OF BEHAVIORA good example is the tallest kind of preaching.
African Chief
All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with [God], not a self-willed determination to be godly.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
All people smile in the same language.
Always imitate the behavior of the winners when you lose.
George Meredith (1828–1909)
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life such as yours, this earth would be God’s paradise.
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893)
Behave toward everyone as if receiving a great guest.
Confucius (c. 551–479 b.c.)
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows his image.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
Conduct is an unspoken sermon.
Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)
Determine a plan of action in the morning, and then evaluate yourself at night. How have you behaved today? What were your words, your deeds, your thoughts?
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)
Do every act in thy life as if it were the last.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180)
Don’t be too sweet, lest you be eaten up; don’t be too bitter, lest you be spewed out.
Jewish Proverb
Environmental influences, in themselves, will not account for the behavior we observe in our fellowman. There is something else . . . something from within. . . that also operates to make us who we are.
James C. Dobson (1936– )
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his record true:
To think without confusion clearly
To love his fellowmen sincerely
To act from honest motives purely
To trust in God and heaven securely.
Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)
I cannot hear what you say for the thunder of what you are.
African Proverb
I have always tried to be good—it’s very demanding!
Benny Andersen
If things go on as they have, imagine the horrifying things the children of the next generation will have to do to shock their parents.
If we judge our conduct by Christ and his desire to please the Father, we will solve many decisions regarding behavior.
Erwin W. Lutzer (1941– )
If you love the good that you see in another, make it your own.
Pope Gregory the Great (540–604)
It would scarcely be necessary to expound doctrine if our lives were radiant enough. If we behaved like true Christians, there would be no pagans.
Pope John xxiii (1881–1963)
Jesus taught, first, that a man’s business is to do the will of God; second, that God takes upon himself the care of that man; third, therefore, that a man must never be afraid of anything; and so, fourth, be left free to love God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself.
George Macdonald (1824–1905)
Make no distinction in your conduct between small things and great.
William Taylor (1821–1902)
Our Lord lived his life . . . to give us the normal standard for our lives.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, to improve it in the most profitable way I can. Resolved, never to do anything which I should despise or think meanly in another. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge. Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)
The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.
Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930)
The chastising lesson . . . first, not to make private assumptions from public conduct, and second, if we have to judge, let our judgments be provisional, not ultimate. We do not really know why people do what they do, even when we are close to them—and sometimes especially because we are close to them.
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)
The least movement affects all nature; the entire sea changes because of a rock. Thus, in grace, the least action affects everything by its consequences; therefore everything is important. In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
The mark of a man is how he treats a person who can be of no possible use to him.
The modern attitude is, “Father, forgive us for we know not what we are doing—and please don’t tell us!”
Erwin W. Lutzer (1941– )
The world takes its notions of God from the people who say that they belong to God’s family. They read us a great deal more than they read the Bible. They see us; they only hear about Jesus Christ.
Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910)
Walk softly, speak tenderly, pray fervently. Do not run up stairs, do not run down God’s people.
T. J. Bach
What if God arranged things so that we would experience a mild jolt of pain with every sin, or a tickle of pleasure with every act of virtue? Sort of a divine behavior modification, if you will. Would you obey because you loved God? I don’t think so. I think you’d obey simply because you desired pleasure and not pain.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Whatever a man does he must do first in his mind.
Albert Szent-Györgyi von Nagyrapolt (1893– )
When we are tempted to begin a statement with “If people would only. . . ,” it is good to keep in mind that “people” is an abstraction standing for “I and thou,” and that at least half the responsibility for human conduct rests upon the “I.”
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)
You cannot add to the peace and good will of the world if you fail to create an atmosphere of harmony and love right where you live and work.
Thomas Dreier (1884– )
