Quotes About Virtue

Descending to the earth, that strange intoxicating beauty of the unseen world, lurks in the elements of Nature. And the soul of man, who has attained the rightful balance, becoming aware of this hidden joy, straight away is enamoured and bewitched. And from this mystic marriage are born the poets' songs, inner knowledge, the language of the heart, virtuous living, and the fair child beauty. And the Great Soul gives to man as dowry, the hidden glory of the world.

As one acts and conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.

El hombre sólo vale por lo que sabe. Saber es poder. Los sabios educan con el ejemplo, y nada hay que conquiste al espíritu humano más profundamente que el ejemplo (...) Socrates, filósofo griego, afirmaba con el peso con el peso de la autoridad enorme: "Sólo es útil el conocimiento que nos hace mejores". Séneca, otro pensador famoso, decía incrédulo: "¿Qué importa saber qué es una línea recta, si no se sabe lo que es la rectitud?".

El hombre sólo vale por lo que sabe. Saber es poder. Los sabios educan con el ejemplo, y nada hay que conquiste al espíritu humano más profundamente que el ejemplo (...) Socrates, filósofo griego, afirmaba con el peso de la autoridad enorme: "Sólo es útil el conocimiento que nos hace mejores". Séneca, otro pensador famoso, decía incrédulo: "¿Qué importa saber qué es una línea recta, si no se sabe lo que es la rectitud?".

It is not by destroying the lower nature that man becomes virtuous; it is by the transmutation and regeneration of every base quality and attitude that he achieves divinity.

Plato defined good as threefold in character: good in the soul, expressed through the virtues; good in the body, expressed through the symmetry and endurance of the parts; and good in the external world, expressed through social position and companionship.

Single is every living creature born, Single he passes to another world, Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds, Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves His body, like a log or heap of clay, Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away: Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb, And bears him through the dreary, trackless gloom.

to become a saint one had to suffer much, seek out always the most perfect thing to do, and forget self.

charity consists in bearing with the faults of others, in not being surprised at their weakness, [15] in being edified by the smallest acts of virtue we see them practice.

God made me [32r°] feel that true glory is that which will last eternally, and to reach it, it isn't necessary to perform striking works but to hide oneself and practice virtue in such a way that the left hand knows not what the right is doing.62

Ce n'est ni l'amitié ni la bonté qui nous manquent, mais nous qui manquons à l'amitié et à la bonté.

What criterion ought one to adopt to judge one's fellows? After all, there was not a single person he knew who might not, in certain circumstances, prove capable of a shameful action.

It was not evil that gave her the idea of pleasure, that seemed to her attractive; it was pleasure, rather, that seemed evil. And as, every time that she indulged in it, pleasure came to her attended by evil thoughts such as, ordinarily, had no place in her virtuous mind, she came at length to see in pleasure itself something diabolical, to identify it with Evil.

There is probably no one, however rigid his virtue, who is not liable to find himself, by the complexity of circumstances, living at close quarters with the very vice which he himself has been most outspoken in condemning

an admitted insensibility or immorality simplifies life as much as does easy virtue; it converts reproachable actions, for which one no longer need seek any excuse, into a duty imposed by sincerity.

They say that Death embellishes its victims and exaggerates their virtues, but in general it is actually life that wronged them. Death, that pious and irreproachable witness, teaches us, in both truth and charity, that in each man there is usually more good than evil.

For her [Françoise], wealth was like a necessary condition without which virtue would lack both merit and charm. She made so little distinction between the two that she came to see their qualities as interchangeable, expecting material comfort from virtue and moral edification from wealth.

Abash'd the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is,.....

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.

Only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith; Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love, By name to come called charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise; but shalt possess A paradise within thee, happier far.

And what is faith, love, virtue unassay'd alone, without exterior help sustained?

Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry; And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves All glory arrogate, to God give none

Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore.

Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given Charge and strict watch that to this happy place No evil thing approach or enter in.