Values Quotes

“What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.”

“Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.”

“I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws, than with a sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, but at shorter distances, the senses are despotic.”

“The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be regarded,--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love what is simple and beautiful; independence and cheerful relation, these are the essentials,--these, and the wish to serve,--to add somewhat to the well-being of men.”

“Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.”

“Conservatism is affluent and openhanded, but there is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe that they take somewhat for everythingthey give. I look bigger, but am less; I have more clothes, but am nit so warm; more armor, but less courage; more books, but less wit.”

“The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.”

“Cities degrade us by magnifying trifles.”

“Every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol.”

“Wealth, taste and leisure can bring many things but they do not bring happiness.”

“Old fashions please me best; I am not so niceTo change true rules for odd inventions.”

“A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.”

“A right rule for a club would be, Admit no man whose presence excludes any one topic. It requires people who are not surprised andshocked, who do and let do, and let be, who sink trifles, and know solid values, and who take a great deal for granted.”

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.”

“I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust: to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish.”

“A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.”

“Our inheritance of well-founded, slowly conceived codes of honor, morals and manners, the passionate convictions which so many hundreds of millions share together of the principles of freedom and justice, are far more precious to us than anything which scientific discoveries could bestow.”

“If you want money more than anything, you'll be bought and sold. If you have a greed for food, you'll be a loaf of bread. This is a subtle truth: Whatever you love, you are.”

“Free speech carries with it the evil of all foolish, unpleasant venomous things that are said but, on the whole, we would rather lump them than do away with them.”

“The finest and noblest ground on which people can live is truth; the real with the real; a ground on which nothing is assumed.”

“As youngsters, my mother taught her children that while we might not be the smartest people around, we could be courteous, polite and considerate of others.”

“U can feed ur ego or u can feed ur family. U can’t feed them both.”

“One of the greatest disasters of our time is our universal acceptance of the word "tolerance" as a great virtue.”

“A solid foundation for children involves a solid moral base”

“I believe that persistent effort, supported by a character-based foundation, will enable you to get more of the things money will buy and all of the things money won't buy.”