Private Virtue Quotes

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking.

Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.

Unlike Casey Cagle, I will always do the right thing, even when no one is looking.

Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superiour to all private passions.

Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of her family.

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

The ages of greatest public spirit are not always eminent for private virtue.

Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.

Mastery in work and in life is about committing yourself to being excellent in everything you do, no matter how small and no matter if no one is watching. Do you practice excellence in your most private moments?

They flaunt their conjugal felicity in one's face, as if it were the most fascinating of sins.

In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue.

Being persuaded that a just application of the principles, on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded, must be promote of private virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the Society, and to be considered by them as a deserving brother.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.

The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.

The merit of those who fill a space in the world's history, who are borne forward, as it were, by the weight of thousands whom they lead, shed a perfume less sweet than do the sacrifices of private virtue.

I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity.