ascent quotes

If there be no nobility of descent in a nation, it is all the more indispensable 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 homagetothat which is the one pre-eminent distinctionthe royalty of virtue.

- Henry Codman Potter
  Washington centennial address, 30 Apr.