Virtue Quotes
Jenny replied to this with a bitterness which might have surprized a judicious person, who had observed the tranquillity with which she bore all the affronts to her chastity; but her patience was perhaps tired out, for this is a virtue which is very apt to be fatigued by exercise.Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.Aristotle
Men are equal it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.Voltaire
To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote.Benjamin Franklin, ?
Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.Saint Thomas Aquinas
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.Abraham Lincoln
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.Sir Winston Churchill
Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.George Bernard Shaw
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.Baruch Spinoza, The Ethics
Happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it...Aristotle
Will it not be felt that Virtue, however beautiful, becomes the worst of all attitudes when it is found too feeble to contend with Vice...Marquis de Sade, Justine
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.Aristotle
Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.Henry Kissinge
Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves.Benjamin Franklin
A good inclination is but the first rude draught of virtue, but the finishing strokes are from the will, which, if well disposed, will by degrees perfect it, as if all disposed will quickly deface it.South
If you consider what are called the virtues in mankind, you will find their growth is assisted by education and cultivation.Xenophon
Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul.George Bancroft
Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue.Ambrose Bierce
The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.Lord Macaulay
There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.Pope Gregory The Great
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.Buddha
The man who willeth to do well... we should extol his virtues and speak not of his faults behind his back.Joseph Smith Jr.
The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
A large part of virtue consists in good habits.William Paley
Stimulate the heart to love, and all other virtues will rise of their own accord.W. T. Ussery
And be on they guard against the good and the just They would fain curcify those who devise their own virtue - - They hate the lonesome ones.Friedrich Nietzsche
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty.Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Reflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.Ralph Waldo Emerson, Address on The Method of Nature, 1841
Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell.G. K. Chesterton
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.Thomas Jefferson
To think ill of mankind, and not to wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.William Hazlitt
Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind.Matthew Prio
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.William Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure", Act 2 scene 1
We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.Ricthe
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.Plutarch, Morals
