Matthew Quick Quotes

Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.

You must do right before you feel good.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market cart into a chariot of the sun.

An educated person must learn to act justly, beginning, first of all, with his thoughts, then later in his deeds. That is what it means to be educated.

To know what virtue is is not enough; we must endeavor to possess and to practice it, or in some other manner actually ourselves to become good.

People of poor character tend to blame their choices on circumstances. Ethical people make good choices regardless of circumstances. If they make enough good choices, they begin to create better conditions for themselves.

I try to be a good person. I know what my downfalls are, so that's a good thing.

If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me.

Though language forms the preacher, 'Tis good works make the man.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Good actions ennoble us, we are the sons of our own deeds.

You're always concerned for your character. You should be.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.

What, pray, does it profit a man to teach others, and to be prating always about virtue, in high-sounding words, if he fails to give heed to his own instructions?

The fact that somebody does good doesn't make their beliefs true.

It is not enough merely possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practiced.

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.

The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters.

We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.

Do you wish the world were better? Let me tell you what to do: Set a watch upon your actions, Keep them always straight and true.

Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly.

Keep doing good deeds long enough, and you'll probably turn out a good man in spite of yourself.