Quotes About Values

We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me.

Personally I regard idling as a virtue, but civilized society holds otherwise.

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.

Knowledge cannot be pursued without morality.

Many men can make a fortune but very few can build a family.

Many men can make a fortune by very few can build a family.

The Framers were no more interested in binding future Americans to a set of divinely inspired commandments than any of us would wish to be bound by them.

Likewise, education can direct people toward good or evil ends. When education is based on a fundamentally distorted worldview, the results are horrific.

You are not alone with a guy until you are a proper age. You don't go to certain levels with men until you are married or you have a certain relationship.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

We are no longer in a world in which it is thought normal to be moderate or even necessary to be normal. Most men now are not so much rushing to extremes as merely sliding to extremes; and even reaching the most violent extremes by being almost entirely passive. . . . We can no longer trust even the normal man to value and guard his own normality.

The Story of the Family". His first three points: The family is the most ancient of human institutions. It has an authority. It is universal.

The disintegration of rational society started in the drift from the hearth and the family," says Chesterton. "The solution must be a drift back.

Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, for your character is what you are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Spend the second half of our lives working less about what we do and more about who we become.

Over the past 10,000 years, when almost everything we value about humanity and its creations came into existence, the Earth has been remarkably stable on a broad range of indicators. Until the last 250 years, when concentrations began to grow as a result of the industrial revolution, concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide have varied between 240 and 280 ppm. We have reached nearly 400 ppm as a result of human action,

each generation of adults has a choice to pass on traditions of violence and fear—or refuse to do so.

Because so large a portion of our fellow human beings articulate their own meaning, purpose, and values through their religions, it is essential that our children know as much as possible about those religions.

Never be a hypocrite in language or action. Core values are those your children will come to see as the true morality. And with them, and your guidance, your children will respect you, and you will respect yourself.

Children's understanding of morality is the same whether they're of one religion, another religion or no religion. But if it's simply indoctrination, it's worse than doing nothing. It interferes with moral development." —Larry Nucci, director, Office for Studies in Moral Development, University of Illinois

Along with the usual secular values (such as appropriate tolerance/intolerance, morality, critical thinking, appreciation for reason and science), don't forget to impart social graces, playfulness, and humor. Those go far in our short existences.