Quotes About Virtue

The tenor of my life has been the opposite of everything that is vile, and no man can lay any such thing to my charge.

Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

Education and morals make the good man, the good statesman, the good ruler.

A good man does not worry about not being known by others, but rather is concerned about not knowing them.

One good man, one good man, it ain't much - it's only everything.

Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, "Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta."

Only the just man enjoys peace of mind.

Men frequently do good only to give themselves opportunity of doing ill with impunity.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Begin with duties of a man and rights will follow as spring follows winter

Do you reject the glamor of Evil, and refuse to be mastered by it?

If he lived by a simple code of ethics, it was not an end in itself, but a way to get something done without selling his soul or destroying his reputation. It was a tool to be wielded like a shovel or a stick of dynamite.

You need to tend to your own faults, young fellow—excessive sobriety, e.g…" "A tendency to fret—" Pepys put in. "Undue chastity—let's back to the tavern!

It was the destruction of our society. When our society was based upon planting, it could truly be said, as the Master did, "Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.' But under the Western ti, wealth comes not from virtue but from cleverness. So the filial relationships became deranged. Chaos

I have come to the conclusion that the true benefit of religion is not to make people virtuous, which is impossible, but to put a sort of bridle on the worst excesses of their viciousness.

Not with shame, that's for sure. And not with guilt, and not with fear. For shame is not virtue, and guilt is not goodness, and fear is not honor. And not with lust, for lust is not passion; and not with abandon, for abandon is not freedom; and not with aggressiveness, for aggressiveness is not eagerness.

You can _know_ yourself to be generous, but unless you _do_ something which displays generosity, you have nothing but a concept. You can _know_ yourself to be kind, but unless you _do_ someone a kindness, you have nothing but an idea about yourself.

He is a good man, and will climb up to the Six Blissful Seats. He has known sin and trouble and it has not made him bitter; he has known sorrow and it has not made him sad. In these last months that have been granted to him he is trying to do good, not

For a Monarchy readily becomes a Tyranny, an Aristocracy an Oligarchy, while a Democracy tends to degenerate into Anarchy. So that if the founder of a State should establish any one of these three forms of Government, he establishes it for a short time only, since no precaution he may take can prevent it from sliding into its contrary, by reason of the close resemblance which, in this case, the virtue bears to the vice.

the manner in which we live, and that in which we ought to live, are things so wide asunder, that he who quits the one to betake himself to the other is more likely to destroy than to save himself; since any one who would act up to a perfect standard of goodness in everything, must be ruined among so many who are not good.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

For the friendships which we buy with a price, and do not gain by greatness and nobility of character, though they be fairly earned are not made good, but fail us when we have occasion to use them.

Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation

Virtue gives birth to tranquillity, tranquillity to leisure, leisure to disorder, disorder to ruin... and similarly from ruin, order is born, from order virtue, from virtue, glory and good fortune.