Albert Pike Quotes

Moral courage is higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

A man that puts himself on the ground of moral principle, if the whole world be against him, is mightier than all of them.

I learned that moral courage is harder than physical courage.

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

Virtue is a positive quality developed by taking a firm stand for the right in temptation, or by the suffering endured in consequence of wrongdoing.

My beliefs will run through everything I do. My beliefs, my values are my anchor and when people try to drag me, as I know they will, it is to that sense of right and wrong, that sense of who I am and what I believe, to which I will always hold.

It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods.

The greatest want of the world is the want of men - men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Courage is the most important of the virtues because it is the one that makes all the others possible.

Today we need a special kind of courage. Not the kind needed in battle, but a kind which makes us stand up for everything that we know is right, everything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics, so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future.

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men

Why is it that, among men, physical courage is a trait so plenteous yet moral courage is a trait so rare?

Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.

There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage.

From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side street.

Do not feel lonely on the road of righteousness Because of the fewness of the walkers on it.

A man with no enemies is a man with no character.

Whilst weakness and timidity keep us to our duty, virtue has often all the honor.