Moral Influence Quotes

We know that we are often judged by the company we keep. We know how influential classmates, friends, and other peer groups can be. If any of our companions are prone to be unrighteous in their living, we are better off seeking new associations immediately.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.

You who make the laws, the vices and the virtues of the people will be your work.

There's no crime in being a poor role model.

National morality, by example and by persuasion, should begin at the White House and have the good influence to reach out to every corner of the land

The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.

It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.

The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.

Emerson was such an important figure in our literary history, and in the moral and religious development of our people, that attention cannot be directed to him too often.

No matter how high a moral standard a community may attain, the introduction in that community of any considerable number of persons of a lower moral tone will cause a general moral deterioration just as sure as night follows a day. The intermarriage of a lower with a higher type certainly does not improve the latter any more than does the breeding of cattle by blooded and common stock improve the blooded stock generally.

The most powerful moral influence is example.

We need to take on Hollywood. They are poisoning the minds of our kids.

It is not the Bible that produced religion and morals, but religion and morals that produced the Bible.

No poetry that I'm aware of, however bad or glorious, has ever left somebody a worse person than they were before they read it.

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.

We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day something of our faults.

[Military] events are proof that success is not due simply to general causes. Particular factors can often be decisive—details known only to those who were on the spot. There can also be moral factors which never come to light; while issues can be decided by chances and incidents so minute as to figure in histories simply as anecdotes

More than Iran’s enemies need artillery, guns, and so forth, they need to spread cultural values that lead to moral corruption …. I recently read in the news that a senior official in an important American political center said “Instead of bombs, send them miniskirts”. He is right. If they arouse unrestrained mixing of men and women, and if they lead youth to behavior to which they are naturally inclined by instincts, there will no longer be any need for artillery and guns against that nation.

It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience.

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

One of the greatest objections which families have to New South Wales, is their apprehension of the moral effects that are likely to overwhelm them by bad example, and for which no success in life could compensate.

As with companions so with books. We may choose those which will make us better, more intelligent, more appreciative of the good and the beautiful in the world, or we may choose the trashy, the vulgar, the obscene, which will make us feel as though we've been 'wallowing in the mire.

If only people would realize that moral principles are like measles.... They have to be caught. And only the people who've got them can pass on the contagion.