Echoes

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

My life is my message.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

Virtue is serious business; everything else is farce.

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

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

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing.

Go forth in virtue!

Whatever you are, be a good one.

I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.

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

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

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.

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?

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

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

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

It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

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

The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.

It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.