In the sublimest flights of the soul, rectitude is never surmounted, love is never outgrown.
For those of us who consider ourselves political moderates, life is a dispiriting slog, a sorry mix of rectitude and ineptitude.
Blessed is he who has never been tempted; for he knows not the frailty of his rectitude.
Even in the fiercest uproar of our stormy passions, conscience, though in her softest whispers, gives to the supremacy of rectitude the voice of an undying testimony.
A reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune.
The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.
I love the idea of rectitude.
I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as they died, and not as they lived. We gaze with admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor.
The only guide to a man's conscience, the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.
The most dangerous diminutions of freedom come from those who are convinced of their moral rectitude.
Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.
Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.
Men want to be reminded, who do not want to be taught; because those original ideas of rectitude to which the mind is compelled to assent when they are proposed, are not always as present to us as they ought to be.
What acquaintance have the people at large with the arena of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the resources of national strength, the abilities of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?. . . I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is their duty to do what is proper, without considering what may be agreeable.
Rectitude carried to excess hardens into stiffness; benevolence indulged beyond measure sinks into weakness.
