Virtue Quotes

The man who willeth to do well... we should extol his virtues and speak not of his faults behind his back.

Joseph Smith Jr.

To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.

Confucius

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Confucius, The Confucian Analects

There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.

Pope Gregory The Great

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Barry Goldwate

There is no virtue in being uncritical nor is it a habit to which the young are given. But criticism is only the burying beetle that gets rid of what is dead, and, since the world lives by creative and constructive forces, and not by negation and destruction, it is better to grow up in the company of prophets than of critics.

Richard Livingstone

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.

Evelyn Waugh, Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (1976)

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

John Locke

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.

Francis Quarles

Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind.

Matthew Prio

The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

Henry Kissinge

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

George Bernard Shaw

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

Quintilian

He is ill clothed, who is bare of virtue.

Benjamin Franklin

All government - - Indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act - - Is founded on compromise and barter.

Edmund Burke, Speech on the Conciliation of America

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

Brendan Francis Behan

In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.

Cornelius Tacitus

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man", 1792

Virtue is indeed its own reward.

Claudianus

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

Nikola Tesla

Bluntness is a virtue.

Allison Ling

Men are equal it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

Voltaire

It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Ayn Rand

Silver and gold are not the only coin virtue too passes current all over the world.

Euripides

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

Confucius, The Confucian Analects

There are men whom a happy disposition, a strong desire of glory and esteem, inspire with the same love for justice and virtue which men in general have for riches and honors.... But the number of these men is so small that I only mention them in honor of humanity.

Claude Adrien Helvetius

Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.

Erik H. Erikson

To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue... They are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

Confucius, The Confucian Analects

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

Horace, Epistles

If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had.

I. F. Stone

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.

Lord Macaulay

A weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic.

Sir J. R. Seeley

The great virtue in life is real courage that knows how to face facts and live beyond them.

D. H. Lawrence

What is a weed A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Music like religion, unconditionally brings in its train all the moral virtues to the heart it enters, even though that heart is not in the least worthy.

Jean Baptiste Montegut

Self - Respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

John Herschel