Virtue Quotes
Morality, taken as apart from religion, is but another name for decency in sin. It is just that negative species of virtue which consists in not doing what is scandalously depraved and wicked. But there is no heart of holy principle in it, any more than there is in the grosser sin.Horace Bushnell
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 has never been as respectable as money.Mark Twain
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
There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.Mary Bertone
Great necessities call out great virtues.Abigail Adams
Self - Respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.John Herschel
Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.Gay
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.Barry Goldwate
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 glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.Sallust
Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.Clare Booth Luce
Virtue they will but abuse, and taunt her with bitter revilling.Marcus Aurelius, Meditations - Book Eleven
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
I have not seen a person who loved virtue, or one who hated what was not virtuous. He who loved virtue would esteem nothing above it.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
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
Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.Cicero
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
The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.Lord Macaulay
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
Bluntness is a virtue.Allison Ling
Silence is the virtue of fools.Sir Francis Bacon
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Virtue is indeed its own reward.Claudianus
A large part of virtue consists in good habits.William Paley
Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
One path alone leads to a life of peace: The path of virtue.Juvenal
What is virtue but the trades unionism of the married.George Bernard Shaw
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
If by saying that all men are born free and equal, you mean that they are all equally born; it is true, but true in no other sense; birth, talent, labor, virtue, and providence, are forever making differences.Eugene Edwards
Not to be cheered by praise, Not to be grieved by blame, But to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers Are the characteristics of an excellent man.Saskya Pandita
Patience is the greatest of all virtues.Cato the Elde
No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic.Sir J. R. Seeley
Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind.Matthew Prio
Virtue is insufficient temptation.George Bernard Shaw
The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
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
