Quotes About Virtue

He spent part of last year working in Canada, and I think it rubbed off on him, diminishing his innate American ability to celebrate the civic virtue of idiocy.

Even worse is the discovery that one has been living out certain greeting-card sentiments, with ribbons of middle-class virtue tied in a bow around one's heart.

aretaic ethics is a category of ethics that focuses on the virtues produced in individuals, not the morality of specific acts.

Fourth, although a bit more difficult to do than the previous three considerations, you should attempt to evaluate the character of the moral actor. Character is the tendency of a person to act in predictable ways over time. Virtue theorists have led the way in insisting that any ethic that does not concern itself with character and virtue is incomplete and reduces ethics to merely a preoccupation with actions, specifically moral dilemmas that people do not often face.

Ethical systems may be classified as either action-oriented systems or virtue-based systems. Under these two major divisions are three subcategories by which ethical systems may be further classified: deontological systems, teleological systems, and relativism.

Driven by petty ambition, we serve only ourselves. St. Josemaria put it well: "Those who are 'ambitious,' with small, personal, miserable ambitions, cannot understand that the friends of God should seek to achieve something through a spirit of service and without such'ambition.' " We should never confuse Christian humility and modesty with a will to underachieve.

Sainthood does not mean sinlessness.

Sometimes suffering is what's best for us, if only because it keeps us from sinning or tempting others to sin.

Und nennen Sie mir den Menschen, der übler Laune ist und so brav dabei, sie zu verbergen, sie allein zu tragen, ohne die Freude um sich her zu zerstören! Oder ist sie nicht vielmehr ein innerer Unmut über unsere eigene Unwürdigkeit, ein Mißfallen an uns selbst, das immer mit einem Neide verknüpft ist, der durch eine törichte Eitelkeit aufgehetzt wird? Wir sehen glückliche Menschen, die wir nicht glücklich machen, und das ist unerträglich.

Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut! Denn das allein unterscheidet ihn von allen Wesen, die wir kennen.

If that which harms oneself as well as one's neighbor deserves the name [of vice]. Is it not enough that we cannot make each otjer happy; should we in addition deprive each other of that pleasure which every heart may sometimes grant itself?

un hombre bueno, incluso extraviado en la oscuridad, es consciente del buen camino.

Si la prudencia pudiese conciliarse con la juventud, si pudiesen existir repúblicas sin virtud alguna, ¡cuán pronto vería el mundo cumplidos sus altos destinos!

Der Undank ist immer eine Art Schwäche. Ich habe nie gesehen, dass tüchtige Menschen undankbar gewesen wären.

Personalmente preferisco sopportare nel mio ambiente errori e infrazioni fino a quando posso imporre la virtù contraria, piuttosto che liberarmi dell'errore senza vederlo sostituito da nulla di corretto. L'essere umano ama fare il bene, l'utile, se solo riesce ad arrivarci; lo fa per fare qualcosa e non riflette in merito più di quanto non faccia su quegli sciocchi scherzi che compie per ozio e noia.

77 The man who is up and doing should see to it that what he does is right. Whether or not right is done, is a matter which should not trouble him.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility.

To be loyal to "the highest" in us, we must act with reverence toward all of life. By defining virtue in a cooperative rather than a competitive fashion, we seek the common good, which moves us wherever possible from "either/or" confrontation to "both/and" reconciliation.

The most virtuous hearts have a touch of hell's own fire in them.

The most valuable thing in the world is a good person.

Integrity is the noblest possession. -Latin Proverb.

they will have the right to expect from you the highest standards of character, professional competence and integrity.

Virtue is not always amiable.