Noble Quotes - Page 34

• Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Way, Righteous, Seems

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Farthest Shore”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

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• A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.

  Herman Melville

  Crafts, Melancholy, Touched

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.77, Velvet Element Books

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• A people fired ... with love of their country and of liberty, a zeal for the public good, and a noble emulation of glory, will not be disheartened or dispirited by a succession of unfortunate events. But like them, may we learn by defeat the power of becoming invincible.

  Abigail Adams

  Country, People, Liberty

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• This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

  William Shakespeare

  Moving, Angel, Men

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [316]

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• My love has placed her little hand With noble faith in mine, And vowed that wedlock's sacred band Our nature shall entwine. My love has sworn, with sealing kiss, With me to live -- to die; I have at last my nameless bliss: As I love -- loved am I!

  Charlotte Bronte

  Kissing, Hands, Sacred

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.223, Penguin

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• Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Simple, Numbers, Gentleman

  Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.63, Vintage

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• A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs

  Bruce Sterling

  Fall, Tyrants, Bombs

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• but it wasn't just about my feelings. The more I got to know you, the more I was certain that you'd do whatever it took to provide for your family. That was important to me. You have to understand that back then, a lot of people our age wanted to change the world. Even though it's a noble idea, I knew I wanted something more traditional. I wanted a family like my parents had, and I wanted to concentrate on my little corner of the world. I wanted someone who wanted to marry a wife and a mother, and someone who would respect my choice.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Mother, Ideas, People

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• Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Gratitude, Blessed, Grateful

  Alexandre Dumas (2013). “Delphi Works of Alexandre Dumas (Illustrated)”, p.3310, Delphi Classics

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• But even friendship like our heroes' Exist no more; for we've outgrown All sentiments and deem men zeroes-- Except of course ourselves alone. We all take on Napoleon's features, And millions of our fellow creatures Are nothing more to us than tools... Since feelings are for freaks and fools. Eugene, of course, had keen perceptions And on the whole despised mankind, Yet wasn't, like so many, blind; And since each rule permits exceptions, He did respect a noble few, And, cold himself, gave warmth its due.

  Alexander Pushkin

  Hero, Men, Feelings

  Alexander Pushkin (1998). “Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse”, p.41, OUP Oxford

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• One who has not only the four S's, which are required in every good lover, but even the whole alphabet; as for example... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; the X indeed, is too harsh a letter to agree with him, but he is Young and Zealous.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Love, Wise, Faithful

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1854). “The History of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha”, p.165

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• Happiness, in the ancient, noble sense, means self-fulfillment—and is given to those who use to the fullest whatever talents God … bestowed upon them.

  Leo Rosten

  Mean, Self, Use

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• Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.

  Joseph Story

  Blessing, Blood, America

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• I also believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way, a country created by men and women who came here not in search of gold, but in search of God. They would be free people, living under the law with faith in their Maker and their future. Sometimes, it seems we've strayed from that noble beginning, from our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to.

  Ronald Reagan

  Country, Believe, Blessed

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.137, Simon and Schuster

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• Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!

  George Washington

  Revolution, Causes, Mankind

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1779). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.313

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• It's been written that the most sublime figure in American history was George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. He personified a people who knew that it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness, that they must also seek help from God - their Father and preserver. Where did we begin to lose sight of that noble beginning, of our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to? Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from him in our day-to-day life?

  Ronald Reagan

  God, Father, Thinking

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• It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant of violent love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is too apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten, that the vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Hands, Liberty

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1866). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States. A Collection of Essays”, p.51

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• But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that, it is a noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Liberty, Facts

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.273, Cambridge University Press

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• George, your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. Helping to bring about your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life, and it will bring justice for my son and the hundreds of other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed.

  Cindy Sheehan

  War, Lying, Son

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• Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit.

  Walter Scott

  Dog, Animal, Toil

  Sir Walter Scott (1871). “The Talisman. Chronicles of Canongate (1st series)”, p.258

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• Live up to the best that is in you: Live noble lives, as you all may, in whatever condition you may find yourselves.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Life, Self Improvement, May

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• The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Failure, Men, Light

  Henry Ward Beecher (1845). “Lectures to Young Men, on Various Important Subjects”, p.113

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• As noble Art has survived noble nature, so too she marches ahead of it, fashioning and awakening by her inspiration. Before Truth sends her triumphant light into the depths of the heart, imagination catches its rays, and the peaks of humanity will be glowing when humid night still lingers in the valleys.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Art, Inspiration, Night

  Friedrich Schiller (2012). “On the Aesthetic Education of Man”, p.52, Courier Corporation

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• If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.

  Alexander Smith

  Death, Men, Race

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.58

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• All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Sleep, Aristocracy, Quiet

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.230, Ravenio Books

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