Quotes About Virtue

Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare, more apt To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.

Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet every body is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.

Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the veil that a man can be guilty of.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Riches are apt to betray a man into arrogance.

A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality.

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their friends.

It is true that wealth won't make a man virtuous, but I notice there ain't anybody who wants to be poor just for the purpose of being good.

He is man whose heart is spirited and eyes are wet each moment on account of the sorrow, compassion, virtue, beauty, and nobility that decorate this world.

A great man may not do great things but they do ordinary things greatly.

Nonviolence is the virtue of the manly. The coward is innocent of it.

Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee, what can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just?

No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.

Nothing is more praiseworthy, nothing more suited to a great and illustrious man than placability and a merciful disposition.

Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men. [Lat., Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando.]

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.

Beware of the virtue which a man boasts is his.

If none were to Marry, but Men of strict Vertue and Honour, I doubt the World would be but thinly peopled.

No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune.

The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute- he simply speaks and does what is right.