One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Tables Turned.

'T is all men's office to speak patience

To those that wring under the load of sorrow,

But no man's virtue nor sufficiency

To be so moral when he shall endure

The like himself.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.

He left the name at which the world grew pale,

To point a moral, or adorn a tale.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 221.

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man

Will not affront me,—and no other can.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 193.