Quotes About Virtue

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

But elephants have souls. Anything that can get drunk, he reasoned, must have some soul. Perhaps this is all "soul" means. Events between soul and soul are not God's direct province: they are under the influence either of Fortune, or of virtue.

Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, 'social justice'.

People are never more sincere than when they assume their own moral superiority.

but is also a vision of themselves and of their moral role in that world. It is a vision of differential rectitude. It is not a vision of the tragedy of the human condition: Problems exist because others are not as wise or as virtuous as the anointed.

To be a saint does not exclude fine dresses nor a beautiful house.

Nothing is worth the loss of one's conscience, or the ability to do what is right.

Who can be good, if not made so by loving? —St. Augustine

Character is who you are, when nobody is looking.

Obedience is not a virtue. I wanted to please everyone but myself, and I had to lose everything to learn that lesson. For my pride I had to lie in a glass coffin for twenty years to learn my lesson. By the time I was released, I understood. My husband was a good man, but he did not rescue me. I rescued myself.

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company. - George Washington

The tears ran freely down his cheeks. "Is this what people feel like? Bad ? Guilty? And when they do the right thing, the virtuous thing, is it only to keep themselves from feeling like this ? Is that what good is? What it means to be good?

I'm a good girl because I really believe in love, integrity, and respect.

We have a tendency to romanticize independence and see autonomy as a virtue. In my experience, such a view is a career killer. Autonomy is a life vest made out of sand. Independent people who do not have the skills to think and act interdependently may still be good individual producers, but they won't be seen as good leaders or team players.

All aspects of honor derive from honesty. A liar cannot truly be honorable, for where is the honor in deception?

Too little temptation can lead to virtue.

He had that basic integrity that is so rare as to be mistaken for altruism.

We're all good when it suits us, he used to say: that doesn't count. It's when you want so badly to do something wrong—when you're about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbor's wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble—that's when you need the rules. Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn't wave it until you're about to put it to the test.

He who is full of faith and modesty, who shrinks from sin, and is full of learning, who is diligent, unremiss, and full of understanding?he, being replete with these seven things, is esteemed a wise man.

Nature must have contrasts; she must have shadows as well as highlights; sorrow with happiness; both wrong and right; and sin as well as virtue.

Strength and courage are basic virtues for both followed and follower.

So in the wicked there's no vice Of which the saints have not a spice.

Good manners and good morals are sworn friends and fast allies.