"The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head." 

- Noah Webster 

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." 

- Patrick Henry 

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice"

- Thomas Paine