My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. – Thomas Paine (1737–1809), Rights of Man
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right! – Isaac Asimov
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. – Aristotle
You do not wake up one morning a bad person. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of self-respect to self-interest. – Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. – Rwandan Proverb
A pure hand needs no glove to cover it. – Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850
We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stouter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once. – Logan Pearsall Smith, “Age and Death,” Afterthoughts, 1931
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. – George Bernard Shaw
To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. – Confucius
In judging ourselves, we cannot be too severe; in judging others, we cannot be too candid. We should judge ourselves by our motives, but others by their actions. – William Nevins (1797–1835)
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, 1849
We judge ourselves by our best acts and most noble intentions, but we will be judged by our last worst act. – Michael Josephson, whatwillmatter.com
Character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay. – Michael Josephson, whatwillmatter.com
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. – Michel de Montaigne
I have fancied myself a rebel, but at every critical moment of my life, I have been exactly the child my parents raised. – Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not a sin — just stupid.) – Robert A. Heinlein
Goodness is the only investment that never fails. – Henry David Thoreau
If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it. – Immanuel Hermass von Fichte
People who fight fire with fire end up with only the ashes of their own integrity. – Michael Josephson, whatwillmatter.com
I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met. – Dwight Lyman Moody
