Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [101-120] of 368 Virtue quotesVirtue QuotesVirtue Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Void of freedom, what would virtue be?~ Alphonse de Lamartine In the end, the state of the Union comes down to the character of the people. ... I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for it in the fertile fields, and boundless prairies, and it was not there. I sought it in her rich mines, and vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.~ Alexis de Tocqueville Where are we then? The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate subjection, and the meanest and most servile minds preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principles are the apostles of civilization and intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where nothing is linked together, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a taste for law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true?~ Alexis de Tocqueville America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good it will cease to be great.~ Alexis de Tocqueville ... liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.~ Alexis de Tocqueville I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property.~ Alexis de Tocqueville Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong.~ John G. Diefenbaker A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself.~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.~ Frederick Douglass Ill habits gather by unseen degrees -- As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.~ John Dryden Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these because we have acted rightly; 'these virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions'; we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit: 'the good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life... for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.~ Will Durant Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.~ Albert Einstein We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.~ Dwight D. Eisenhower Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.~ George Eliot Good men must not obey the laws too well.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson He hath freedom whoso beareth a clean and constant heart within.~ Quintus Ennius Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.~ William Faulkner In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.~ Geoffrey Fisher If the human body's obscene, complain to the manufacturer, not me.~ Larry Flynt How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.~ Anne Frank Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print