Jodi Picoult Quotes

Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything...and not doing it only because you can.

Courage is not always about action. It takes courage to do nothing rather than do something that you do not believe in or understand.

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.

Temperance is moderation in the things that are good and total abstinence from the things that are foul.

No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

Integrity in the Moment of Choice: Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.

Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it. No man is compelled to evil: his consent only makes it his. It is no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.

I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain.

One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; one who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.

Integrity is never painless.

He who has it in his power to commit sin, is less inclined to do so. The very idea of being able, weakens the desire.

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.

Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.

I learned that moral courage is harder than physical courage.

The greatest possession is self-possession.

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.

Virtue is an inner strength. It expands your nature.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.