The Children's Book of Virtues Quotes

“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try again; If at first you don’t succeed, Try, try again; Then your courage should appear, For, if you will persevere, You will conquer, never fear; Try, try again.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“For half a century we sought happiness,” Elias’s wife says in this story, “and as long as we were rich we never found it. Now that we have nothing left, and have taken service as laborers, we have found such happiness that we want nothing better.” This simple yet profound story is a good one for anybody choosing a career, job, or task. There’s certainly nothing wrong with working to get money, but there may be something very wrong if you think getting the money gets you happiness.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“There is no end to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets credit for it.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Therefore we must give a certain character to our activities. . . . In short, the habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Whatsoever is not said in all sincerity, is wrongly said. And not to be able to rid oneself of this vice is only to sink deeper toward perdition. “Those who do evil in the open light of day—men will punish them. Those who do evil in secret—God will punish them. Who fears both man and God, he is fit to walk alone.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men. To the mind belongs the office of thinking. By thinking, it gets the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this. Let a man first stand fast in the supremacy of the nobler part of his constitution, and the inferior part will not be able to take it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“They will preach what we want them to preach,” said Hitler’s memo. “If any priest acts differently, we will make short work of him. The task of the priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this. . . . The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Don’t you believe it. As far as I’m concerned, and I think as far as most kids go, once religion sinks in, it stays there—deep down. The lads who get religious training, get it where it counts—in the roots. They may fail it, but it never fails them. When the score is against them, or they get a bum pitch, that unfailing Something inside will be there to draw on.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“I also realized that God was not only just, but merciful. He knew we were weak and that we all found it easier to be stinkers than good sons of God, not only as kids but all through our lives. That clear picture, I’m sure, would be important to any kid who hates a teacher, or resents a person in charge. This picture of my relationship to man and God was what helped relieve me of bitterness and rancor and a desire to get even.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“The book of Psalms was the ancient hymnal of the Jewish people. Most of the psalms were probably written for use in worship; one finds among them songs of praise, thanksgiving, adoration, devotion, doubt, and complaint. Martin Luther called the Psalter “a Bible in miniature.” Psalm 23, a hymn of trust in God, is probably the most widely loved. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“United States military profession as early as 1863 in General Order number 100 of the United States Army Field Manual: “Men who take up arms against another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings responsible to one another.” Individuals always remain ethically responsible for their actions, for the choices they make among conflicting moral obligations, as well as for the consequences which result from them.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“This editorial appeared in The New York Times on June 14, 1940, to mark Flag Day, a holiday that seems to have fallen into neglect in more recent years. Flag Day commemorates the day in 1777 when the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth is as much to say as that he is brave toward God and a coward toward men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“In my judgment, Socrates, the question has now become ridiculous. We know that, when the bodily constitution is gone, life is no longer endurable, though pampered with all kinds of meats and drinks, and having all wealth and all power; and shall we be told that when the very essence of the vital principle is undermined and corrupted, life is still worth having to a man, if only he be allowed to do whatever he likes with the single exception that he is not to acquire justice and virtue, or to escape from injustice and vice; assuming them both to be such as we have described? Yes, I said, the question is, as you say, ridiculous.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“It is not for me to declare a winner in this fight,” he told them. “Truth and Falsehood are destined to struggle. Sometimes Truth will win, but other times Falsehood will prevail, and then Truth must rise up and fight again. Until the end of the world, Truth must battle Falsehood, and must never rest or let down his guard, or he will be finished once and for all.” And so Truth and Falsehood are fighting to this day.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“O king, great is truth, and stronger than all things. Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, all the children of men are wicked, and they shall perish. But truth lasts forever. She is always strong, she never dies and is never defeated. With truth there is no respect of persons, and she cannot be bribed. She doeth the things that are just.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Parents often say, “Don’t let me catch you doing that again!” and that is all right, but a good, honest life is more than that. Moral development is not a game of “Catch me if you can.” It is better to focus clearly on what really matters: the kind of person one is.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“To be honest is to be real, genuine, authentic, and bona fide. To be dishonest is to be partly feigned, forged, fake, or fictitious. Honesty expresses both self-respect and respect for others. Dishonesty fully respects neither oneself nor others. Honesty imbues lives with openness, reliability, and candor; it expresses a disposition to live in the light. Dishonesty seeks shade, cover,”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Sweden, where he had traveled to accept the Nobel Prize for literature. It is foremost an exhortation to young writers, a reminder that artistic creation does have duties, and that forgetting those duties relegates one’s work to the ranks of mediocrity. But his words speak to every reader of literature as well. Faulkner reminds us that what we study in school and what we read in our precious spare time matters. Great literature—the kind we cannot afford to miss—speaks to problems of the spirit, the “human heart in conflict with itself,” and nothing less. It lifts our eyes to the virtues we possess and the nobility we would acquire, and helps us to prevail.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air; The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go; They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all— There are none to decline your nectared wine, But alone you must drink life’s gall. Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a large and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the moldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past, But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast, And the days are dark and dreary. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. . . .”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Lou returned to the team for the remainder of the 1939 season, slowly suiting up each day, taking McCarthy’s lineups to home plate to deliver to the umpires before each game. It was his only duty as captain. It was another winning season for the Yankees, but hardly for Lou. The short walk from the dugout to home plate and back exhausted him. But more exhausting was a cruel (but mostly true) story in the New York Daily News to the effect that some of his teammates had become afraid of drinking out of the Yankee dugout’s drinking fountain after Lou used it.”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

“Teddy Roosevelt said that “far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat”
― William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories