Quotes About Virtue

Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.

The end of education is character

Good company is important, it helps to cultivate good qualities.

In the politics of human life, consistency is not a virtue.

Bonhoeffer sketched what would in reality become his own virtue and fate: "But their peace will never be greater than when they encounter

Morality is about a heart that is right before God.

Virtue theory, which is also called aretaic ethics (from the Greek term arete, "virtue"), holds that morality is more than simply doing the right thing. The foundational moral claims made by the virtue theorist concern the moral agent (the person doing the action), not the act that the agent performs.

In his classic book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote the following line about making changes, asking God for help, failing, asking for forgiveness when needed, and trying again: "Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again." Lewis is saying that real change comes from continuing to try. That is encouraging because, in his wisdom, Lewis is acknowledging the difficulty of making lasting changes.

Glory seems to bestow herself like a whore on those least worthy.

A good book appeals to what is best in us....

We don't have to be bad forever. We can fight our urges. We can choose to be good.

Experience has shown us that virtue puts down only shallow roots in those who are there for just a short time

A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity.

Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.

In order not to feel time's horrid fardel bruise your shoulders, grinding you into the earth, get drunk and stay that way. On what? On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever. But get drunk!

There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either the one or the other.

There was a time when Patience ceased to be a virtue. It was long ago.

Your least favorite virtue, or nominee for the most overrated one? Faith. Closely followed—in view of the overall shortage of time—by patience.

Can I, just one time, play the good guy?

A deed happens in a definite place at a definite time, but if it be sufficiently great and pregnant, its virtue radiates everywhere in time and space.

The only fault's with time; All men become good creatures: but so slow!

The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.

The measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity - adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.

I am a citizen of the world, and I have met, in my time, with so many different sorts of virtue, that I am puzzled, in my old age, to say which is the right sort and which is the wrong.