This I Believe (1952)
Context: I am not going to talk about religious beliefs, but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them.
I believe in my neighbors.
I know their faults and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. Take Father Michael down our road a piece — I'm not of his creed, but I know the goodness and charity and lovingkindness that shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike; if I'm in trouble, I'll go to him. My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee — no prospect of a fee. I believe in Doc.
“The cardinal method with faults is to overgrow them and choke them out with virtues.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 213.
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John Bascom 2
American academic administrator 1827–1911Related quotes
“Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
“We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.”
Nous essayons de nous faire honneur des défauts que nous ne voulons pas corriger.
Maxim 442.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“Three cardinal virtues of business: creativity, building community, practical realism.”
Source: Doing Virtuous Business (Thomas Nelson, 2011), p. 36.
Letter to an unidentified friend (1489), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 58
The Assault on Integrity http://homepage.mac.com/tomdalekeever/greenspanintegrity.html 1963
1950–60s
[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 65, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue