“Good-faith re-examination of a position you've held in the past should be seen as a virtue, not a vice.” ShouldPastVirtuePositionVicesExaminationGood Faith Author:Mark Udall
“There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.” WantGivingShouldMayPastWinningLostWealthEffortVirtueHabitReflectionResourcesAdvantageShould HaveFruitPlentyLabourMaintainingHereditary Book:The Peloponnesian War Source: The Peloponnesian War
“The virtue of Yankee upbringing spiritually speaking is of more downright value to me than any past heritages.” PastValuesVirtueHeritageYankeesUpbringing Author:Marsden Hartley
“Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and far from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Ionia.” ThinkingMenMayLittlesHas BeensPhilosophyPastForceGrowsVirtueMy FriendsGainsDignityBraverySensesRuinsAssociationIndifferentMarathonPietyEnviedFrigid Author:Samuel Johnson
“Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this.... Her cause was good. Her principles just and liberal. Her temper serene and firm.... The remembrance then of what is past, if it operates rightly must inspire her with the most laudable of an ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began with. The world has seen her great adversity.... Let then, the world see that she can bear prosperity; and that her honest virtue in time of peace is equal to the bravest virtue in time of war.” IfsWorldWarCountryAmericaPastCausesPrinciplesVirtueHonestInspireBearsFameEqualAmbitionFairsAdversityProsperityOpeningFirmTemperRemembranceSerene Author:Thomas Paine