Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so.

Some like to think that a keen appreciation of art can actually make us better people – more just, more moral, more sensitive, more understanding. Perhaps that is true – in certain rare, isolated cases.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Material things ain’t nothing. You feel me? At the end of the day, it’s who you is. You wasn’t born with it; you gon‘ die without it.

I’ve never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

The story being told in ‚Star Wars‘ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not.

Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

It’s that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so ‚don’t fuss, dear; get on with it.‘

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Justice is truth in action.

Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

Communism to me is one-third practice and two-thirds explanation.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.

Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that ‚Oryx and Crake‘ is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it’s neutral.

A good name is rather to be chosen than riches.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

In honorable dealing you should consider what you intended, not what you said or thought.

I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

Note, besides, that it is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.

Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

I think that when you’re making your way up in the music industry, you have all these heroes and the reasons why they are your heroes. As soon as you get into the industry, your guidelines change a little bit. For me, my heroes now are great people first and great artists second.

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.

Abortion is clearly wrong.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Our diplomacy and development budget is not just about reducing spending and finding efficiencies. We need a frank conversation about what we stand for as that ‚shining city on a hill.‘ And that conversation begins by acknowledging that we can’t do it on the cheap.

I practiced drawing all the time and became very interested in it. If I was at a meeting that wasn’t getting anywhere – like the one where Carl Rogers came to Caltech to discuss with us whether Caltech should develop a psychology department – I would draw the other people.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Repeal the Missouri Compromise – repeal all compromises – repeal the Declaration of Independence – repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man’s heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.