Persons with weight of character carry, like planets, their atmospheres along with them in their orbits.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
Sin lies in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other sins are invented nonsense.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
The quiet and solitary man apprehends the inscrutable. He seeks nothing, holds to the mean, and remains free from entanglements.
—I Ching Ancient Chinese Divination Text
I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that somebody may be looking.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
A man may be born a jackass; but it is his business if he makes himself a double one.
—Martin H. Fischer
Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist
A magazine editor recently asked me to sit down on my 40th birthday and write an article on the most important things I had learned in my first 40 years. I told him that the chief thing I had learned was that the copybook maxims are true, but that too many people forget this once they go out into the heat and hustle and bustle of the battle of life and only realize their truth once one foot is beginning to slip into the grave. The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny – it is the light that guides your way.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is…. Nothing should be able to harm a man but himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Do the next thing.
—John Wanamaker (1838–1922) American Merchant, Civil Servant
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
One does evil enough when one does nothing good.
—German Proverb
He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
No man should advocate a course in private that he’s ashamed to admit in public.
—George McGovern (1922–2012) American Politician, Senator
If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging?
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
I did not use paint, I made myself up morally.
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924) Italian Actress
Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage.
—William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) American Journalist, Abolitionist
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
There is a difference between him who does no misdeeds because of his own conscience and him who is kept from wrongdoing because of the presence of others.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murders. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Humble yourself and you shall be honoured. Honour yourself and you shall be humbled.
—Anonymous
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Judge, Lawyer, Politician
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