Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.

Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.

Be noble in every thought
And in every deed!

Be noble in every thought
And in every deed!

Respect the man of noble races other than your own, who carries out, in a different place, a combat parallel read more

Respect the man of noble races other than your own, who carries out, in a different place, a combat parallel to yours -- to ours. He is your ally. He is our ally, be he at the other end of the world. Love all living things whose humble task is not opposed in any way to yours, to ours: men with simple hearts, honest, without vanity and malice, and all the animals, because they are beautiful, without exception and without exception indifferent to whatever "idea" there may be. Love them, and you will see the eternal in the glance of their eyes of jet, amber, or emerald. Love also the trees, the plants, the water that runs though the meadow and on to the sea without knowing where it goes; love the mountain, the desert, the forest, the immense sky, full of light or full of clouds; because all these exceed man and reveal the eternal to you.

Fond man! though all the heroes of your line
Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine
read more

Fond man! though all the heroes of your line
Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine
In proud display; yet take this truth from me--
Virtue alone is true nobility!

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples read more

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your read more

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

Be aristocracy the only joy:
Let commerce perish--let the world expire.

Be aristocracy the only joy:
Let commerce perish--let the world expire.

His nature is too noble for the world.
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or read more

His nature is too noble for the world.
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for's power to thunder.

If noble death be virtue's chiefest part, We above all men are by Fortune blest, Striving with freedom's crown to read more

If noble death be virtue's chiefest part, We above all men are by Fortune blest, Striving with freedom's crown to honor Greece, we died, and here in endless glory rest