Fulton J. Sheen Quotes

I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did.

Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.

It is not enough merely possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practiced.

An action is the perfection and publication of thought. A right action seems to fill the eye, and to be related to all nature.

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.

We believe there should be a huge area between everything you should do and everything you can do without getting into legal trouble. I don't think you should come anywhere near that line. We don't deserve much credit for this. It helps us make more money. I'd like to believe that we'd behave well even if it didn't work. But more often, we've made extra money from doing the right thing. Ben Franklin said I'm not moral because of it's the right thing to do - but because it's the best policy.

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

May your mind be thoroughly impressed with the absolute necessity of universal virtue and goodness, as the only sure road to happiness, and may you walk therein with undeviating steps.

I think that ethical behaviour is another feature of the kind of inner discipline that leads to a happier existence.

Out of right thinking comes right practice. It is not true that it does not matter what a man believes. It is not true to say, as many say, that a man's beliefs do not matter, it is only his conduct which is of importance; no lasting right conduct grows out of wrong belief. If you think falsely, you will act mistakenly; if you think basely, your conduct will suit your thinking.

We have our values from the church, the temple, the mosque. Do not rob, do not murder. But our behaviour changes the minute we go into the corporate place. Suddenly all of this is irrelevant.

I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives. For it is in our lives, and not from our works, that our religion must be read.

It is easier to donate a few thousand to charity and think oneself noble than to base self-respect on personal standards of personal achievement.

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?

Much though he recites the sacred texts, but acts not accordingly, that heedless man is like a cowherd who only counts the cows of others - he does not partake of the blessings of the holy life.

Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.

Universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones.

Kind of the bottom line for me, I don't think people come to the church where I preach to hear my view on politics.

The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.

The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing.

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

I don't think telling the truth ever gets anyone in trouble in the long run. Maybe the day after, but not in the long run.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.