Moral Excellence Quotes

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

The virtues [moral excellence] therefore are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to receive them, and this capacity is brought to maturity by habit.

I think I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all-sufficiency of the grace of God than to live in some pietistic illusion of moral excellence. Not that I don't want to be morally excellent but my faith isn't in the idea that I'm more moral than anybody else. My faith is in the idea that God and His love are greater than whatever sins any of us commit.

You've got to do some work now. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. Virtue is about moral excellence.

Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.

Moral excellence is an ornament for personal beauty; righteous conduct, for high birth; success for learning; and proper spending for wealth.

Moral excellence has no regard to classes and professions.

Moral excellence is the bright consummate flower of all progress.

Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed the former is part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.

Pope has elegantly said a perfect woman's but a softer man. And if we take in the consideration, that there can be but one rule of moral excellence for beings made of the same materials, organized after the same manner, and subjected to similar laws of Nature, we must either agree with Mr. Pope, or we must reverse the proposition, and say, that a perfect man is a woman formed after a coarser mold.

I would rather be the author of one original thought than conqueror of a hundred battles. Yet moral excellence is so much superior to intellectual, that I ought to esteem one virtue more valuable than a hundred original thoughts.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

In seasons of tumult and discord bad men have most power; mental and moral excellence require peace and quietness.

Of cases where a man is truthful both in speech and conduct when no considerations of honesty come in, from an habitual sincerity of disposition. Such sincerity may be esteemed a moral excellence; for the lover of truth, who is truthful even when nothing depends on it, will a fortiori be truthful when some interest is at stake, since having all along avoided falsehood for its own sake, he will assuredly avoid it when it is morally base; and this is a disposition that we praise.

The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it. But we cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for; that task is left to others. With the desire for excellence comes, therefore, the desire for approbation. And this distinguishes intellectual excellence from moral excellence; for the latter has no necessity of human tribunal; it is more inclined to shrink from the public than to invite the public to be its judge.

The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it.

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

We cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.