Quotes About Virtue

To do an evil action is base; to do a good action without incurring danger is common enough; but it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risks every thing.

Humility saves man: pride makes him lose his way.

To avert disaster, we have not only to teach men to make things but to teach them to have complete moral control over what they make.

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

A man who does not know how to be angry, does not know how to be good. Now and then a man should be shaken to the core with indignation over things evil.

It is a hard thing for a man to be righteous, if the unrighteous man is to have the greater right.

I go by the great republican principle, that the people will have the virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom [to the offices of government].

To say of men that they are bad is to say they are worse than we think we are, or worse than the ideal man whose image we have built up on the basis of a certain few.

An honest man nearly always thinks justly.

It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossi?ble that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.

There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.

The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.

A man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish.

The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to be a hero for fifteen minutes.

It is a shame for a man to desire honor because of his noble progenitors, and not to deserve it by his own virtue.

Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself

In every good man a God doth dwell.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.

What a paragon of virtue you are, gunslinger!" the man in black laughed.

Nothing marks a man's character better than his attraction to intelligence.

A wise and good man will turn examples of all sorts to his own advantage. The good he will make his patterns, and strive to equal or excel them. The bad he will by all means avoid.

The best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.