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If there be no nobility of descent, all the more indispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent,—a character in them that bear rule so fine and high and pure that as men come within the circle of its influence they involuntarily pay homage to that which is the one pre-eminent distinction, the royalty of virtue.

If there be no nobility of descent, all the more indispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent,—a character in them that bear rule so fine and high and pure that as men come within the circle of its influence they involuntarily pay homage to that which is the one pre-eminent distinction, the royalty of virtue.

Approximate author period: c. 1835 AD · industrial

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Bishop Henry C. Potter
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1835 AD · industrial
recorded author birth year
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Recorded source
Familiar Quotations, ninth edition (1905 printing) (1905 AD)

Address at the Washington Centennial Service in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, April 30, 1889.

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.