Quotes About Virtue

All those who write either explicitly or by insinuation against the dignity, freedom, and immortality of the human soul, may so far forth be justly said to unhinge the principles of morality, and destroy the means of making men reasonably virtuous.

Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

Private Vices, Public Benefits.

Passions may do good by chance, but there can be no merit but in the conquest of them.

the humblest man alive must confess, that the reward of a virtuous action, which is the satisfaction that ensues upon it, consists in a certain pleasure he procures to himself by contemplating on his own worth: which pleasure, together with the occasion of it, are as certain signs of pride, as looking pale and trembling at any imminent danger, are the symptoms of fear.

Le péché vaut mieux que l'hypocrisie.

Ce n'est pas parce qu'on est pauvre qu'on est vertueux, et ce n'est pas parce qu'on est riche qu'on est égoïste.

Be a girl of duty not a girl of beauty because beauty spoil ur duty while duty make u beauty.

Right is its own defense.

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

Righteous people have no sense of humor.

Das Edle ist wie eine Glocke, schlägt man sie, so tönt sie, schlägt man sie nicht, so tönt sie nicht.

Selflessness is a rare virtue, because it doesn't pay for itself.

Ransack the history of revolutions, and it will be found that every fall of a regime has been presaged by a defiance which went unpunished. It is as true today as it was ten thousand years ago that a Power from which the magic virtue has gone out, falls.

The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

Belief in hell takes all beauty from virtue; who cares for obedience only rendered through fear?

Do you think that, by nature, human beings are forgiving?" "I think that, by nature, human beings are self-protective," said Hanratty. "If it is in their interest to be forgiving, then they are. If not, then they are vengeful. I am fairly certain that being forgiving is not an innate virtue.

Socrates argued that only God can be a sophist, only God can be truly wise.

Myths are useful in forming not the total personality, but only the superego. The child knows that he cannot possibly live up to the hero's virtue, or parallel his deeds; all he can be expected to do is emulate the hero to some small degree; so the child is not defeated by the discrepancy between his ideal and his own smallness.

Yet it seems to me finishing well in this life is not so much about who is the best or greatest at something, but rather who embraces lowliness of heart. Laying down one's rights- meekness- is a blessed virtue, one that must surely come straight from the Throne of Grace.

Patience is yet another virtue, one that grows stronger through the practice of waiting

The man who every sacred science knows, Yet has not strength to keep in check the foes That rise within him, mars his Fortune?s fame, And brings her by his feebleness to shame.

Let cunning statesmen praise or blame, Let Fortune turn or go her way, Come instant death, or lingering shame, Firm souls from virtue will not stray.