quotations about example
Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Lord Stirling, Mar. 5, 1780
For example is a language far more eloquent than words: it is instruction in action.
SAMUEL SMILES
Thrift
The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.
CHARLES HENRY FOWLER
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.
CHARLES MORELL
The Tales of the Genii
Example is more forcible than precept; people look at my six days in the week, to see what I mean on the seventh.
LORD BURLEIGH
attributed, Day's Collacon
For, now it may be said, I build with good reason, since I follow your example.
PLINY THE YOUNGER
letter to Voconius Romanus, The Letters of Pliny the Younger
The crime of a bad example is the same whether men follow it or not, because he that gives bad example to others, does what in him lies to draw them into sin; and if they do not follow it, that is no mitigation of his fault.
JOHN TILLOTSON
The Works of the Most Reverend John Tillotson
Happy thou that learnest from another's griefs, not to subject thyself to the same.
TIBULLUS
Carmina
Rules and discourses are dead pictures, but a good example is virtue itself, alive and in motion : we may say a good example is virtue personified.
MOX
The Railway Conductor, vol. 27
We ought to give good examples to our children, because if they see no uncomeliness, they shall be forced to follow goodness and virtue.
XENOPHON
attributed, Day's Collacon
I may do some good before I am dead--be a sort of success as a frightful example of what not to do; and so illustrate a moral story.
THOMAS HARDY
Jude the Obscure
Example is one of the most potent instructors, though it teaches without a tongue; it is the practical school of mankind, working by action, which is always more forcible than words. Precept may point us the way, but it is silent, continuous example, conveyed to us by habits, and living with us in fact, that carries us along.
SMILES
attributed, Day's Collacon
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Deserted Village
Precepts guide, but examples drag along.
ROMAN PROVERB
If our words are not consistent with our actions, they will never be heard above the thunder of our deeds.
H. BURKE PETERSON
"Prepare the Heart of Your Son", Ensign, Nov. 1982
Those who know what is right, should set the example of practicing it; and those who persist in doing wrong must be made an example, to deter others from doing the same.
GEORGE CRABB
English Synonyms Explained
We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
MOHANDAS GANDHI
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
You cannot expect your team to rise above your example.
ORRIN WOODWARD
L.I.F.E: Living Intentionally For Excellence
From the loving example of one family a whole State may become loving, and from its courtesies, courteous; while from the ambition and perverseness of the one man the whole State may be thrown into rebellious disorder. Such is the nature of influence.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
No man is so insignificant as to be sure his example can do no hurt.
LORD CLARENDON
attributed, Day's Collacon