Life as a Leaf: Growing Integrity in Children

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Appendix A
Sample Focused Thought Quotations

Character

• “If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.” — Woodrow Wilson, 28th American president (1856-1924)
• “Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” — Tryon Edwards, American author (1809-1894)
• “Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.” — Jane Austen, English author (1775-1817)
• “Character, not circumstance, makes the person.” — Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)
• “A man’s character is his fate.” — Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (c. 540-475 B.C.)
• “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln, 16th American president (1809-1865)
• “We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it’s grand and great.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (1874-1942)
• “It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860)
• “Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.” — Elbert Hubbard, American entrepreneur and philosopher (1856-1915)
• “Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.” — Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
• “Character is much easier kept than recovered.” — Thomas Paine, American political activist (1737-1809)
• “Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.” — Emily Dickinson, American poet (1830-1886)
• “Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.” — Alphonse Karr, French journalist (1808-1890)
• “When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.” — Japanese proverb
• “The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.” — Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, English historian and statesman (1800-1859)
• “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, novelist, playwright, scientist and philosopher (1749-1832)
• “Happiness is not the end of life: character is.” — Henry Ward Beecher, American preacher (1813-1887)
• “With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author (1850-1919)
• “Character is the only secure foundation of the state.” — Calvin Coolidge, 30th American president (1872-1933)
• “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.” — Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (121-180 B.C.)
• “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln, 16th American president (1809-1865)

Thoughts, Wisdom, and Education

• “Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.” — Seneca, Roman rhetorician (c. 54-39 B.C.)
• “We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens.” — Sandra Day O’Connor, American Supreme Court justice (b. 1930)
• “Not out of right practice comes right thinking, but out of right thinking comes right practice.” — Annie Besant, English writer (1847-1933)
• “Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.” — Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855)
• “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” — Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (1709-1784)
• “America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.” — Jane Addams, American author and social worker (1860-1935)
• “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th American president (1858-1919)
• “No man was ever wise by chance.” — Seneca, Roman rhetorician (c. 54-39 B.C.)
• “By associating with wise people you will become wise yourself.” — Menander, Greek dramatist (c. 342-291 B.C.)
• “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.” — William James, American psychologist and philosopher (1842-1910)
• “Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge — fitter to bruise than polish.” — Anne Bradstreet, writer, poet (1612-1672)
• “I tell students that the opportunities I had were a result of having a good educational background. Education is what allows you to stand out.” — Ellen Ochoa, American astronaut (b. 1958)
• “But if you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy: that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly.” — Plato, Greek philosopher (c. 428-348 B.C.)
• “Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” — Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and novelist (1804-1881)
• “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.” — Charlotte Brontë, English novelist (1816-1855)
• “Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, and poet (1803-1882)
• “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” — Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (121-180 B.C.)
• “There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.” — John Adams, 2nd American president and founding father (1735-1826)
• “The best way to teach morality is to make it a habit with children.” — Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
• “If we are to reach real peace in this world . . . we shall have to begin with the children.” — Mohandas Gandhi, Indian civil rights leader (1869-1948)
• “The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.” — Sandra Day O’Connor, American Supreme Court justice (b. 1930)
• “What has made this nation great? Not its heroes but its households.” — Sarah Orne Jewitt, American writer (1849-1909)

Civility and Citizenship

• “The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give every man his due.” — Justinian I, Byzantine emperor (483-565)
• “The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops — no, but the kind of man the country turns out.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, and poet (1803-1882)
• “A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.” — Thomas Jefferson, 3rd American president and founding father (1743-1826)
• “Civilization is a method of living and an attitude of equal respect for all people.” — Jane Addams, American author and social worker (1860-1935)
• “What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.” — Johann Kaspar Lavater, German poet and physiognomist (1741-1801)
• “Provision for others is the fundamental responsibility of human life.” — Woodrow Wilson, 28th American president (1856-1924)
• “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall, American Supreme Court justice (1908-1993)
• “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th American president (1858-1919)
• “There can be no high civility without a deep morality.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, and poet (1803-1882)

Connectedness

• “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” — Herman Melville, American novelist (1819-1891)
• “National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events.” — Jane Addams, American author and social worker (1860-1935)
• “It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.” — Thomas Jefferson, 3rd American president and founding father (1743-1826)
• “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” — John Muir, American naturalist (1838-1914)
• “All things by immortal power, near or far, hiddenly to each other linked are, that thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star.” — Francis Thompson, English poet (1859-1907)
• “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne, English clergyman and poet (1572-1631)
• “Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all moral creatures must depend on each other to exist.” — Hindu proverb
• “We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or class; but we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having.” — Jane Addams, American author and social worker (1860-1935)
• “I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world.” — Socrates, Greek philosopher (469-399 B.C.)
• “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.” — Albert Einstein, German-born physicist (1879-1955), from Einstein’s letter to a distraught father who had lost his son, February 12, 1950
• “If I have seen farther than other men it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (1642-1727)
• “We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone . . . and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.” — Sandra Day O’Connor, American Supreme Court justice (b. 1930)

Courage and Action

• “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th American president (1858-1919)
• “Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.” — Tyron Edwards, American theologian (1809-1894)
• “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke, English statesman and political philosopher (1729-1797)
• “Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.” — Jane Addams, American author and social worker (1860-1935)
• “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” — John Locke, English philosopher (1632-1704)
• “To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice.” — Confucius (K’ung-fu-tzu), Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.)
• “Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can.” — Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist (1795-1881)
• “The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.” — Plutarch, Roman historian (c. 46-120 B.C.)
• “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist and humanitarian (born Araminta Ross; c. 1820-1913)
• “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams, 6th American president (1767-1848)
• “The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.” — Julia Alvarez, American writer and poet (b. 1950)
• “Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.” — Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)
• “Let no man be sorry he has done good because others have done evil. If a man has acted right he has done well, though alone. If wrong, the sanction of all mankind will not justify him.” — Henry Fielding, English novelist (1707-1754)
• “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author, and journalist (1835-1910)
• “The Way of the Sage is to act but not to compete.” — Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (c. 6th century B.C.)
• “We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (1874-1942)
• “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.” — St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva (1567-1622)
• “We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.” — Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
• “The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” — Arabian proverb
• “What you say tells other people what you are.” — Unknown
• “What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth.” — Jewish proverb
• “Saying nothing... sometimes says the most.” — Emily Dickinson, American poet (1830-1886)

Goodness, Virtue, and Humility

• “See to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you.” — James Freeman Clarke, American preacher and author (1810-1888)
• “I believe . . . that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” — Thomas Jefferson, 3rd American president and founding father (1743-1826)
• “The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author (1850-1919)
• “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.” — John Stuart Mill, English philosopher and economist (1806-1873)
• “Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” — Henry David Thoreau, American essayist and nature writer (1817-1862)
• “After hunger, a human’s most important need is to know what is virtuous.” — Jerome Kagan, Harvard psychology professor and author (b. 1929)
• “It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.” — Benjamin Franklin, American founding father, inventor and statesman (1706-1790)
• “The most important human endeavor is striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.” — Albert Einstein, German-born physicist (1879-1955), from Einstein’s letter to Reverend C. Greenway, November 20, 1950
• “How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” — George Washington Carver, American scientist, bontanist, educator, and inventor (1864-1943)
• “An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves.” — Lydia Maria Child, American author and abolitionist (1802-1880)
• “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer (1749-1832)
• “Compassion is the basis of morality.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860)
• “The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.” — Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, English historian and statesman (1800-1859)
• “The proper man understands equity, the small man profits.” — Confucius (K’ung-fu-tzu), Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.)
• “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” — George Washington, 1st American president and founding father (1732-1799)
• “Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.” — Welsh proverb
• “The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying.” — Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist and evolutionist (1825-1895)
• “When somebody lies, somebody loses.” — Stephanie Ericsson, American author (b. 1953)
• “Whatever else may be shaken, there are some facts established beyond warring: virtue is better than vice, truth is better than falsehood, kindness than brutality.” — Quintin Hogg, English merchant and philanthropist (1845-1903)
• “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” — Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915)
• “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — Cicero (Marcus Tullius), Roman orator, philosopher and statesman (106-43 B.C.)
• “Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.” — Clara Barton, American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian (1821-1912)
• “The farther a man knows himself to be free from perfection, the nearer he is to it.” — Gerard Groote, Dutch religious reformer (1340-1384)
• “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” — Italian proverb
• “Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.” — Louisa May Alcott, American author (1832-1888)
• “Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues.” — Confucius (K’ung-fu-tzu), Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.)

Resentment, Greed, and Selfishness

• “The intention makes the crime.”— Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)
• “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”— Malachy McCourt, American writer and actor (b. 1931)
• “Hatred is blind, anger is foolhardy, and he who pours out vengeance risks having to drink a bitter draft.”— Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (1802-1870)
• “Life appears to me to be too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrong.”— Charlotte Brontë, English novelist (1816-1855)
• “The more a ball is struck, the more it rebounds.”— Unknown
• “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one.”— Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor (1706-1790)
• “Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.”— Lyman Abbott, American editor and author (1835-1922)
• “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”— Will Rogers, American humorist and social commentator (1879-1935)
• “As a girl my temper often got out of bounds. But one day when I became angry at a friend over some trivial matter, my mother said to me, ‘Elizabeth, anyone who angers you conquers you.’”— Elizabeth Kenny, Australian physical therapist and humanitarian (1886-1952)
• “The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.”— William Penn, American colonial leader (1644-1718)
• “Don’t wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”— Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author, and journalist (1835-1910)
• “No man is more cheated than a selfish man.”— Henry Ward Beecher, American preacher (1813-1887)
• “For greed, all nature is too little.”— Seneca, Roman rhetorician (c. 54-39 B.C.)
• “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”— Mohandas Gandhi, Indian civil rights leader (1869-1948)
• “Who covets more, is evermore a slave.”— Robert Herrick, American novelist (1868-1938)
• “The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong.”— Antiphanes, Greek dramatist (408-334 B.C.)

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