Expediency Quotes

When virtue is lost, benevolence appears,
when benevolence is lost right conduct appears,
when right conduct is lost, expedience appears.
Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth;
it is the beginning of disorder.
- Lao Tzu

Related topics: Wisdom Deep Political Honor Values

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it BECAUSE it is right.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The lawyer's truth is not Truth,
but consistency or a consistent expediency.
- Henry David Thoreau

There is a good ear, in some men,
that draws supplies to virtue
out of very indifferent nutriment.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A thankful heart is the greatest virtue.
- Cicero

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue;
Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.
- Lao Tzu

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero

There's a point... when you have to choose
whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life,
or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

Who sows virtue reaps honor.
- Leonardo da Vinci

The only reward of virtue is virtue;
the only way to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable
who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
- Joseph Addison

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
- Anatole France

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked
than it is loved by the good.
- The Buddha

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes,
but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge
on their children rather than virtue,
the art of speaking well rather than doing well;
but their manners should be of the greatest concern.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

If you doubt the virtue in self-honor,
remember what the flight attendant says,
"Put your own oxygen mask on first."
You are of no use to anyone else
if you have not taken care of your own needs first -
this includes your own emotional,
as well as physical, well-being.
In addition, your greatest value to your children,
your family, your friends, and your community
is the example you set, leading a great life that inspires
those around you to emulate your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Consider a parent who says,
"Look at the sacrifices I'm making so you can have a better life."
Contrast that with another parent who demonstrates
living a great life every day.
Self-sacrifice is not a virtue.
Living a great life and sharing that life with others
is the noble way to live.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To enjoy good health,
to bring true happiness to one's family,
to bring peace to all, one must first
discipline and control one's own mind.
If a man can control his mind
he can find the way to Enlightenment,
and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
- The Buddha

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth,
so virtue appears from good deeds,
and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.
To walk safely through the maze of human life,
one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
- The Buddha

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace,
then progress in virtue is progress in each of these
for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us,
progress is always an approach toward it.
- Epictetus

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
- George Washington

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
- Oscar Wilde

It is only the poor who pay cash,
and that not from virtue,
but because they are refused credit.
- Anatole France

The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley

In truth, politeness is artificial good humor,
it covers the natural want of it,
and ends by rendering habitual a substitute
nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
- Thomas Jefferson

The inherent vice of capitalism
is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism
is the equal sharing of miseries.
- Winston Churchill

Socialism is a philosophy of failure,
the creed of ignorance,
and the gospel of envy,
its inherent virtue is
the equal sharing of misery.
- Winston Churchill

There is also something excellent in every audience,
the capacity of virtue.
They are ready to be beatified.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer
silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
- Albert Einstein

There is a natural aristocracy among men.
The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
- Thomas Jefferson

Dependence begets subservience and venality,
suffocates the germ of virtue,
and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
- Thomas Jefferson

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

Write your Sad times in Sand,
Write your Good times in Stone.
- George Bernard Shaw

No good comes from hurrying.
- Yiddish Proverb

You have enemies? Good.
That means you've stood up for something,
sometime in your life.
- Winston Churchill

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

The River of Life has no meaning,
no good, no bad, no better, no worse,
no love, no hate, no fear, no anger, no joy.
The River of Life has no judgment, no expectation.
The River of Life just IS.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is more value in a very good painting
that is completed and on display,
than in an excellent painting
that is still in the artist's studio,
or perhaps still in his mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

He who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu

A true friend is someone who
thinks that you are a good egg
even though he knows that
you are slightly cracked.
- Bernard Meltzer

When I do good, I feel good.
When I do bad, I feel bad.
That's my religion.
- Abraham Lincoln

Far from idleness being the root of all evil,
it is rather the only true good.
- Soren Kierkegaard

If I am not for myself,
who will be for me?
Yet if I am for myself alone,
of what good am I?
- Hillel

Merely to avoid harming others is not enough.
Earn your place in this world by doing good.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am not interested in power for power's sake,
but I'm interested in power that is moral,
that is right and that is good.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

So your father, or your mother,
never thought you were good enough - SO WHAT?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be not merely good; be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau

In spite of everything, I still believe
that people are really good at heart.
I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation
consisting of confusion, misery and death.
- Anne Frank

I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything,
I still believe that people are really good at heart.
- Anne Frank

Not life, but good life,
is to be chiefly valued.
- Socrates

The bad news is time flies.
The good news is you're the pilot.
- Michael Althsuler

Do not be too moral.
You may cheat yourself out of much life.
So aim above morality.
Be not simply good;
be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you
to reach the heights of your capabilities
or make the money that you want
without becoming very good at it.
- Brian Tracy

There are times, sir, when men of good conscience
cannot blindly follow orders.
- Captain Picard, STAR TREK: The Next Generation

I believe that everything happens for a reason.
People change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right,
you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself,
and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

"Good morning!" he said at last.
"We don't want any adventures here, thank you!
You might try over The Hill or across The Water."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Good things come in small packages.
- old proverb

Good works are links that form a chain of love.
- Mother Teresa

A good head and a good heart
are always a formidable combination.
- Nelson Mandela

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
- John D. Rockefeller

Many a man fails as an original thinker
simply because his memory is too good.
- Nietzsche

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression
and cruelty by the bad people
but the silence over that by the good people.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is nothing either good or bad,
but thinking makes it so.
- William Shakespeare

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate:
he who loves finds the door open.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Sometimes good things fall apart
so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

Play to win, but be a good loser.
Have a plan for your life,
but accept whatever comes your way
with grace and gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

An ounce of conscious choice is worth a pound of good fortune.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.
- William Shakespeare

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry,
that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware
of having no good reason for thinking as you do.
- Bertrand Russell

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie