Quotes About Virtue

In evil times, when public virtue has left the earth, ancient writings are of little account, and no one cares to disturb the silence of the libraries.

We are here to add to the sum of human goodness. To prove the thing exists. And however futile each individual act of courage or generosity, self-sacrifice or grace-it still proves the thing exists. Each act adds to the fund. It needs replenishment. Not only because evil flourishes, and is, most indefensibly, defended. But because goodness is no longer a respectable aim in life. The hound of hell, envy, has driven it from the house.

My humbleness ranks among the greatest in the world."

I've never had anyone define purity. You probably can't define purity. Purity is to live according to original design.

Among mankind's greatest faults is his a) kindness, b) generosity, c) fortitude, d) contentment, e) vanity. That was debatable. But the Pythagorean theorem was not, and if the civilian Uri was one side and the soldier Uri was the other, the true him was the hypotenuse, slanted opposite, the squared sum of both.

The irony of their impatience is that only by learning to wait, and by a willingness to accept the bad with the good, do we usually attain those things that are truly worthwhile.

The power of noble deeds is to be preserved and passed on to the future.

I'd learned myself by the age of sixteen that just as girls guarded their virginity, boys guarded something less tangible which they called Themselves.

rojo era símbolo de libertad, caridad y salud, y el amarillo de justicia, virtud y clemencia.

El mito comunitarista cristiano trata de aplicarse a la vida en las villas. La Iglesia proclama la pobreza como virtud. Pero la pobreza no es una virtud sino tan solo una carencia, y no es una identidad cultural sino una condición social desventajosa.

The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit is of great worth in God's sight.

Of all human sins, the only one Anabel really found unforgivable was unkindness.

Despite fiery disagreements about who or what God is and how to make contact, all these religions agree that patience is the essence of spirituality and thus grants great strength. Judaism says, "A patient man is better than a warrior." In Buddhism, bodhisattvas train in this practice to become enlightened. Christianity and Islam deem it a sacred virtue. Patience endows you with faith in yourself and your destiny, an illuminated capacity to deal with frustration and disappointments.

Courage not aligned with a higher good isn't always positive—a burglar can be plenty courageous as he robs you blind.

Paradise does not exist, but we must nonetheless strive to be worthy of it.

Nu exist? paradis, dar trebuie s? facem a?a ca s? merit?m s? existe unul.

Virtue and flourishing are both central in it, but neither is a basis or foundation from which other parts of the theory can be derived, nor do they jointly form such a foundation. Rather, the theory is holistic in structure; the different parts are mutually supportive.

We always learn to be virtuous in a given context; there is no such thing as just learning to be generous or loyal in the abstract.

The Stoics think that there are no parts or divisions to the human soul, and that it is all rational. (By the soul they mean the item that makes humans live in a characteristically human way.) Emotions are not blind, non-rational forces which can overcome rational resolve; they are themselves a kind of reason which the person determines to act on.

A virtue is a disposition which is central to the person, to whom he or she is, a way we standardly think of character.

any breaches

Modesty is not a religion in itself but rather a twofold act of the will for God's glorification. Therefore we must work towards and possess a well-formed conscience, practice prudence and try to live a life of holiness, which the Church calls Christians to do anyway.

Of all the virtues, discretion began to seem the most rewarding: it kept people guessing and sometimes, by default, admiring.

Do you know what I like about you, Elizabeth?" She couldn't even possibly imagine. "You're as kind and good a person as they come," he continued, "but unlike most kind and good people, you don't preach or cloy, or try to make everyone else kind and good ... And underneath all that kindness and goodness, you seem to possess a wicked sense of humor, no matter how hard you occasionally try to suppress it.