Quotes About Virtue

What conclusion is to be drawn from this paradox so worthy of being born in our time; and what will become of virtue when one has to get rich at all cost? The ancient political thinkers forever spoke of morals and of virtue; ours speak only of commerce and money.

Quelques crimes toujours précèdent les grands crimes. Quiconque a pu franchir les bornes légitimes Peut violer enfin les droits les plus sacrés; Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degrés, Et jamais on n'a vu la timide innocence Passer subitement à l'extrême licence.

What I can claim is that no other work of mine depicts virtue with greater prominence: here the slightest misdemeanour is severely punished; the mere thought of wrongdoing is viewed with as much horror as the enactment of it; lapses that derive from love are treated as absolute failings; the passions are represented only to demonstrate the destructive anarchy to which they give rise; and vice is everywhere portrayed in colours which cause its ugliness to be known for what it is and abhorred.

Saddest of all are the woman who were brought up to believe that self-sacrifice is the highest female virtue.

I said, If we were good always would we be happy always? No, said Grandmother. Then I shall be bad.

All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.

Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

How could I become wicked, when I had nothing but examples of gentleness before my eyes, and none around me but the best people in the world?

The continual emotion that is felt in the theater excites us, enervates us, enfeebles us, and makes us less able to resist our passions. And the sterile interest taken in virtue serves only to satisfy our vanity without obliging us to practice it.

If I had remained free, obscure, and alone placed in the situation Nature designed me for, I should have done nothing but what was right, for my heart bears not the feeds of any mischievous passion. Had I been invisible and powerful as the Almighty, I should have been benevolent and good like him: it is power and freedom that make good men, weakness and slavery never made any but wicked ones.

From this moment there would be no question of virtue or morality; for despotism cui ex honesto nulla est spes, wherever it prevails, admits no other master; it no sooner speaks than probity and duty lose their weight and blind obedience is the only virtue which slaves can still practice.

The good man can be proud of his virtue because it is his. But of what is the intelligent man proud?

I call every man intolerant from principle, who conceives no man can be a man of virtue and probity, who does not believe exactly what he does, and unmercifully consigns to perdition all those who do not think like himself. On Providence

Las galas no tienen nada que ver con la virtud, que es la fuerza y el vigor del alma. El hombre de bien es un atleta que se complace en combatir desnudo: desprecia todos los viles ornatos que estorbarían la utilización de sus fuerzas y que no han sido inventados en su mayoría sino para esconder alguna deformidad.

One advantage resulting from good actions is that they elevate the soul to a disposition of attempting still better; for such is human weakness, that we must place among our good deeds an abstinence from those crimes we are tempted to commit.

DoÄŸruluk yolunu seçiÅŸim, doÄŸru olma duygusundan çok gerçeÄŸi sevmeme dayan?r; gerçekten, uygulamada, eÄŸriyle doÄŸrunun soyut kavramlar?n? deÄŸil, vicdan?m?n ahlak alan?ndaki yolunu izledim. ÇoÄŸu kez, masal anlatt?m; ama pek az yalan söyledim.

it is to this ardor for making oneself the topic of conversation, to this furor to distinguish oneself which nearly always keeps us outside ourselves, that we owe what is best and worst among men, our virtues and vices, our sciences and our errors, our conquerors and our philosophers, that is to say, a multitude of bad things against a small number of good ones.

Los antiguos políticos hablaban continuamente de buenas costumbres y de virtud; los nuestros no hablan sino de comercio y de dinero. Uno

Cuando los hombres inocentes y virtuosos gustaban de tener a los dioses por testigos de sus actos, vivían juntos en las mismas cabañas; pero en seguida se volvieron malvados, se hastiaron de esos incómodos espectadores y los relegaron dentro de templos magníficos. Finalmente los expulsaron de ellos para establecerse ellos mismos; o, al menos, los templos de los dioses no se distinguieron ya de las casas de los ciudadanos. Fue

La integridad de un hombre de bien es siempre antipática a los malvados.

Mis sentimientos se acomodaron con una rapidez inconcebible al tono de mis ideas. El entusiasmo por la verdad, la libertad y la virtud ahogó todas mis pequeñas pasiones; y lo mas sorprendente es que esta efervescencia subsistió en mi corazón durante más de cuatro o cinco años, llegando a tan alto grado como jamás haya existido en otro corazón humano. Escribí

The sophism that ruined me is the one made by the majority of men, who complain about lacking strength when it is already too late to make use of it. [...] Virtue costs us only through our own fault, and if we always wanted to be wise, we would rarely need to be virtuous. But inclinations that would be easy to overcome sweep us away without resistance: we give way to slight temptations whose danger we scorn

Flattery, or rather condescension, is not always a vice, it is more often a virtue, especially in young people. The kindness with which a man treats us attaches us to him; one does not give way to him in order to deceive him, one does so in order not to make him sad, not to return him harm for good.