Quotes About Virtue

Heaven made virtue; man, the appearance.

As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue.

It would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men would consider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe but he that is honest.

I care not whether a man is good or evil; all that I care / Is whether he is a wise man or a fool. Go! put off holiness, / And put on intellect.

Let men be good, and the Government cannot be bad.

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

The Master said, "The gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit." (Analects 4.16)

The mind of man has no defense To equal plain, old common sense. This homely virtue don't despise, If you would be happy as well as wise.

The man, most man, works best for men: and, if most man indeed, he gets his manhood plainest from his soul.

A wise man in his house should find a wife gentle and courteous, or no wife at all.

There is a variety in tempers of good men.

A fool has not stuff enough to make a good man.

In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

The man who wears the yellow-dyed robe but is not free from stains himself, without self-restraint and integrity, is unworthy of the robe.

You are an honest and honorable man...Ofttimes I forget that. I have met so few of them in my life.

Great men should not have great faults.

Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.

Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it.

Not every great man is a grand human being.

All great virtues become great men. [Fr., Toutes grandes vertus conviennent aux grands hommes.]

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

A good man ("un homme de bien", Fr.) never wholly perishes, the best part of his being outlives (or survives) in eternity.

There will be certain things in a man that have to be won, not forced; inspired, not compelled.

Audacity in wooing is a great virtue, but a man must measure even his virtues.