Quotes About Virtue

Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.

The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment: these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per se.

How much easier it is to be generous than just Men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest.

If I have a theological virtue, it is curiosity or inquisitiveness.

We are neither the pawns of devils, nor the enemies of virtue. We are simply curious, pragmatic, and rebellious -- too curious to be timid, too defiant for morality, and too pragmatic to wreck shit "just because.

Honesty is praised and starves.

Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living to lose what makes life worth having.

One path alone leads to a life of peace: The path of virtue.

Refrain from doing ill for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds we are all to prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.

Refrain from doing ill; for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds; we are all too prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.

Evil flourishes because the good aren't good enough," see murmured. "And sometimes the good just have bad days.

But (he explained to me, when I objected) what the people want is something that looks at first sight like real life, but which actually turns out to be a fairy tale with virtue triumphant, evil utterly vanquished, a positive, uplifting message, a gutsy, kick-ass female lead and, if at all possible, unicorns.

are children of the Father by virtue of our existence; trapped in Time we may be, but our Father loves us and He will find us.

One of our teachers in the early days of our Path said that one of the things not allowed of the dervish is fear. We cannot afford to be defeated by our fears. We may experience some really rough times so that we can come to know this. The rough times are a gift too. Everything can become a good. Sin can lead to virtue and fear can lead to something beyond fear. The truth is that everything ultimately is a mercy. (p. 9)

He who requires urging to do a noble act will never accomplish it.

The best of men is he who blushes when you praise him and remains silent when you defame him.

People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. We are wicked because we are frightfully self-conscious. We nurse a conscience because we are afraid to tell the truth to others; we take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves. How can one be serious with the world when the world itself is so ridiculous!

Our standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of society, but is society to remain always the same? The observance of communal traditions involves a constant sacrifice of the individual to the state. Education, in order to keep up the mighty delusion, encourages a species of ignorance. People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.

People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.

In a late interview, Belle herself characterized her life as if it were one long sin that needed to be confessed—with one pointed exception. "I have lied, sworn, killed (I guess) and I have stolen," she said. "But . . . I thank God that I can say on my death bed that I am a virtuous woman. . . . Fortune has played me a sad trick by letting me live on and on.

The Elizabethans used many more herbs than we do today, including those rarely seen in modern kitchens, such as hyssop, pennyroyal, tansy, and rue. According to a sixteenth-century nutrition guide, A Dyetary of Healthe, "There is no Herbe, nor weede, but God hae given vertue to them, to helpe man." Puréed Carrots with Currants and Spices SERVES 6 Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast?

All is lost save honor.

Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Virtue is like precious odors—most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.