Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [341-360] of 368 Virtue quotesVirtue QuotesVirtue Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.~ Henry David Thoreau Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause -- nor any charter of immunities and rights.~ Henry David Thoreau A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.~ Henry David Thoreau Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.~ Mark Twain Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.~ Mark Twain A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.~ Sir Alex Fraser Tytler Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.~ Sun Tzu We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.~ Stewart L. Udall Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will.~ Unknown A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.~ Bill Vaughan It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it's a pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their color.~ Voltaire The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.~ Voltaire It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.~ Voltaire The superfluous is very necessary.~ Voltaire All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.~ George Washington I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.~ George Washington ...and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November, next to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being Who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, or will be ...that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to there becoming a nation... And also that we then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions... to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a governmment of wise, just and Constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed...(and) to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among us...given under my hand at the City of New York, the 3rd day of October in the Year of Our Lord 1789.~ George Washington I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.~ George Washington The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.~ John Walter Wayland Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind.~ Henry Grady Weaver Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print