Laudable Quotes

#1. Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?

Denis Diderot

#2. Sustainability is a seemingly laudable goal - it tells us we need to live within our means, whether economic, ecological, or political - but it's insufficient for uncertain times. How can we live within our means when those very means can change, swiftly and unexpectedly, beneath us?

Jamais Cascio

#3. The pious and just honoring of ourselves may be thought the fountainhead from whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.

John Milton

#4. Politically, economically and socially, the Twenty-Teens are a Depression. The internet brought many laudable things, but prosperity, stability, accountability and honest politics were not four of them.

Bruce Sterling

#5. Dancing serves no necessary use, no profitable, laudable, or pious end at all. It is only from the inbred pravity, vanity, wantonness, incontinency, pride, profaneness, or madness of man's depraved nature.

William Prynne

#6. The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work.

George Washington

#7. Although deceit is detestable in all other things, yet in the conduct of war it is laudable and honorable; and a commander who vanquishes an enemy by stratagem is equally praised with one who gains victory by force.

Niccolo Machiavelli

#8. A jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse: the substance, as well as the form, of justice were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser seductions of interest or resentment.

Edward Gibbon

#9. I think the open software movement (and Linux in particular) is laudable.

Kenneth P. Thompson

#10. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly.

William Shakespeare

#11. This laudable quality is commonly known by the name of Manners and Good-breeding, and consists in a Fashionable Habit, acquir'd by Precept and Example, of flattering the Pride and Selfishness of others, and concealing our own with Judgment and Dexterity.

Bernard De Mandeville

#12. Even if I left this world, I doubt anyone would notice. I would shout out from the dark, but no one would hear me. Still, I have to keep soldiering on until I die, the only way I know how. Not a laudable sort of life, but the only life I know how to live.

Haruki Murakami

#13. Democracy is an interesting, even laudable, notion and there is no question but that when compared to Communism, which is too dull, or Fascism, which is too exciting, it emerges as the most palatable form of government.

Fran Lebowitz

#14. I'm really encouraged by Pope Francis, because I think his attitude is totally laudable.

Steve Coogan

#15. Worldly ambition is founded on pride or envy, but emulation, or laudable ambition, is actually founded in humility; for it evidently implies that we have a low opinion of our present attainments, and think it necessary to be advanced.

Joseph Hall

#16. Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions.

Thomas Hobbes

#17. I say that glorious prose is a fine and laudable thing, but without an enthralling story, it's just so much verbal tapioca. Simply put, the best books have both, and the best writers disparage neither.

Jean Hanff Korelitz

#18. the prophet's calling, though laudable, is laughable. More, the prophet's intensity makes him look ridiculous. Is there any person more pathetic than the prophet proclaiming what everybody knows will never happen?

Marc H. Ellis

#19. To Lincoln's mind, the fundamental test of a democracy was its capacity to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

#20. The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.

P.T. Barnum

#21. To be prejudiced is always to be weak; yet there are prejudices so near to laudable that they have been often praised and are always pardoned.

Samuel Johnson

#22. To lend money without interest, is certainly an action laudable and extremely good; but it is obvious, that it is only a counsel of religion, and not a civil law.

Baron De Montesquieu

#23. One of the laudable by-products of the Freudian quackery is the discovery that lying, in most cases, is involuntary and inevitable
that the liar can no more avoid it than he can avoid blinking his eyes when a light flashes or jumping when a bomb goes off behind him.

H.L. Mencken

#24. Cheerfulness is among the most laudable virtues. It gains you the good will and friendship of others. It blesses those who practice it and those upon whom it is bestowed.

B.C. Forbes

#25. There is nothing illegal in keeping up a tomb; on the contrary, it is a very laudable thing to do.

Ryan Lindley

#26. Our affections, however laudable, in this transitory world, should never master us; we should guide them, guide them.

Charles Dickens

#27. It is a certain sign of an ill heart to be inclined to defamation. They who are harmless and innocent can have no gratification that way; but it ever arises from a neglect of what is laudable in a man's self.

Richard Steele

#28. Since our persons are not of our own making, when they are such as appear defective or uncomely, it is, methinks, an honest and laudable fortitude to dare to be ugly.

Richard Steele

#29. Only people, especially Anglo-Saxons, are so afraid lest joyfulness may somehow be reprehensible that they will never admit it as a lawful and laudable end in itself.

Arnold Bennett

#30. The exaltation and happiness of any community, goes hand in hand with the knowledge possessed by the people, when applied to laudable ends; whereupon we can exclaim like the wise man; righteousness exalteth a nation; for righteousness embraces knowledge and knowledge is power.

Joseph Smith Jr.

#31. America is a unique place. The value part of American foreign policy is something I think is very laudable, but it is uniquely American. And it is part of what makes America special.

Michael Oren

#32. The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who on the grounds of decorum and morality avoids the game of love. He is one who puts his own ease and security above the most laudable of philanthropies.

H.L. Mencken

#33. He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.

John Milton

#34. It is of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions at some laudable end.

Joseph Addison

#35. Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now (70) I am in this earthly world, where to do harm Is often laudable, to do good sometime

William Shakespeare

#36. Whatever laudable qualities the English may possess in their selection, preparation, and consumption of food, elegance, originality, diversity, and imagination are not among them.

Mary Ellen Chase

#37. Workable solutions for Earth are urgently needed. Saving seals and tigers, or fighting yet another oil pipeline through a wilderness area, while laudable, is merely shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Lawrence Anthony

#38. In my opinion, he only may be truly said to live and enjoy his being who is engaged in some laudable pursuit, and acquires a name by some illustrious action, or useful art.

Sallust

#39. Like language, a code of manners can be used with more or less skill, for laudable or for evil purposes, to express a great variety of ideas and emotions. In itself, it carries no moral value, but ignorance in use of this tool is not a sign of virtue.

Judith Martin

#40. Despicable means used to achieve laudable goals render the goals themselves despicable.

Anton Chekhov

#41. Sometimes, for the sake of the larger good, one has to do things that may not appear right at the time. Perhaps, a laudable end can justify some questionable means.

Amish Tripathi

#42. We are successful
the moment we start toward
a laudable goal

J. Benson

#43. You can not fail in any laudable object, unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed.

Abraham Lincoln

#44. I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.

Stanislaw Leszczynski

#45. Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.

Thomas Jefferson

#46. Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force.

Niccolo Machiavelli

#47. There are people in need of help. Charity is one of the nobler human motivations. The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

Walter E. Williams

#48. We censure others but as they disagree from that humor which we fancy laudable in ourselves, and commend others but for that wherein they seem to quadrate and consent with us.

Thomas Browne

#49. To be able to achieve the laudable goals (of preventing and treating HIV/AIDS), especially for us in sub-Saharan Africa, there is the need for us to invest in improving our weak health systems. The inadequate number of healthcare facilities in many of our countries are major issues of concern.

John Dramani Mahama

#50. In fighting the debt crisis, E.U. countries have enhanced co-operation and carried out reform with tremendous courage. This is laudable.

Li Keqiang

#51. If for the sake of a crowded audience you do wish to hold a lecture, your ambition is no laudable one, and at least avoid all citations from the poets, for to quote them argues feeble industry.

Hippocrates

#52. The foundations and the intent of the Affordable Care Act are laudable. The way it's being implemented is a disaster.

Patrick Soon-Shiong

#53. This is essentially a people's contest ... whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men - to lift artificial weights from all shoulders - to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all - to afford all, an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life.

Abraham Lincoln

#54. It's perhaps more laudable simply to keep heading out into the world than always tilting to leave one's mark on it.

Chang-rae Lee