Echoes

Go forth in virtue!

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

I rely on two precedents: first, to similar cases our Sages applied the verse, "It is time to do something in honour of the Lord: for they have made void thy law"... Secondly, they have said, "Let all thy acts be guided by pure intentions." ...Lastly, when I have a difficult subject before me—when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools—I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

My life is my message.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid being seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.

What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, — nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.

Never stray from the Way.

Wealth and honor are what every man desires. But if they have been obtained in violation of moral principles, they must not be kept.

The gentleman understands what is moral. The small man understands what is profitable.

Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair.

Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.

Of a surety, at the Day of Judgment it will be demanded of us, not what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.