Edward McKendree Bounds Quotes

We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.

We have next to consider the formal definition of virtue.

The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains.

The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.

Truth is congenial to man. Moral truth is then most consummate when, like beauty, it commends itself without argument. The righteous not only does right, but loves to do right.

It's easier to swoon in pious dreams Than do good actions.

Be noble in every thought And in every deed!

All things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives. In the long pull we only pray as well as we live.

The finest defense of character is correct action. Acquaint yourself with virtue, and you can expect proper treatment from those around you.

It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.

Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least, you will by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences.

The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.

You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.

Here is the point about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not hold our convictions dogmatically. We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true - that religion has caused innumerate people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow.

Prayer may seem at first like disengagement, a reflective time to consider God's point of view. But that vantage presses us back to accomplish God's will, the work of the kingdom. We are God's fellow workers, and as such we turn to prayer to equip us for the partnership.

The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.

I think the vice of our housekeeping is that it does not hold man sacred. The vice of government, the vice of education, the viceof religion, is one with that of the private life.

The Spiritual disciplines are wisdom and not righteousness.

Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.

Prudence as well as Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of a man's proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of the end we aim at, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain that end.

You have only always to do what is right. It will become easier by practice, and you enjoy in the midst of your trials the pleasure of an approving conscience.

It was time to pull my moral socks up and behave myself.

If we are able to meet these two requirements - regularity in meditation and leading a good life in society, day-to-day a good life - then nothing would be unattainable by us.

Happiness is inseparably connected with decent, clean behavior.

We can all be good when we have no temptation or provocation to the contrary.