quotations about example
What the world wants is good examples, not so much advice; advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.
H. W. SHAW
attributed, Day's Collacon
Example is far more than precept. It is instruction in action.
SAMUEL SMILES
Happy Homes and Hearts that Make Them
Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.
CICERO
Epistles
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
MARK TWAIN
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
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
Though "the words of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies," yet sure their examples are the hammer to drive them in to take the deeper hold.
THOMAS FULLER
The Holy and Profane States
Example moves more than homily, though it be less clamorous.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.
MONTESQUIEU
Montesquieu's Considerations of the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans
Much more profitable and gracious is doctrine by example than by rule.
E. SPENSER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Since truth and constancy are vain,
Since neither love, nor sense of pain,
Nor force of reason, can persuade,
Then let example be obey'd.
GEORGE GRANVILLE
To Myra
The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.
CHARLES HENRY FOWLER
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
A bad example is the best sermon.
AMERICAN PROVERB
Decapitate
Example be made
JUDAS PRIEST
"Decapitate"
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
letter to Harrison Blake, Mar. 27, 1848
To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
JOSH BILLINGS
Josh Billings' Farmers Allminax for the Year 1871
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
If thou desire to see thy child virtuous, let him not see his father's vices: thou canst not rebuke that in them, that they behold practised in thee; till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts: such as thy behaviour is before thy children's faces, such commonly is theirs behind their parents' backs.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridon
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
For example is a language far more eloquent than words: it is instruction in action.
SAMUEL SMILES
Thrift
Yes, we need to make examples. But examples to follow. What we need ... are heroes.
JEAN-JACQUES ANNAUD & ALAIN GODARD
Enemy at the Gates