Quotes About Virtue

A good man will certainly also possess courage; but a brave man is not necessarily good.

The superior man accords with the course of the Mean. Though he may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret - It is only the sage who is able for this.

No man will revel long in the indulgence of crime.

A man's goodness is truly measured by what he is, not what he does.

The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him.

Were there no desire there would be no virtue, and because one man desires what another does not, who shall say whether the child of his desire be Vice or Virtue?

The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.

There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.

Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit, and a series of unconnected arts. Though just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.

For that which all men then did virtue call, Is now called vice; and that which vice was hight, Is now hight virtue, and so used of all: Right now is wrong, and wrong that was is right

The man that makes a character, makes foes.

The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.

A Christian is the highest style of man.

To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.

I love humility in a woman. It's so rare. With man, of course, it is practically extinct.

Keep alive the light of justice, And much that men say in blame will pass you by.

The gifts of bad men bring no good with them.

The gift of a bad man can bring no good.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man.

The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.

The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.

For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.

However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.