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

The exercises of our meeting are to be simple and devoid of all ceremonial and formalism.

Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.

If you desire information on some point of law, you are not likely to ponder over the ponderous tomes of legal writers in order to obtain the knowledge you seek, by your own unaided efforts.

Every dogma, every philosophic or theological creed, was at its inception a statement in terms of the intellect of a certain inner experience.

You do not build your own houses, nor make your own garments, nor bake your own bread, simply because you know that if you were to attempt all these things they would all be more or less ill done.

Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.

Simplicity should not be identified with bareness.

Admitting the force of these contentions, nevertheless, the custom of meeting together in public assembly for the consideration of the most serious, the most exalted topics of human interest is too vitally precious to be lost.

The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.

An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment.

The office of the public teacher is an unenviable and thankless one.

Love of country is like love of woman - he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good.

In a country of such recent civilization as ours, whose almost limitless treasures of material wealth invite the risks of capital and the industry of labor, it is but natural that material interests should absorb the attention of the people to a degree elsewhere unknown.

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

The platform of an Ethical Society is itself the altar; the address must be the fire that burns thereon.

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.

The Ethical Society, therefore, is like a Church in maintaining, and emphasizing the importance of maintaining the custom of public assemblies on Sunday.

The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action.

No one can fail to see that the power of the Church among large numbers in many communities is today diminishing, or has already ceased.

We measure our enjoyments by the sum expended.

Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.

FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt in the community that, without prejudice to existing institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general good.

Perhaps a hundred people assembled one evening, May 15, 1876, at the time when the country was celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its political independence.

The ethical manifold, conceived of as unified, furnishes, or rather is, the ideal of the whole.

No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state.

The family is the school of duties - founded on love.

For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith.

A human being is not to be handled as a tool but is to be respected and revered.

People may be said to resemble not the bricks of which a house is build but the pieces of a picture puzzle each differing in shape but matching the rest and thus bringing out the picture.

Dogma is the convictions of one man imposed authoritatively upon others.

Every dogma every philosophic or theological creed was at its inception a statement in terms of the intellect of a certain inner experience.

To care for anyone else enough to make their problems ones own is ever the beginning of ones real ethical development.

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.

Roosevelt's magic lay in one facet of his personality: He knew how to take the risk. No other man in public life I knew could so readily take the challenge of the new.

When producers want to know what the public wants, they graph it as curves. When they want to tell the public what to get, they say it in curves.

Public discussions are part of what it takes to make changes in the trillions of graphics published each year.

I can assure you, public service is a stimulating, proud and lively enterprise. It is not just a way of life, it is a way to live fully.

I give everything I have to give on the screen. I feel I don't owe the public anything else.

Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.

My art became very public.

Depending on what day of the week it is and what time of the month it is, I'm a good friend or not a good friend. I'm more or less a good mom or not a good mom, more or less a good mate or not a good mate. That's just life, whether or not you're public.

Well, I think that those of us in public life that are trying to do a good job, and that are faced with this popular new game that the media has of being critical of everything that anybody in public office does probably are thin-skinned.

The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.

Yesterday in this country we had people die of hunger and malnutrition. In some parts of this country, the infant mortality rate rivals that of sub-Saharan Africa. We have a public education system that ranks below that of almost any other Western nation.

Don't try to be somebody you're not because it doesn't work. If you try to be this perfect person or perfect persona of what you think that somebody should be when they're involved in public office, it's just not going to work. Just be yourself, stay true to your core values, and really just stay abreast of the issues.

Alabama citizens, like the vast majority of Americans, respect and value the meaning of decency, and appreciate public institutions that reflect the common values of our society.

It was he who impressed, time and again, the necessity of singing as nature intended, and - I remember - he constantly warned, don't let the public know that you work. So I went slowly. I never forced the voice.