Quotes About Virtue

To the virtuous man, the universe is the only sanctum sanctorum, and the penetralia of the temple are the broad noon of his existence.

Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?

Perverted pride is a great misfortune in men; but pride in its original function, for which God created it, is indispensable to a proper manhood.

Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.

God's men are better than the devil's men, and they ought to act as though they thought they were.

Morality is character and conduct such as is required by the circle or community in which the man's life happens to be placed. It shows how much good men require of us.

No great question will ever be settled in dollars and cents. Great questions must be settled on moral grounds and the tests of what makes free men.

Nothing can lift the heart of man like manhood in a fellow man.

Who is a good man? He who keeps the decrees of the fathers, and both human and divine laws. [Lat., Vir bonus est quis? Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat.]

No one is born without vices, and he is the best man who is encumbered with the least.

Even virtue followed beyond reason's rule May stamp the just man knave, the sage a fool.

Decus et pretium recte petit experiens vir. The man who makes the attempt justly aims at honour and reward.

The contempt of money is no more a virtue than to wash one's hand is one; but one does not willingly shake hands with a man that never washes his.

That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.

No hell will frighten men away from sin; no dread of prospective misery; only goodness can cast hell out of any man, and set up the kingdom of heaven within.

Of this blest man, let his just praise be given, Heaven was in him, before he was in Heaven.

So long as you do not quarrel with sin, you will never be a truly happy man.

If we must live with a perpetual sense that the world and the men in it are greater than we and too much for us, let it be the measure of our virtue that we know this and seek no comfort.

What is called virtue in the common sense of the word has nothing to do with this or that man's prosperity, or even happiness.

Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct.

When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies).

He's true to God who's true to man.

He's a good man," Ranger said. "And you?" "I'm better.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.