Quotes About Virtue

CVIII [...] Se vòi d'Amor o d'altro bene stare, magistra sit tibi vita aliena, Disse Cato in su' versificare

I remember arguing that moral greatness had little meaning without action to effect the moral end.

Lord bless us! I never would have believed it! said the friar, startled out of his usual cynicism. 'An honest man!

Lord bless us! I never would have believed it!' said the friar, startled out of his usual cynicism. 'An honest man!

Physicians don't do the best for their patients because they: practice defensive medicine (Self-defense), do not understand health statistics (Innumeracy), or pursue profit instead of virtue (Conflicts of interest).

There has come into existence, chiefly in America, a breed of men who claim to be feminists. They imagine that they have understood what women want and that they are capable of giving it to them. They help with the dishes at home and make their own coffee in the office, basking the while in the refulgent consciousness of virtue. Such men are apt to think of the true male feminists as utterly chauvinistic.

The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with.

Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.

What do you want to say to me?' 'Nothing—just to talk about the profession I am entering. I am about to practice virtue in order to find a man who loves it only to destroy it' [replied Mademoiselle Vesian.] 'That is it exactly; and believe me, everything in this life is much the same. We refer everything to ourselves, and each of us is a tyrant. That is why the best of mortals is he who is tolerant.

La pazienza è la più eroica delle virtù giusto perché non ha nessuna apparenza d'eroico.

Alle sembianze il Padre, alle amene sembianze eterno regno diè alle genti; e per virili imprese, per dotta lira o canto, virtù non luce in disadorno ammanto.

Dico che il mondo è una lega di birbanti contro gli uomini dabbene, di vili contro i generosi.

se vogliamo entrare nella via del piacere con viltà, disprezzo e schiavitù loro e delle loro nazioni, o in quella della virtù con onore, gloria e felicità" SN, 1411

It's easy to do what is not good And things that harm oneself. It's very difficult to do Things beneficial and good.

No Galahad, he still cherished the conviction that women, with rare exceptions, were either "good" or "bad".

Love means to love that which is unlovable or it is no virtue at all.

Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.

A sober man may become a drunkard through being a coward. A brave man may become a coward through being a drunkard.

Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil.

When some English moralists write about the importance of having character, they appear to mean only the importance of having a dull character.

For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.

There's no credit in not doing what you don't want to do. There's no virtue in not falling, when you're not tempted.

She belongs to a race of delightful women, who never do any harm, whom everybody calls good, and who are very severe on those who do not pretend to be good.

But when a person has done the right thing, we cannot then say that he knew how to do the wrong thing, or that he was competent to make mistakes.