a thousand men die, it is a statistic.” — Phillipe Berthelot “One must care about a world one will never see.” — Bertrand Russell, 20th-century British mathematician and philosopher “It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.” — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “Unshared joy is an unlighted candle.” — Spanish proverb


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“The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.” — Swedish proverb “You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who cannot repay you.” — Ruth Smeltzer “Compassion is the basis of morality.'' — Arnold Schopenhauer, early 19th-century German philosopher "Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." — Albert Schweitzer, 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian


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— CHARACTER — "But rules cannot substitute for character." — Alan Greenspan, 20th/21st-century chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board "Character is what you are in the dark." — Unknown "Another man's soul is darkness." — Russian proverb "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist and poet “If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.” — Woodrow Wilson, 20th-century American president "We are what we seem to be." — Willard Gaylin, 20th-century American psychiatrist

"Our lives teach us who we are." — Salman Rushdie, 20th-century Anglo-Indian novelist "If you don’t have enemies, you don’t have character." — Paul Newman, 20th-century American actor "What someone is, begins to be revealed when his talent abates, when he stops showing us what he can do." — Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher "Why are we surprised when fig trees bear figs?" — Margaret Titzel “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, mid-19th-century U.S. president “Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.” — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft) "You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jelly beans." — Ronald Reagan, 20th-century U.S. president “A person’s character is what it is. It’s a little like a marriage – only without the option of divorce. You can work on it and try to make it better, but basically you have to take the bitter with the sweet.” — Henrik Hertzberg, 20th-century American editor and journalist “What a man’s mind can create, man’s character can control.” — Thomas Edison, 19th/20th-century American inventor “The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no,


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but the kind of man the country turns out.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet “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, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century American civil rights leader “The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.” — Abigail van Buren ("Dear Abby"), 20th-century American newspaper advice columnist “Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.” — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “Character is an essential tendency. It can be covered up, it can be messed with, it can be screwed around with, but it can’t be ultimately changed. It’s the structure of our bones, the blood that runs through our veins.” — Sam Shepard, 20th-century American playwright “The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.” — Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, early 19th-century English historian “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures.” — Horace Greeley, 19th-century American journalist and educator "The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he’s born." — William R. Inge "If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits." — William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, author "The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day." — William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, author "Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct." — Thomas Carlyle, 19th-century Scots-English historian, author "Character is much easier kept than recovered." — Thomas Paine, 18th-century American political activist


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"Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has." — Alphonse Karr "All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are." — Pablo Neruda, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning, Chilean poet and political activist "A man’s character is his fate." — Heraclitus, ancient Greek historian "Character is simply habit long continued." — Plutarch, Roman biographer "One can acquire everything in solitude — except character." — Henri Stendahl, 19th-century French author "Character is much easier kept than recovered." — Thomas Paine, 18th-century American political activist "Character is that which can do without success." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "The force of character is cumulative." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "Not in time, place or circumstance but in the man lies success." — James Joyce, 20th-century Irish novelist “The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.” — Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, early 19th-century English historian “It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th-century German philosopher “If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”— Beryl Markham, 20th-century English adventurer and author "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” — Goethe, 18th/19th-century German poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher


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— CHOICE, FREEDOM — “When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.” — Max Lerner "He who has a choice has trouble." — Dutch proverb There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return." — Dag Hammarskjold, 20th-century Swedish diplomat, U.N. Secretary General "Life is the sum of your choices." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist "Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it." — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling that desire.” — Epictetus, ancient Greek historian “Freedom means choosing your burden.” — Hephzibah Menuhin "In order to exist, man must rebel." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist


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— CITIZENSHIP, CIVIC VIRTUE, CIVILITY — “What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.” — Lavater "What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise." — Barbara Jordan, 20th-century congresswoman and professor "A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to George Hammond, 1792) "It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to George Logan, 1816) “Public virtue is a kind of ghost town into which anyone can move and declare himself sheriff." — Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century American author "Americanism is a question of principles, of idealism, of character: it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent." — Theodore Roosevelt, 19th/20th-century American adventurer and politician, Nobel Prize-winning U.S. president "If we are forced, at every hour, to watch or listen to horrible events, this constant stream of ghastly impressions will deprive even the most delicate among us of all respect for humanity." — Cicero (Marcus Tullius), Roman orator, philosopher and statesman "Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "In a time of social fragmentation, vulgarity becomes a way of life. To be shocking becomes more important — and often more profitable — than to be civil or creative or truly original.’’ — Al Gore, 20th-century American politician, vice president of the U.S. “Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all moral creatures must depend on each other to exist.” — Hindu proverb “Politeness is the art of choosing among one’s real thoughts.” — Adlai Stevenson II, 20th-century American politician, presidential candidate “We are all angels with only one wing. We can only fly while embracing each other.” — Luciano De Crescenzo "What has always made a hell on earth has been that man has tried to make it his heaven." — Friedrich Holderin


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"Hell is other people." — Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning, French existentialist writer (from No Exit) "Hell is ourselves." — Claude Levi-Strauss, 20th-century French sociologist "It is in the shelter of each other that people live." — Irish proverb “Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their lives as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” — Count Leo Tolstoy, 19th-century Nobel Prize-winning Russian novelist “But it was impossible to save the Great Republic. She was rotten to the heart. Lust of conquest had long ago done its work; trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other people’s liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake in their own persons. The government was irrevocably in the hands of the prodigiously rich and their hangers-on; the suffrage was become a mere machine, which they used as they chose. There was no principle but commercialism, no patriotism but of the pocket.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist


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— CONSCIENCE — "A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory." — Steven Wright, 20th-century comedian "Conscience is God’s presence in man." — Emmanuel Swedenborg, 19th-century Swedish-American spiritualist "Prudence reproaches; conscience accuses." — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher "Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything." — Laurence Sterne, 18th-century English novelist "Conscience is, in most, an anticipation of the opinion of others." — Sir Henry Taylor "Most men sell their souls and live with a good conscience on the proceeds." — Logan Pearsall Smith "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “Reason often makes mistakes but conscience never does.” — Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 19th-century American humorist “Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.” — Samuel Butler, 17th-century English poet “The difficulty is to know conscience from self-interest.” — William Dean Howells, 19th-century American journalist and novelist “When your intelligence don't tell you something ain't right, your conscience gives you a tap you on the shoulder and says ‘Hold on.’ If it don't, you're a snake.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer “There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.” — Sophocles, ancient Greek dramatist


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— CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION, PROBLEM-SOLVING — "Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true." — William Inge "Imagination is more important than knowledge." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher "Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour germinates no more." — Henri Amiel "It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." — Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince "You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher "No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking." — Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher "Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things." — Noam Chomsky, 20th-century American linguist and political activist "To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas." — Leo Burnett, 20th-century American advertising pioneer “Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not; a sense of humor was given to us to console us for what we are.” — Mack McGinnis "The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." — Carl Jung, 20th-century Swiss founder of analytical psychology


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— COURAGE, FEAR, WORRY — "Worrying is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." — Unknown "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think." — Benjamin Disraeli, 19th-century British statesman and novelist "Courage is the price life exacts for peace." — Amelia Earhart, 20th-century American aviator "Courage is being scared to death — and saddling up anyway." — John Wayne, 20th-century actor "The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground." — Unknown "Courage is like a muscle; it is strengthened by use." — Ruth Gordon "No one reaches a high position without daring." — Syrus "Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become." — Bishop Westcott "The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear — fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants beyond everything else is safety." — H. L. Mencken, 20th-century American journalist and humorist "I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him." — Eleanor Roosevelt, 20th-century American stateswoman, First Lady "Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what nerves let you do." — Bruce Crampton "The art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles." — Bernard M. Baruch, 20th-century American financier "All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumble." — William S. Halsey "Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the "courage of their convictions." — Coventry Patmore


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"It isn’t the absence of conscience or values that prevents us from being all we should be, it is simply the lack of moral courage." — Michael Josephson, 20th/21st-century American ethicist "To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice." — Confucius, ancient Chinese sage "One man with courage makes a majority." — Andrew Jackson, early 19th-century American military hero and U.S. president "It is better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." — William Shakespeare, 16th-century English dramatist "Cowardice. . . is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination." — Ernest Hemingway, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning American novelist "Courage easily finds its own eloquence." — Plautus "Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear." — William Congreve, 17th/18th-century English dramatist "The basest of all things is to be afraid." — William Faulkner, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning American novelist "In times of stress, be bold and valiant." — Horace, Roman poet "Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen." — Pliny the Younger "Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions.’" — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet “The world has no room for cowards.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, 19th-century English novelist and adventurer “If you let fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.” — Katharine Butler Hathaway


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“Proust has pointed out that the predisposition to love creates its own objects; is this not also true of fear?” — Elizabeth Bowen “What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.” — Unknown "When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell, 20th-century English journalist and novelist "If we could be heroes, if just for one day." — David Bowie, 20th-century English pop music performer "One must think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being." — May Barton "What worries you, masters you." — Haddon W. Robinson “And each man stand with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 19th-century English poet “Necessity makes even the timid brave.” — Sallust


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— CRIME, CORRUPTION, CHEATING — "Never underestimate the effectiveness of a straight cash bribe." — Claude Cockburn "The intention makes the crime." — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains ... put it down, Joe.” — Humphrey Bogart, 20th-century American actor (from “The Big Sleep”) "He that’s cheated twice by the same man is an accomplice with the cheater." — Thomas Fuller "In an age that is utterly corrupt, the best policy is to do as others do." — Marquis de Sade, 18th-century French moralist


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— CRITICISM, JUDGMENT, REPUTATION — "A regard for reputation and the judgment of the world may sometimes be felt where conscience is dormant." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to Edward Livingston, 1825) "There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist "A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car." — Kenneth Tynan, 20th-century English art historian and critic "I criticize by creation, not by finding fault." — Cicero (Marcus Tullius), Roman orator, philosopher and statesman "We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 19th-century American poet “To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist


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— EDUCATION, CHILD-REARING, ROLE-MODELS — "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." — Theodore Roosevelt, 19th/20th-century American adventurer and politician, Nobel Prize-winning U.S. president "Don't worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you." — Robert Fulghum, 20th-century American author "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." — Proverbs, 22:6 "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth." — Kahlil Gilbran "Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain." — John Locke, 17th-century English philosopher "The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults." — Peter de Vries "But if you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy: that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly." — Plato, ancient Greek philosopher "Children need models rather than critics." — Joseph Joubert "It takes a long time to grow young." — Pablo Picasso, 20th-century Spanish artist "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." — Gertrude Stein, 20th-century American writer "It takes a whole village to raise a child." — Ashanti proverb “Educate the heart. Let us have good men.'' — Hiram Powers “The best way to teach morality is to make it a habit with children.'' — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “The question for the child is not ‘Do I want to be good?’ but ‘Whom do I want to be like?’ ” — Bruno Bettelheim, 20th-century German/American child psychologist, author “Example has more followers than reason.” — Bovee “Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.” — Gen. Omar N. Bradley, 20th-century American military figure


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"If we are to reach real peace in this world ... we shall have to begin with the children." — Mohandas Gandhi, 20th-century Indian nonviolent civil rights leader "Imitation is a necessity of human nature." — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 19th/20th-century American jurist, Supreme Court justice "No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure." — Emma Goldman, 19th/20th-century Russian-American anarchist writer, lecturer and activist


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— ETHICS & MORALITY — "There's a hole in the moral ozone and it's getting bigger.” — Michael Josephson, 20th/21st-century American ethicist "Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere." — G.K. Chesterton, 19th-century English essayist and poet "That which is beautiful is moral. That is all, nothing more." — Gustave Flaubert, 19th-century French novelist "Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose." — Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike." — Oscar Wilde, 19th-century English wit and author "The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings." — Albert Schweitzer, 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian "In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so." — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher "The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying." — Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist and essayist (1825-1895) "Morality is stronger than tyrants." — Saint-Just "Morality, when formal, devours." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist "A moral being is one who is capable of comparing his past and future actions or motives, and of approving or disapproving of them." — Charles Darwin "Morality begins at the point of a gun." — Mao Tse-Tung, 20th-century revolutionary founder of modern China “Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value.” — Bertrand Russell, 20th-century British mathematician and philosopher


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“The essence of morality is the subjugation of nature in obedience of social needs.” — John Morley, 19th-century British statesman “Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.” — Ayn Rand, 20th-century Russian/American novelist and philosopher


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— FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, PEACE — "Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian." — Dennis Wholey, 20th/21st-century self-help author and journalist "It is reasonable that every one who asks justice should do justice." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to George Hammond, 1792) "It is less important to redistribute wealth than it is to redistribute opportunity." — Arthur Vandenberg, 20th-century American senator "Grub first, then ethics." — Bertolt Brecht, 20th-century German dramatist "The belly comes before the soul." — George Orwell, 20th-century British journalist and novelist "Principles have no real force except when one is well fed." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American journalist, author and humorist "Rise above principle and do what is right." — Walter Heller, 20th-century American economist "You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave." — Billie Holiday, 20th-century American singer "The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give every man his due." — Justinian I "A generous and noble spirit cannot be expected to dwell in the breasts of men who are struggling for their daily bread." — Dioysius of Halicarnassus "All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures." — Julius Caesar "Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." — Reinhold Niebuhr, 20th-century American theologian I take it that what all men are really after is some form of, perhaps only some formula of, peace." — Joseph Conrad, 19th-century Polish/English novelist "Charity isn’t a good substitute for justice." — Jonathan Kozol, 20th-century American journalist and author "False hope is worse than despair." — Jonathan Kozol, 20th-century American journalist and author "I do get scared about the physical danger from drug dealers. But it’s not in the same


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league as the danger I feel eating an $80 lunch with my privileged friends to discuss hunger and poverty. That’s when my soul feels imperiled." — Journalist Jonathan Kozol, on his work chronicling the lives of the poor in the Bronx “Never befriend the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressor.” — Ogden Nash, 20th-century American dramatist “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 19th/20th-century American adventurer and politician, Nobel Prize-winning U.S. president “When a man hangs from a tree it doesn’t spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him.” — E. B. White, 20th-century American essayist "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." — A.J. Muste "If you want to work for world peace, go home and love your families." — Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 20th-century nun and founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity (Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech)


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THE FUTURE, FATE, CHANGE, SECURITY — —

“No wind favors he who has no destined port.” — Michel de Montaigne, 16th-century French man of letters and essayist “We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror.” — (Herbert) Marshall McLuhan, 20th-century Canadian writer and educator “The future enters into us, in order to transform us, long before it happens.”— Rainer Maria Rilke, 19th-century German poet “If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” — Carl Jung, 20th-century Swiss founder of analytical psychology “With our thoughts we make the world.” — Buddha “We are the people our parents warned us about.” — Jimmy Buffett, 20th-century American songwriter, performer "Since changes are going on anyway, the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in; they are to be utilized and directed." — John Dewey, 19th-century American philosopher and education reformer "Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts." — William O. Douglas, 20th-century American jurist, Supreme Court justice "The way to be safe is never to be secure." — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author "Security is a false god; begin making sacrifices to it and you are lost." — Paul Bowles, 20th-century American novelist “The future comes one day at a time.” — Dean Acheson, 20th-century American secretary of state "Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another." — Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 20th-century Belgian adventurer and author


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— GOOD & EVIL —

"Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as you ever can." — John Wesley, 18th-century Anglican clergyman "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." — Edmund Burke, 18th-century English political philosopher "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil." — Hannah Arendt, 20th-century German political philosopher and author "Most people are good only so long as they believe others to be so." — Friedrich Hebbel "No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly." — Juvenal, Roman writer "The good ended happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means." — Miss Prism to Cecily in "The Importance of Being Earnest" "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes nor between parties either — but right through the human heart." — Alexandr Solzhenitzyn, 20th-century Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.'' — Mary Wollstonecraft, 19th-century English novelist "Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other." — Denis Diderot, 18th-century French philosopher and writer


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— HAPPINESS — "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." — Carlos Castaneda, 20th-century Latin American mystic and author “All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.” — Dennis Prager, 20th-century American radio host and author “Don't worry. Be happy.” — Meher Baba, 20th-century Indian spiritual leader (popularized in a song by Bobby McFerrin, 20th-century American songwriter and performer) “Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours.... never doubt the excellence and permanence of what is yet to be. Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness.... Your success and happiness lie in you.... The great enduring realities are love and service.... Resolve to keep happy and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author “Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty.” — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.” — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (in letter to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811) "To describe happiness is to diminish it." — Henri Stendahl, 19th-century French novelist “I believe... that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (in a letter to John Adams, 1816) “People of superior refinement and of active disposition identify happiness with honour; for this is roughly speaking, the end of political life.” — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher (from the Nichomachean Ethics) "Happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." — Count Leo Tolstoy, Nobel Prize-winning 19th-century Russian novelist (from Anna Karenina) "If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are." — Charles-Louis de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu, 17th/18th-century French jurist and political philosopher "A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird


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in the hand." — Seneca, Roman statesman and author "Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else." — Andre Gide, 20th-century French author “The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have.” — Woody Allen, 20th-century American humorist and filmmaker “All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin.” — Lord Byron, 19th-century English poet “If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances, it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.” — Bertrand Russell, 20th-century British mathematician and philosopher “Happiness is knowin' you've done a good job, whether it's professional of for another person.” — Elvis Presley “See to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you.” — James Freeman Clarke “Those who seek happiness, miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it.” — Holbrook Jackson “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” —Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.” — Count Leo Tolstoy, 19th-century Nobel Prize-winning Russian novelist “A great obstacle to happiness is expecting too much happiness.” — Bernard de Fontanelle “Happiness is not the end of life: character is.” — Henry Ward Beecher, 19th-century American preacher "The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not our circumstances." — Martha Washington, 18th-century American First Lady "To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy . . . is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet


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— HONESTY, TRUTH — “As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand." — Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 19th-century American humorist “A promise made is a debt unpaid." — Robert W. Service (in “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” 1907) "We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot." — Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century American president "The truth is not always the same as the majority decision." — Pope John Paul II "I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches.” — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to Jeremiah Moor, 1800) "Honesty isn’t a policy at all; it’s a state of mind or it isn’t honesty." — Eugene L’Hote "Don’t tell your friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you." — Logan Pearsall Smith "Frankness invites frankness." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "An overdose of praise is like 10 lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it." — Emily Post, 20th-century American etiquette advisor and author "The pursuit of truth will set you free — even if you never catch up with it." — Clarence Darrow, 20th-century American lawyer "Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths." — Edgar A. Shoaff "All advertising, whether it lies in the field of business or of politics, will carry success by continuity and regular uniformity of application." — Adolf Hitler, 20th-century leader of Germany's Third Reich "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made." — Jean Giraudoux "Regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable." — Leo Burnett, 20th-century American advertising pioneer “When all else fails, tell the truth.'' — Donald T. Regan, 20th-century American business executive, Treasury Secretary, chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan “A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” — Edgar J. Mohn


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“If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.” — The Talmud “What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth.” — Jewish proverb “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.” — Elvis Presley “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and realistic.” — John F. Kennedy, 20th-century American president (from the Yale Commencement address, 1962) “A belief is not true because it is useful.” — Henri Amiel “The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.” — A.E. Housman “When somebody lies, somebody loses.” — Stephanie Ericsson "Flattery makes friends, truth enemies." — Spanish proverb "Lying can never save us from another lie." — Vaclav Havel, 20th-century Czech poet and political activist, first president of post-Communist Republic "We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready to call it falsehood tomorrow." — William James, 19th-century American philosopher and author "Time, whose tooth gnaws away at everything else, is powerless against truth." — Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist and essayist (1825-1895)


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— HOPE, FAITH, IDEALISM, OPTIMISM, ATTITUDE, CONFIDENCE — "Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author "I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." — Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century American civil rights leader (from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech) “What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.” — Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning, French existentialist writer "Everything that is done in the world is done by hope." — Martin Luther, 15th/16th-century German priest and scholar whose questioning of certain church practices led to the Protestant Reformation "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher "I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on the way." — Carl Sandburg, 20th-century American poet and writer "Great hopes make great men." — Thomas Fuller "The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams." — Eleanor Roosevelt, 20th-century American stateswoman, First Lady "Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem." — John Galsworthy, 20th-century English poet "Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?" — Robert Browning, 19th-century English poet "Words without actions are the assassins of idealism." — Herbert Hoover, 20th-century American public servant, U.S. president "Those who believe they can do something are probably right — and so are those who believe they can’t." — Unknown "A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist." — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of the Roycroft firm) "A leader is a dealer in hope." — Napoleon Bonaparte, 19th-century French general and emperor "If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We


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are human beings, and we have faith and we have hope, and we can work." — Jacques Cousteau, 20th-century French explorer, inventor, environmental activist and author “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” — Carl Schurz, 19th-century German-American politician "There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." — John Ruskin, 19th-century British critic and author "Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel." — Horace Walpole, 18th-century English author and man of letters "Light tomorrow with today." — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 19th-century English poet "He who has lost confidence can lose nothing more." — Boiste "No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty." — George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 19th-century English novelist


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— HUMAN NATURE & HUMAN FOLLY — "In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar." — Anton Chekhov, 19th-century Russian dramatist "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." — Anne Frank, victim of the mid-20th-century Nazi Holocaust in Europe (from her Diaries) "There are two levers for moving men — interest and fear." — Napoleon Bonaparte, 19th-century French general and emperor "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." — James Madison, 18th-century American Founding Father, 19th-century U.S. president “Somebody does somethin' stupid, that's human. They don't stop when they see it's wrong, that's a fool.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer “The tendency of man’s nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downward.” — Meng-Tse “People, like water, will run downhill, seeking their lowest level unless something interdicts them.” — Cal Thomas, 20th-century American journalist “In general, men are ungrateful and fickle, dissemblers, avoiders of danger and greedy of gain.” — Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine Renaissance writer and political adviser “It is silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars and hypocrites.” — Henry Miller, 20th-century American novelist Cicero’s Six Mistakes of Man (according to Arthur F. Lenehan):

1. The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others 2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected 3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it 4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences 5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit

of reading and studying 6. Attempting to compel other persons to believe and live as we do.


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— IDEOLOGY, RIGIDITY, NARROW THINKING — “My Son, these maxims make a rule An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither.” — Robert Burns, 18th-century Scottish poet "Ideology is just an escape from thought." — John Kenneth Galbraith, 20th-century North American economist, statesman, author "The proper man understands equity, the small man profits." — Confucius, ancient Chinese sage "A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones." — G.K. Chesterton, 19th-century English essayist and poet "Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they mark our limitations and our bounds. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries." — Jose Ortega y Gasset "The death of dogma is the birth of reality." — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher "He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils." — Francis Bacon, 16th-century English statesman, scientist and author "When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic."— John Kenneth Galbraith, 20th-century North American economist, author and diplomat "A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject." — Winston Churchill, 20th-century British prime minister and war leader, Nobel Prize-winning author "New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common." — John Locke, 17th-century English philosopher "It is theory that decides what we can observe." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher


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— INDIFFERENCE, MORAL BLINDNESS, RATIONALIZATION — "So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman (from his autobiography)

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in time of great moral crisis." — Dante Alighieri, 13th/14th-century Italian poet (from the Divine Comedy) "Indifference is the essence of inhumanity." — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Man's basic vice, the source of all his evils, is the act of unfocusing his mind, the suspension of his consciousness, which is not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance, but the refusal to know.'' — Ayn Rand, 20th-century Russian/American author and philosopher "The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none." — Thomas Carlyle, 19th-century Scots-English historian, author "Few men think, yet all will have opinions." — George Berkeley "Most of one’s life ... is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking." — Aldous Huxley, 20th-century English author “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair, 20th-century American author “Necessity is an interpretation, not a fact." — Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher


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— INTEGRITY, HYPOCRISY, IDENTITY — "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." — Count Leo Tolstoy, 19th-century Nobel Prize-winning Russian novelist "Do what you want to do.... But want to do what you are doing. Be what you want to be.... But want to be what you are." — Unknown "Speak what you feel, not what you ought to say." — Shakespeare (from “King Lear”) "Once integrity goes, the rest is a piece of cake." — J.R. Ewing, lead character in the 20th-century American television show “Dallas” “Know thyself.” — Plato, ancient Greek philosopher "Only the shallow know themselves." — Oscar Wilde, 19th-century English wit and author "We are never more true to ourselves than when we are inconsistent." — Oscar Wilde, 19th-century English wit and author "One’s real life is often the life that one does not lead." — Oscar Wilde, 19th-century English wit and author "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "Be as you wish to seem." — Socrates, ancient Greek sage "Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people." — Welsh proverb "Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else." — Eleanor Roosevelt, 20th-century American stateswoman, First Lady "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." — Andre Gide, 20th-century French writer "A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist "Of all the paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path ... a thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do ... to find his path


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and walk in it." — Thomas Carlyle, 19th-century Scots-English historian, author "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." — Carl Jung, 20th-century Swiss founder of analytical psychology "It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are — not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within — that you begin to take control." — Oprah Winfrey, 20th-century American entertainer, businesswoman "Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread." — Richard Wright, 20th-century American author "Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment." — Maxwell Maltz, 20th-century American psychologist and motivational writer “Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.” — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic “What people call the spirit of the times is mostly their own spirit in which the times mirror themselves.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th/19th-century German statesman, poet, novelist and dramatist


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— KARMA — "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." — Thich Nhat Hanh, 20th-century French-based Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and author "Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they [sow] with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to Francois de Marbois, 1817) "Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft) "Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein." — Proverbs “The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Everybody comes form the same source. If you hate another human being, you're hating part of yourself.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer “The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.” — William Penn, 17th-century American colonial leader “By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us.” — Edwin Markham “No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is left long without proper reward.” — Booker T. Washington, 19th-century American educator “Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.'' — William Penn, 17th-century American colonial leader “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.” — Unknown (Editor's note: This quote is widely attributed to "Frank Outlaw" on the Web, but we've found no confirmation that this is the correct source. Popular quotation books — including Bartlett's Familiar


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Quotations (17th ed., 2002), Roget's International Thesaurus of Quotations (1970) and The Harper Book of Quotations (3rd ed., 1993) — do not include this quote or any reference to Frank Outlaw. In July 2003, we received an e-mail message from "Elizabeth C.," who claims to have written this verse and sent it in 1998 to members of an e-mail group of people living with lupus. According to her, "these few lines have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet. I was honored when someone asked if they could post it on their work bulletin board. From there it ended up as a desktop theme. It has traveled everywhere.") “They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing.” — Hindu proverb “Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.” — Buddha “No man is more cheated than a selfish man.” — Henry Ward Beecher, 19th-century American preacher “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” — Marcus Aurelius “People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.” — Edith Wharton, 19th/20th-century American novelist (from The Age of Innocence) “Luck is a word devoid of sense. Nothing can exist without a cause.” — Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher “We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold in them.” — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft) “Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself.” — Felix Adler “Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” — Tryon Edwards “Doubt breeds doubt.” — Franz Grillparzer "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th/19th-century German statesman, poet, novelist and dramatist "Any man will usually get from other men just what he is expecting of them. If he is looking for friendship he will likely receive it. If his attitude is that of indifference, it will beget indifference. And if a man is looking for a fight, he will in all likelihood be accommodated in that." — John Richelsen "If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of becoming a prophet." — Isaac Bashevis Singer, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish/American writer


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— LEADERSHIP, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE — [Because power corrupts] “Society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” — John Adams, 18th-century American Founding Father, second U.S. president "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Unknown "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on." — Walter Lippmann, 20th-century American journalist, author and public philosopher "If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes." — Sir Thomas More in the movie “A Man For All Seasons” (1966, screenplay by Robert Bolt) “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” — George Washington, 18th-century American Founding Father and war hero, first U.S. president “The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.” — John Adams, 18t-century American Founding Father, second U.S. president “Character is the only secure foundation of the state.” — Calvin Coolidge, 20th-century American president “A man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.” — Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine Renaissance writer and political adviser "With all the power that a president has, the most important thing to bear in mind is this: You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character is the most important qualification the president of the United States can have." — Richard Nixon (from TV ad for Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964) “All leaders must face some crisis where their own strength of character is the enemy.” — Richard Reeves, 20th-century American journalist and essayist "In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant... He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever... You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can’t buy courage and decency, you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him. He needs to have, in that much-maligned word, but a good one nonetheless, a "vision" of the future he wishes to create. But a vision is worth little if a president doesn’t have the character —


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the courage and heart — to see it through." — Peggy Noonan, 20th-century American author, speech writer for U.S. President Ronald Reagan "Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself." — Charles DeGaulle, 20th-century French general and president, founder of the Fifth Republic "Politics ruins the character." — Otto von Bismarck, 19th-century German chancellor, founder of the German nation state "Character is power." — Booker T. Washington, 19th-century American educator "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power." — Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century U.S. president "It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous." — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “Every person in America has done or said something that would keep him or her from being president. Maybe a nation that consumes as much booze and dope as we do and has our kind of divorce statistics should pipe down about ‘character issues.’ ” — P.J. O’Rourke, 20th-century American humorist and essayist "Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen." — Dr. Robert Jarvik, 20th-century American heart surgeon "Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to James Monroe, 1806) “I don't like people who are in politics for themselves and not for others. You want that, you can go into show business.'' — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer “There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.” — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic “You can only govern men by serving them.” — Victor Cousin “A politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience longer than he does with his constituents.” — Melvin R. Laird, 20th-century American secretary of defense “Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” — Henry Adams, 19th-century American historian, memoirist and diplomat


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“An election is a moral horror, as bad as battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned.” — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.'' — Ambrose Bierce, early 20th-century American journalist and writer (from the Devil's Dictionary) “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.” — Charles de Gaulle, 20th-century French general and president, founder of the Fifth Republic “Washington is a place where men praise courage and act on elaborate personal cost-benefit calculations.” — John Kenneth Galbraith, 20th-century North American economist, author and diplomat “Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.” — Charles-Louis de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu, 17th/18th-century French jurist and political philosopher “Bad administration, to be sure, can destroy good policy; but good administration can never save bad policy.” — Adlai Stevenson, 20th-century American politician, presidential candidate "How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?" — Harry S. Truman, 20th-century American president "Politics is the art of controlling the environment." — Hunter S. Thomson, 20th-century American journalist and writer "Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet


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— LOYALTY, FRIENDSHIP, GRATITUDE — "New friends are silver, but old friends are gold." — Unknown "When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree." — Vietnamese saying "Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect." — Marcus Aurelius "Loyalty oaths increase the number of liars." — Noel Peattie "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." — Cicero (Marcus Tullius), Roman orator, philosopher and statesman “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist "Friendship, like credit, is highest where it is not used.” — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft) "Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate." — Thomas Jones "If you don't appreciate it, you don't deserve it." — Terry Josephson, 20th/21st-century motivational author


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— MEMORY & THE PAST — "A man’s memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past, according to his interest in the present." — George Santayana, 20th-century American philosopher, author “Men live by forgetting. Women live on memories." — T.S. Eliot, Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century Anglo-American poet "The superiority of the distant over the present is only due to the mass and variety of the pleasures that can be suggested, compared with the poverty of those that can at any time be felt." — George Santayana, 20th-century American philosopher "The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there." — L. P. Hartley "The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past." — William Faulkner, Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century American novelist “The past is one evil less and one memory more.’’ — Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft)


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— MONEY, BUSINESS, GREED — "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." — Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher "You are not what you own." — Fugazi, 20th/21st-century American rock band "I get so tired of listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there. It's so petty." — Imelda Marcos, 20th-century Filipino First Lady (married to Ferdinand Marcos) "When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion." — Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher "Virtue has never been as respectable as money."— Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist "God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones." — Publilius Syrus “It's not how much you have that makes people look up to you, it's who you are.'' — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer “Sharing money is what gives it its value.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer “The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong.” — Antiphanes, ancient Greek dramatist “Don't forget until too late that the business of life is not business but living.” — B.C. Forbes, early 20th-century American publisher, founder of Forbes magazine "He is poor who does not feel content." — Japanese proverb "For greed, all nature is too little." — Seneca, Roman statesman and author "Goodness is the only investment that never fails." — Henry David Thoreau, 19th-century American essayist and nature writer “Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold.” — Maurice Setter


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— OBSTACLES, ADVERSITY, SADNESS, SUFFERING — "Nothing is too much trouble." — Edward Kirby Bonds "To perceive is to suffer." — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher "He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise." — Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher "The gem cannot be polished without friction." — Chinese proverb "Adversity introduces a man to himself." — Unknown "We cannot learn without pain." — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher “There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.” — Dante Alighieri, 13th/14th-century Italian poet "You should not suffer the past. You should be able to wear it like a loose garment, take it off and let it drop." — Eva Jessye "The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper." — Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher


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— PASSION, ENTHUSIASM — "Reason alone is insufficient to make us enthusiastic in any matter." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "What a man accomplishes in a day depends upon the way in which he approaches his tasks. When we accept tough jobs as a challenge. . . and wade into them with joy and enthusiasm, miracles can happen. When we do our work with a dynamic conquering spirit, we get things done." — Arland Gilbert “Zeal will do more than knowledge.” — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead, 20th-century American anthropologist "The conclusions of passion are the only reliable ones." — Soren Kierkegaard, early 19th-century Danish philosopher "Make no little plans! They have no magic to stir men’s blood." — Daniel Burnham, 19th-century Chicago architect "Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "The two sovereign remedies for dullness are love or a crusade.’’ — D.H. Lawrence, 20th-century English novelist "Know the true value of time; snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness ... never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." — Lord Chesterfield, 18th-century English man of letters


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— PERSEVERANCE, PATIENCE — "I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process." — Thomas Edison (19th/20th-century American inventor), responding to a reporter who asked how it felt to fail 2000 times before successfully inventing the light bulb "Be patient and calm — for no one can catch fish in anger." — Herbert Hoover, 20th-century American public servant, U.S. president “Fall seven times. Stand up eight.” — Japanese proverb "If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down." — Mary Pickford, 20th-century American actress "The way to succeed is never quit. That’s it. But really be humble about it." — Alex Haley, 20th-century American author "Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them." — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic "The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it." — Jean Baptiste Molière, 17th-century French dramatist "What does not destroy makes me stronger." — Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher "Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew." — Saint Francis de Sales "Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall." — Oliver Goldsmith, 18th-century English novelist "Endurance is nobler than strength and patience than beauty." — John Ruskin, 19th-century British critic and author "By and by never comes.’’ — St. Augustine “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence


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and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge, 20th-century American president “People may fail many times, but they become failures only when they begin to blame someone else.” — Unknown “One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.” — Marshall Foch, 19th/20th-century French general “It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.” — Unknown "Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try." — Dennis DeYoung, 20th-century songwriter and member of the pop rock band Styx


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— PRINCIPLE & EXPEDIENCY, VALUES — "A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (letter to Samuel Kercheval, 1816) "The sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what they reject also." — Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century American Founding Father, early 19th-century U.S. president (Autobiography, 1821) "Whatever else may be shaken, there are some facts established beyond warring: virtue is better than vice, truth is better than falsehood, kindness than brutality." — Quintin Hogg “We talk on principle but we act on interest.” — William Savage Landor “Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.” — Henry Ward Beecher, 19th-century American preacher “Every man, at the bottom of his heart, wants to do right. But only he can do right who knows right; only he knows right who thinks right; only he thinks right who believes right.” — Tiorio “Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same, but you leave 'em all over everything you do.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer “When things go wrong don't go with them.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer “Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher


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— PURPOSE, WILL, AMBITION — "The more you prepare, the luckier you appear." — Terry Josephson, 20th/21st-century motivational author

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think..." — Lord Byron, 19th-century English poet (from Canto the Third) "[A]n aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself." — Robert Louis Stevenson, 19th-century English novelist and adventurer (from "The Amateur Emigrant") "All progress depends on the unreasonable man." — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit "To know just what has to be done, then to do it, comprises the whole philosophy of practical life." — Sir William Osler "When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past." — Unknown “[T]he tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.... It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin." — Benjamin Elijah Mays, 20th-century American educator, president of Morehouse College "Genius is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose." — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 19th-century English novelist “The most important part of doctrine is the first two letters.” — David C. Egner “As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence.”— George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Striving to do better, oft we mar what’s well.” — William Shakespeare, 16th-century English dramatist "The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible." — Arthur C. Clarke, 20th-century English science fiction writer


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"The more you prepare, the luckier you appear." — Terry Josephson, 20th/21st-century motivational author "Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities." — Terry Josephson, 20th/21st-century motivational author

— RESPECT, TOLERANCE, ACCEPTANCE, DIVERSITY — "I do not serve what you worship; nor do you serve what I worship. You have your own religion and I have mine." — The Koran "The words you speak today should be soft and tender ... for tomorrow you may have to eat them." — Unknown “Every man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself; and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him as a human being, to use him as a mere means for some external purpose.” — Immanuel Kant, 18th-century Prussian geographer and philosopher “In his private heart no man much respects himself.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist "The highest result of education is tolerance." — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author "Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves." — Bonaro Overstreet Civilizations should be measured by "the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained." — W.H. Auden, 20th-century English poet “Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.” — Jesse Jackson, 20th-century American political activist, preacher “Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them.” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” — Jonathan Swift, 17th/18th-century English satirist “The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.” — Ann Landers, 20th-century American newspaper “advice” columnist “Prejudice is the child of ignorance.” — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic


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— RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY — "You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." — Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century American president “Provision for others is the fundamental responsibility of human life.'' — Woodrow Wilson, 20th-century American president “To protect those who are not able to protect themselves is a duty which every one owes to society.'' — Edward Macnaghten “I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can.” — Edward Everett Hale “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” — Chinese proverb “Responsibility is to keep the ability to respond” — Robert Duncan “Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.'' — Henry F. Amiel “The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.” — Hamilton Wright Mabee “The value of life is not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet very little.” — Michel de Montaigne, 16th-century French man of letters and essayist “We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” — Calvin Coolidge, 20th-century American president “Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.” — Booker T. Washington, 19th-century American educator “I long to accomplish some great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public speaker and author


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"A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day." — Albert Schweitzer, 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian "A sense of duty imprisons you." — Jennie Holzer, 20th-century American artist

"We demand entire freedom of action and then expect the government in some miraculous way to save us from the consequences of our own acts.... Self-government means self-reliance." — Calvin Coolidge, 20th-century American president


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— SANCTIMONY, CYNICISM, PETTINESS, ENVY, ANGER — "Hatred is blind, anger is foolhardy, and he who pours out vengeance risks having to drink a bitter draft." — Alexandre Dumas, 19th-century French novelist and playwright (from The Count of Monte-Cristo, 1844) "Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life." — Henry David Thoreau "Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, forty-eight percent indignation, and fifty percent envy." — Vittorio De Sica, 20th-century Italian filmmaker “A knave’s religion is always the rottenest thing about him." — John Ruskin, 19th-century British critic and author “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one.” — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.” – Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher (from the Nicomachaen Ethics) "When a man is wrong and won’t admit it, he always gets angry." — Haliburton "All seems infected that the infected spy, as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye." — Alexander Pope, 17th-century English poet "You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad." — Adlai Stevenson II, 20th-century American politician, presidential candidate “Envy someone an' it pulls you down. Admire them and it builds you up. Which makes more sense?” — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity entertainer “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist “There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” — Indira Gandhi, 20th-century Indian prime minister “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” — Booker T. Washington, 19th-century American educator "Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged." — Helen Keller, 20th-century American social activist, public


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speaker and author — SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY —

“Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.” — Thomas Moore, 19th-century Irish poet, satirist, composer and musician (from “Loves of the Angels: Third Angel’s Story”) "Humility, like darkness, reveals the heavenly lights." — Henry David Thoreau, 19th-century American essayist and nature writer (from "Walden") "Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues." — Confucius, ancient Chinese sage "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box." — Italian proverb "A taste for simplicity cannot last for long." — Eugene Delacroix, 19th-century French painter "The problem with property is that it takes so much of your time." — Willem de Kooning, 20th-century Dutch-American painter "Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the twentieth century." — Alexander Solzhenitzyn, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning Russian novelist "Take what you can use and let the rest go by." — Ken Kesey, 20th-century American author "Less is more." — Mies van der Rohe, 20th-century Dutch-American "Modernist" architect "Less is a bore." — Robert Venturi, 20th-century American post-Modernist architect "Make a virtue of necessity." — Geoffrey Chaucer, medieval English author “You can't have everything. Where would you put it?” — Steven Wright, 20th-century American humorist "A good name is more desirable than great riches." — Proverbs 22:1 “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” — Bible (Matthew 5:5) "Do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do . . . that they may have glory from men. . . . But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." — Bible (Matthew 6:1-4) "The farther a man knows himself to be free from perfection, the nearer he is to it." — Gerard Groote


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"He who thinks he has no faults has one." — Unknown “The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men.” — J.C. Hare “Simplicity of character is no hindrance to the subtlety of intellect.” — John Morley, 19th-century British statesman “If I have seen farther than other men it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton, 17th-century English mathematician and physicist


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— TRUST, DECEPTION & BETRAYAL — "Betrayal can only happen if you love." — David Cornwall, a.k.a. John Le Carre, 20th-century British author (from "The Perfect Spy") "It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th-century French philosopher "More dangers have deceived men than forced them." — Francis Bacon, 16th-century English philosopher and essayist “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” — Janet Malcolm, 20th-century American journalist and author (The Journalist and the Murderer) "How many times do you get to lie before you are a liar?” — Michael Josephson, 20th/21st-century American ethicist


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— VANITY, FAME, POPULARITY, PRIDE — "Big egos are big shields for lots of empty space." — Diana Black “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” — C.S. Lewis, 20th-century British novelist and scholar "Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.... They do not mean to do harm.... They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves." — T.S. Eliot, Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century Anglo-American poet "When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity." — Dale Carnegie, 20th-century American motivational writer "Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable." — Unknown “If you let your head get too big, it'll break your neck.”' — Elvis Presley, 20th-century American celebrity singer "A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." — Adlai Stevenson II, 20th-century American politician, presidential candidate "When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist “I value solid popularity — the esteem of good men for good action. I despise the bubble popularity that is won without merit and lost without crime.” — Thomas Hart Benton, 18th/19th-century American writer and U.S. senator from Missouri “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman “When I hear a man applauded by the mob I always feel a pang of pity for him. All he has to do to be hissed is to live long enough.” — H. L. Mencken, 20th-century American journalist and humorist "Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory." — Joseph Conrad, 19th/20th-century Nobel Prize-winning Polish-English author “No man is a hero to his valet.” — Mme. Cornuel, 17th-century Parisian hostess


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— VIRTUE & VICE — "He who hates vice, hates mankind." — Pliny the Younger "Our virtues are most often but our vices disguised." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist (in Pudd’nhead Wilson) "The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet "Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue." — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher "More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice." — Robert Smith Surtees "To many people, virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them." — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg “Value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. Virtue is the act by which one aims and/or keeps it.” — Ayn Rand, 20th-century Russian/American philosopher and author "If you live long enough, you get accused of things you never did and praised for virtues you never had." — I.F. Stone, 20th-century American journalist "Be virtuous and you will be eccentric." — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 19th-century American humorist, author and journalist “Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.” — English proverb “What ought not to be done do not even think of doing.'' — Epictetus, ancient Greek historian “No man should be praised for his goodness if he lacks the strength to be bad; in such cases goodness is usually only the effect of indolence or impotence of will.” — François duc de la Rochefoucauld, 17th-century French memoirist and philosopher “By associating with good and evil persons a man acquires the virtues and vices which they possess, even as the wind blowing over different places takes along good and bad odors.” — The Panchatantra “The first and the best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.” — Plato, ancient Greek philosopher “Show me a man without vices and I’ll show you a man without virtues.” — Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century American president

— WISDOM — Josephson Institute of Ethics – 9841 Airport Blvd., #300 – Los Angeles, CA 90045

www.josephsoninstitute.org - www.charactercounts.org - ©2004 Josephson Institute

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"All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it." — Syrus "If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it." — William Penn "A wise man knows everything; a shrewd one, everybody." — Unknown "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." — Francis Bacon, 16th-century English philosopher and essayist "The Way of the Sage is to act but not to compete." — Lao-Tzu (Tao Te Ching) "Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise." — Cato, Roman censor "Never kick a man when he’s up." — Thomas "Tip" O’Neill, 20th-century American politician, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1970s-1980s "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." — Francis Bacon, 16th-century English philosopher and essayist "Whatever your grade or position, if you know how and when to speak, and when to remain silent, your chances of real success are proportionately increased." — Ralph C. Smedley “To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet “Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.” — Henri Bergson "To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning." — John W. Gardner, 20th-century American nonprofit leader, founder of Common Cause "Always imitate the behavior of the winner when you lose." — Unknown


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— OTHER, MISCELLANEOUS — "The younger we are, the more we want to change the world. The older we are, the more we want to change the young." — Unknown

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." — Charles Darwin

"We can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are." — Oprah Winfrey "All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much blame you place, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty of something, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy." — Dr. Wayne Dyer, author (Your Erroneous Zones) "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." — Unknown "Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew." — Cicely Tyson "You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view." — Harper Lee, 20th-century American novelist "Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." — Abraham Lincoln, 19th-century American president "I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got. — Walter Cronkite, 20th-century American journalist "If you lead through fear you will have little to respect; but if you lead through respect, you will have little to fear." — Unknown "The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." — Dorothy Nevill "This thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. " — Mary Pickford, 20th-century American actor "If there's no wind, row." — Unknown "It is easy to fool yourself. It is possible to fool the people you work for. It is more difficult to fool the people you work with. But it is almost impossible to fool the people who work under you.'' — Harry B. Thayer


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"Reputation is what you are perceived to be. Character is what you are." — John Wooden, 20th-century college basketball coach "I tell you and you forget. I show you and you remember. I involve you and you understand." — Unknown "It won't help a young man much to be one hundred years ahead of his time if he is a month behind in his rent." — Chalmers da Costa, 20th-century American writer "Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of." — Unknown "The meaning of life is that nobody knows the meaning of life." — Woody Allen, 20th-century American humorist and filmmaker “When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.'' — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning American civil rights leader “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” — Demosthenes, ancient Greek orator “The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.” — Hamilton Wright Mabee “Let no man be sorry he has done good because others have done evil. If a man has acted right he has done well, though alone. If wrong, the sanction of all mankind will not justify him.” — Henry Fielding, 18th-century English novelist “Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.” — William James, 19th-century American philosopher and author “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde, 19th-century English wit and author “Not a day passes over this earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.” — Charles Reed "Perfection has one grave defect; it is apt to be dull." — Somerset Maugham, 20th-century English author "Satire is tragedy plus time." — Lenny Bruce, 20th-century American comedian


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"When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four." — Samuel Johnson, 18th-century English public philosopher and scholar "A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accident than of that reason of which we so much boast.’’ — Peter Cooper "If you can’t explain what you’re doing in simple English, you’re probably doing something wrong." — Alfred Kazin, 20th-century American critic and author "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." — Beverly Sills, 20th-century American opera singer and civic leader "We aim above the mark to hit the mark." — Ralph Waldo Emerson "If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee but keeping thy divine part pure, if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately, if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with thy present activity according to nature and with heroic truth in every word and sound which thou utterest, thou wilt live happily. And there is no man who is able to prevent this." — Marcus Aurelius

Quotes to Inspire -- All of these quotes are inspiring and may help people acknowledge and live up...

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Transcript of Quotes to Inspire -- All of these quotes are inspiring and may help people acknowledge and live up...