Quotes About Virtue

Your leader is only one man," I heard my voice say. "His strength is no more supernatural than your own, nor is his virtue, and by himself he could never preserve the good things that belong by right to everyone. To govern well, he must have your help—the help of his true, trustworthy friends. You must forever be worthy of his trust, and you must raise up true friends of your own, to help you carry your own burdens. And it is love that must bind all of us together.

For I believe that the best life is lived by those who take the best care to make themselves as good as possible, and the pleasantest life by those who are most conscious that they are becoming better.

the shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be: and if you observe, you will find that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them. 

but that it is only the writings and precepts of the philosophers and other fine writers that are the true riches, because they enrich with virtue the minds of those that possess them. Euthydemus

Shamelessness, they hold, treads close on the heels of ingratitude, and thus ingratitude is the ringleader and chief instigator to every kind of baseness.

it is no disgrace but honourable rather to steal, except such things as the law forbids;

Remember too," I added, "that getting rid of scoundrels ends the danger of contamination for the rest of the army. Men are drawn closer to virtue when they see the dishonor that falls on misleaders.

Gentlemen," I said to my officers, "let's talk about discipline within our army, and let's consider our danger from no-account leaders. Unfortunately, such rogues sometimes find more followers than good leaders. Promising everyone a good time with plenty of instant rewards, these scoundrels can exert much more influence than virtuous men, who end up alone on steep, rocky paths.

We're bound to be proud of the way our children turn out if they see nothing unseemly and hear nothing shameful. They, like us, will live in the light of all that's good, and their virtue—like ours—will be their strength.

do you not take him to be just who commits no manner of injustice? It

I've trained you to be as honest as any man who ever lived, but if virtue serves to guide our actions with our friends and allies, every sort of trick can be used against our enemies. That's why you were taught never to hunt a lion or a bear without some special advantage. Didn't that kind of lesson teach you cunning and deceit?

that the truly contented man is not the possessor of vast riches. The crown of happiness goes to the person who has the skill to gain money fairly, use it honorably, and not mistake gold for a god of power and light.

Do you think there is anything worse for a man than that which makes him choose what is bad for him instead what is good, and persuades him to cultivate the former and disregard the latter, and compels him to behave in the opposite way to that which is adopted by disciplined people?

no speech of admonition can be so fine that it will all at once make those who hear it good men if they are not good already; it would surely not make archers good if they had not had previous practice in shooting; neither would it make lancers good, nor horsemen; it cannot even make men able to endure bodily labour, unless they have been trained to it before.

Nil magnum nisi bonum. No greatness without goodness.

I tell you, to be drunk on alcohol is disgraceful, but to be drunk on water is noble and ecstatic.

Nil magnum nisi bonum. Tak ada kemuliaan tanpa kebajikan.

to be drunk on alcohol is disgraceful, but to be drunk on water is noble and ecstatic.

No greatness without goodness.

High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.

The wise person is the one who knows all things in compliance with what is fitting.

Goodness is beauty in the best estate.

True heroism, as the ancients understood, isn't about strength, or boldness, or even courage. It's about compassion.

Heroism isn't some mysterious inner virtue, the Greeks believed; it's a collection of skills that every man and woman can master so that in a pinch, they can become a Protector.