Ann Patchett Quotes

You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. You can't be a jerk in order to be a good writer. You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person. You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect of your life.

The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of the man.

Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true.

I learned one thing in Watergate: I was well-intentioned but rationalized illegal behavior. You cannot live your life other than walking in the truth. Your means are as important as your ends.

My philosophy is if you're a man at night, you gotta be a man in the morning.

Most of my supporters are people who actually know me. I just continue to do the best I can and I don't bother to try and respond to every little bit because the best response is just to keep on doing what you think is right.

I'm most proud of the fact I carried myself on and off the field consistently for what the NFL stands for.

Discipline is just doing the same thing the right way whether anyone's watching or not.

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.

My power for good, whatever it may, would be gone if I didn’t try to live up to the doctrines I have tried to preach.

I try to stay very true to the kind of person that I want to be and the kind of athlete and the kind of professional I continually strive to be.

You've got to judge people, ultimately, by their actions rather than their words.

It's very difficult to overtly do it. But I try to live my life consistently as a man and as a father.

I want to be me, and the Arizona Cardinals know what they are getting. They are not getting a kid that is going to say stupid things and piss people off unnecessarily. They are going to get a kid that everyone knows who they are getting every single day I walk into the building.

It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.

There are things you can't walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.

People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to the other, more instantly negotiable virtues.... character--the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life--is the source from which self-respect springs.

A man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said yesterday.

The standards you establish for others must reflect the standards you set for yourself. No one will follow a hypocrite.

A man should not play the coward to his deeds. He should not repudiate them once he has performed them. Pangs of conscience are indecent.

The true gentleman does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

Every person must stand up and be accountable, but be responsible for their actions.

Tell the truth. Do your best no matter how trivial the task. Choose the difficult right over the easy wrong. Look out for the group before you look out for yourself. Don't whine or make excuses. Judge others by their actions and not by their race or other characteristics.

You want to make a difference in your world? Live a holy life: Be faithful to your spouse. Be the one at the office who refuses to cheat. Be the neighbor who acts neighbors. Be the employee who does the work and doesn't complain. Pay your bills. Do your part and enjoy life. Don't speak one message and live another. People are watching the way we act more than they are listening to what we say.