Quotes About Virtue

I have asked myself if the best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free, then alas for the world! Alleyne

Save for the occasional use of cocaine he had no vices

Act'. How many good people do you really know? I discount those who mouth out platitudes for the edification of the young, and who truly are 'good', whatever that means? What a strange subject, and from such a strange person!Everyone I know is a mixture, some with more good than bad, and it varies on different days

I only wanted to be good—the trouble is that being good gets you nowhere.

Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.

We have learned, for example, that the more virtuous a man is the more severe is his super-ego, and that he blames himself for misfortunes for which he is clearly not responsible.

In this situation, what we call natural ethics has nothing to offer but the narcissistic satisfaction of being able to think one is better than others. This is where ethics based on religion enters the scene with its promises of a better life hereafter. I am inclined to think that, for as long as virtue goes unrewarded here below, ethics will preach in vain.

Die Strenge der ethischen Forderungen würde nicht viel schaden, wenn die Erziehung sagte: So sollten die Menschen sein, um glücklich zu werden und andere glücklich zu machen; aber man muß damit rechnen, daß sie nicht so sind. Anstatt dessen läßt man den Jugendlichen glauben, daß alle anderen die ethischen Vorschriften erfüllen, also tugendhaft sind. Damit begründet man die Forderung, daß er auch so werde.

Catherine [of Siena] compares justice combined with mercy with a precious pearl. Justice without mercy would be dark, cruel, more like injustice than justice. But mercy without justice would be like salve on a sore which should be cleansed with the red-hot iron; if the salve is applied before the wound is cleansed it only makes it smart, and does not heal it

And I don't believe any maiden of good family and with an honorable and Christian upbringing would part so easily with her honor, or her life. No, this is the kind of thing people write ballads about. I think when a man or a maiden is tempted to do something like that, they make up a ballad about it, which helps them, but they refrain from actually doing it.

Basil, The Holy Spirit sees how much difficulty mankind has in loving virtue, and how we prefer the lure of pleasure to the straight and narrow path. What does he do? He adds the grace of music to the truth of doctrine. Charmed by what we hear, we pluck the fruit of the words without realizing it.39

And he needed to be able to look at himself in the mirror without having to turn away - he couldn't bear to be less than he hoped he was. It was a virtue and a fault that he would carry with him all his life.

The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: 'virtue', as the ancients called it, is defined on the level of 'that which depends on us'.

La scrittura esige virtù scoraggianti, sforzi, pazienza; è un'attività solitaria in cui il pubblico esiste solo come speranza.

The evil which he had made his refuge vanished when crime was justified by virtue.

Yet, there is hardly a sadder virtue than resignation. It transforms into phantoms and contingent reveries projects which had at the beginning been set up as will and freedom.

To claim that theft or adultery or lying are evil simply reflects our degraded idea of good-—that it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.

Friendship is not to be sought, not to be dreamed, not to be desired; it is to be exercised (it is a virtue).

Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.

A amizade não se procura, não se imagina, não se deseja; exercita-se (é uma virtude)

The object of an action and the level of the energy by which it is carried out are distinct from each other. A certain thing must be done. But where is the energy to be drawn for its accomplishment? A virtuous action can lower a man if there is not enough energy available on the same level.

He who treats as equals those who are far below him in strength really makes them a gift of the quality of human beings, of which fate had deprived them. As far as it is possible for a creature, he reproduces the original generosity of the Creator with regard to them. This is the most Christian of virtues.

EFFACEMENT Dieu m'a donné l'être pour que je le lui rende. C'est comme une de ces épreuves qui ressemblent à des pièges et qu'on voit dans les contes et les histoires d'initiation. Si j'accepte ce don, il est mauvais et fatal ; sa vertu apparaît par le refus. Dieu me permet d'exister en dehors de lui. A moi de refuser cette autorisation. L'humilité, c'est le refus d'exister en dehors de Dieu. Reine des vertus.

Searching leads to error. It is this way for every kind of thing that is truly good. We must not do anything but wait expectantly for the good and depart from evil. In the reversals that constitute the human condition, authentic virtue in every domain is negative (non-active), at least in appearance. But this expectant waiting for the good and for truth is more intense that any search.