Quotes About Virtue

Cruel men are the greatest lovers of Mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say, in other, not in themselves.

The higher type of man clings to virtue, the lower type of man clings to material comfort. The higher type of man cherishes justice, the lower type of man cherishes the hope of favors to be received.

True goodness springs from a man's own heart. All men are born good.

The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided.

Conscience, that boon companion who sets a man free under the strong breastplate of innocence, that bids him on and fear not.

If by saying that all men are born equal, you mean that they are equally born, it is true, but true in no other sense; birth, talent, labor, virtue, and providence, are forever making differences

Man cannot be uplifted; he must be seduced into virtue

All actual heroes are essential men, And all men possible heroes.

There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

... the good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.

They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon.

Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity.

Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.

Friendship (as the ancients saw) can be a school of virtue, but also (as they did not see) a school of vice. It is ambivalent. It makes good men better and bad men worse.

As the touchstone tries gold, so gold tries men.

The superior man, even when he is not moving, has a feeling of reverence, and while he speaks not, he has the feeling of truthfulness.

Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta.

When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.

There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more.

A good man enlarges the term of his own existence.