Nobility

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.

-Bishop Henry C. Potter,
Address at the Washington Centennial
Service in St. Paul's Chapel