If you want to be important – that’s wonderful. If you want to be great – that’s wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s your new definition of greatness – it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love…
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle… (or) Einstein’s Theory of Relativity … (or) the Second Theory of Thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed … The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All history will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.
—Abigail Adams (1744–1818) American First Lady
The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political Philosopher
There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychiatrist
Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
—Unknown
Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are, for it shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
No one reaches a high position without daring.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
—Unknown
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The time is always right to do what’s right.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you’ve got to keep your feet warm.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American 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
Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of the circumstances.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Perhaps a man’s character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
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
Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you could n’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that ‘s just the place and time that the tide ‘ll turn. Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, and never use the means without trusting in prayer.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher