“It's the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It's a quality to be proud of. But it's a quality that many people seem to have neglected.”

—  Gerald Ford

As quoted by TIME magazine (28 January 1974)
1970s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It's the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our na…" by Gerald Ford?
Gerald Ford photo
Gerald Ford 90
American politician, 38th President of the United States (i… 1913–2006

Related quotes

Robert M. Pirsig photo

“Absence of Quality is the essence of squareness.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Seneca the Younger photo

“It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great.”

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXXIX: On Noble Aspirations

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us.”

François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs

Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), VII. On Air and Manner
Context: Few men, nevertheless, can have unison in many matters without being a copy of each other, if each follow his natural turn of mind. But in general a person will not wholly follow it. He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us.

John D. Rockefeller photo

“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

As quoted in How They Succeeded (1901) by Orison Swett Marden
Context: I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“The fortunes of a nation are determined above everything by the quality of its people.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, Scotland (27 August 1927), quoted in Our Inheritance (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938), p. 129.
1927

Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“The quality of our life
depends on the quality
of the seeds
that lie deep in our consciousness.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Understanding Our Mind (2006) Parallax Press ISBN 978-81-7223-796-7

Linus Torvalds photo

“Real quality means making sure that people are proud of the code they write, that they're involved and taking it personally.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Interview with Linus Torvalds of The Linux Foundation, 2008-09-15, Torvalds, Linus, 2008-12-31 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/events/node/154,
2000s, 2008

“The first quality of a leader of people – always the first quality – is a devotion to truth.”

Leon MacLaren (1910–1994) British philosopher

Leon MacLaren, Principles of Music, 1978

Frank Lloyd Wright photo

Related topics