Edmund Morris Quotes
Actually Roosevelt was identifying with Euripides—like himself, an upper-class celebrant of middle-class virtues.
Quotes to Explore
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Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.
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Ninoy Aquino was a friend; I knew his faults, which were outweighed by his virtues.
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We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbor with those virtues that are likely to benefit ourselves. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets.
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Those possest of the greatest Virtues are always least pleas'd with the repetition of them.
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The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
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Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible.
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Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others.
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Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.
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Now the soul of man is divided into two parts, one of which has a rational principle in itself, and the other, not having a rational principle in itself, is able to obey such a principle. And we call a man in any way good because he has the virtues of these two parts.
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One is punished best for one's virtues.
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It is a distinction to have many virtues, but a hard lot.
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As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.
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When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.
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Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
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Simple ignorance has in its time been complimented by the names of most of the vices, and of all the virtues.
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Virtues cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.
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The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
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Once a woman parts with her virtue, she loses the esteem even of the man whose vows and tears won her to abandon it.
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Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again.
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Aristocracy and exclusiveness tend to final overthrow, in language as in politics.
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I call God ECCO (Earth Coincidence Control Office) . It's much more satisfying to call it that. A lot of people accept this and they don't know that they're just talking about God. I finally found a God that was big enough. As the astronomer said to the Minister, My God's astronomical. The Minister said, How can you relate to something so big? The astronomer said, Well, that isn't the problem, your God's too small!
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Actually Roosevelt was identifying with Euripides—like himself, an upper-class celebrant of middle-class virtues.
