Thornton Wilder Quotes

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.

What, pray, does it profit a man to teach others, and to be prating always about virtue, in high-sounding words, if he fails to give heed to his own instructions?

The absence of vices adds so little to the sum of one's virtues.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

The walls of that grand edifice called a good character have to be worked at during life.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

I try to be a good person - I don't always succeed, but that's what I'm shooting for.

The chief factor in any man's success or failure must be his own character.

You don't luck into integrity. You work at it.

In vain will you fly from one vice if in your wilfulness you embrace another.

Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others.

When a man's knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again.

The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice.

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.

We are defined by our dignity to rise above debasement. We are certainly better people for doing so.

No one is born without vices, and he is the best man who is encumbered with the least.

Most men are more willing to indulge in easy vices than to practise laborious virtues.

Life is easy For the man who is without shame, Impudent as a crow, A vicious gossip, Vain, meddlesome, dissolute. But life is hard For the man who quietly undertakes The way of perfection, With purity, detachment and vigor. He sees light.

To know what virtue is is not enough; we must endeavor to possess and to practice it, or in some other manner actually ourselves to become good.

Keep doing good deeds long enough, and you'll probably turn out a good man in spite of yourself.

Earnest in practicing the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them, if, in his practice, he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself; and if, in his words, he has any excess, he dares not allow himself such license.

Weakness is more opposed to virtue than is vice.

The weak-minded man is the slave of his vices and the dupe of his virtues.