Home > Topic > a higher standard
1 " It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse. "
2 " Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else. "
― Henry Ward Beecher
3 " The truth is no one should hold you at a higher standard than yourself "
― Jerry Gladstone
4 " In Africa, there is a birthrate trap: a higher standard of living will lead to smaller families but smaller families will not lead to a higher standard of living. "
― Christopher Hitchens
5 " So often, children are punished for being human. Children are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes, yet we adults have them all the time! We think if we don't nip it in the bud, it will escalate and we will lose control. Let go of that unfounded fear and give your child permission to be human. We all have days like that. None of us are perfect, and we must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves. All of the punishments you could throw at them will not stamp out their humanity, for to err is human, and we all do it sometimes. "
― Rebecca Eanes , The Newbie's Guide to Positive Parenting
6 " Values are the guiding principles through which you make choices and decisions. They are influenced by your beliefs, and will help you uphold a higher standard of personal character. "
― Archibald Marwizi , Making Success Deliberate
7 " Think of the people whom you love, like, trust, and admire. Isn’t their integrity the golden thread which elevates them to a higher standard in your eyes and in your heart? "
― Susan C. Young , The Art of Being: 8 Ways to Optimize Your Presence & Essence for Positive Impact (The Art of First Impressions for Positive Impact, #1)
8 " The criminals who, in the face of contumely, hatred or violence, have led the world to a higher standard and brought humanity to a diviner order, have so loved truth and righteousness as to defy the law, and in every age these men have met the life of outcasts, and the death of felons. Whatever may be said of the necessity of government to protect itself, no one can believe that any human being merits punishment for following his own highest ideal. Punishment can only be in any wise defended upon the theory that the individual is untrue to himself, that his heart is bad. But all schemes of human punishment seem specially contrived to exempt this class of men. Those who are untrue to themselves find no difficulty in obeying the state, or at least in seeming to be subservient to its laws. The cunning man without strong convictions of right and wrong can always find ample room to operate his trade inside the dead line the law lays down. Even Blackstone wrote that a man who governed his conduct solely by the law was neither an honest man nor a good citizen. The penal code cannot pretend to cover all the vicious acts of men. If there is a distinction between vicious acts and righteous acts, each are so numerous that even to catalogue them would be beyond the power of the state. "
― Clarence Darrow
9 " That's arrogance, Harry. " he said, gently. " On a level so deep, you don't even realize it exists. And do you know why it's there?" " No?" I asked. He smiled again. " Because you have set a higher standard for yourself. You think that, because you have more power than others, you have to do more with it." " To whom much is given, much is required," I said, without looking up. He barked out a short laugh. " For someone who repeatedly tells me he has no faith, you have a surprising capacity to quote scripture. And that's just my point." I eyed him. " What?" " You wouldn't be twisting yourself into knots like this, Harry, if you didn't care." " So?" " Monsters don't care," Michael said. " The damned don't care, Harry. The only way to go beyond redemption is to choose to take yourself there. The only way to do it is to stop caring. "
10 " Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. "
11 " Of course we need to show we are a genuine alternative to an unpopular, Conservative-led government. But we need to set ourselves a higher standard than a party offering anger like UKIP. "
