Quotes About Virtue

If I have learned anything in my time among you, it is this: true honor lives not in the skill of weapons or the strength of arms, but in virtue. Skill fades and strength fails; virtue alone remains. Therefore, let us put off all that is false. Let us prefer instead the valor of virtue, and the glory of right.

If thou wouldst seek justice, thyself must be just.

The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test.

Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.

Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.

When you see a good person, think about evaluating that person. When you see a bad person, think about evaluating yourself. —CONFUCIUS

Their holiness didn't have a thing to do with what they did or didn't do.

Captain," said Khaavren, both by way of affirmation and correction, thus conveying the maximum amount of information in the fewest possible words; a custom of his, and one that this historian has, in fact, adopted for himself, holding efficiency of language to be a high virtue in all written works without exception.

Innocence is only a virtue, lass, when it is temporary. You must pass from it to look back and recognize its unsullied purity. To remain innocent is to twist beneath invisible and unfathomable forces all your life, until one day you realize that you no longer recognize yourself, and it comes to you that innocence was a curse that had shackled you, stunted you, defeated your every expression of living.

Desires should never be justified,' Tehol said, wagging a finger. 'All you end up doing is illuminating the hidden reasons by virtue of their obvious absence.

They are human, after all, and it is human nature to transform loss into a virtue. So that it might be lived with, so that it might be justified.

Soldiers have nothing to look forward to, making patience an easy virtue, and sometimes it`s not just a virtue but a contest of indifference.

The measure of and self-congratulation for our own intelligence should have its basis in our moral behavior as well as our smarts.

There never was one particle of... jealousy... in the heart of Hyrum Smith.

A true gentleman has no vices, but he allows you your own.

I'm not sure what a good person is, exactly. On the one hand, it could be someone who always play by the rules. But someone can follow the rules and still be a real jerk, you know? In fact, some of the biggest idiots I know are people who follow the rules, usually because they make you feel like crap when you don't.

Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.

There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail. "On Repentance

Il n'est si homme de bien, qu'il mette à l'examen des loix toutes ses actions et pensées, qui ne soit pendable dix fois en sa vie. (There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.)

If virtue cannot shine bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that she cannot subsist without the assistance of vice, and that it is from her that she derives her reputation and honor?

The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly; its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur, but in mediocrity.

The other two are rich and noble; examples of virtue rarely make their home among people like that.

It is quite normal to see good intentions, when not carried out with moderation, urging men to actions which are truly vicious.

L'honneste est stable et permanent.