Quotes About Virtue

Whereas modern systems of morality focus far more on whether given actions are good or evil, ancient ethical systems worried less about rules for action, and more about making men and women virtuous people—people capable of fulfilling their telos as human beings, and utilizing reason and character to carry out complex moral equations.

The notion of all men having equal freedom and independence sprang originally from the Biblical notion of man being made in God's image, admixed with the Greek tradition of individual reason, and passed down generation after generation, transmuted over time into the understanding that not only are human beings made in God's image with will and reason, but with the liberty to exercise that will and reason in accordance with the pursuit of virtue.

Because the polis is the context in which virtue is cultivated—and because cultivating virtue is the ultimate goal of man—the polis must be governed rigorously so that human beings are inculcated with virtue, according to Plato.

individual purpose lay in acting virtuously—fulfilling our telos by pursuing right reason in accordance with nature. Virtue, in turn, could only be defined with reference to the community. The individual, in this view, tends to disappear into the community.

As already noted, communal purpose was wrapped up with individual purpose: if the goal of the individual was to find happiness through virtuous citizenry, the goal of the community had to be promotion of that virtue.

What, then, of communal capacity? The community was tasked with two separate functions: instilling virtue in the citizenry, and protecting the citizens from the violation of natural law.

Christ did not exalt himself in a world full of self-promotion; rather he stepped down and served others, which most, especially the elite, in the Greco-Roman world would have seen as despicable, not admirable.

C. H. Dodd puts it this way: "To over-spiritualize religion is to weaken it ethically. ,286

Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Don Francisco Penáguilas, padre del joven, era un hombre más que bueno, era inmejorable, superiormente discreto, bondadoso, afable, honrado y magnánimo, no falto de instrucción.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

I say that justice is truth in action.

Evil communication corrupts good manners. I hope to live to hear that good communication corrects bad manners.

Justice is truth in action.

Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of

"Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues"

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright

In humility imitate Jesus and Socrates.

No longer virtuous no longer free; is a Maxim as true with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth.

I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody.