Joseph Addison Quotes

After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.

Fundamentally, the force that rules the world is conduct, whether it be moral or immoral. If it is moral, at least there may be hope for the world. If immoral, there is not only no hope, but no prospect of anything but destruction of all that has been accomplished during the last 5,000 years.

And that whole do-able/undo-able thing? Yeah. Need I point out that neither Ruth nor I have ever "done" anybody in our lives?

The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.

It's better to die doing good than to live doing evil.

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.

Our probity is not less at the mercy of fortune than our property.

If the Coastal Republic had believed in the existence of virtue, it could at least have aspired to hypocrisy.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

How you treat the helpless is the real test of morality. Lots of people are flunking that test big time.

In ethics, prudence is not an important virtue, but in the world it is almost everything.

A cowardly act! What do I care about that? You may be sure that I should never fear to commit one if it were to my advantage.

Self-denial is not a virtue; it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.

It can never be necessary to do what is not honourable.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.

There will be no true freedom without virtue, no true science without religion, no true industry without the fear of God and love to your fellow citizens.

Integrity is hard work. I do think the internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform. So the temptations of social media lead to some dissonance.

Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a superior man will make trouble while a small man will be a brigand.

Integrity is hard work. I do think the Internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform.

It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.

Those who are most moral are farthest from the problem.