Quotes About Virtue

Humility is the surest sign of strength. —THOMAS MERTON, AUTHOR AND TRAPPIST MONK

Republicans have gone from being a party that touted virtue to being the most squalid and grubby expression of institutionalized self-interest in the modern history of the American republic.

Cicero argues that the source of justice, truth, virtue, etc.—in a word, morality—is natural law. It is permanent and supreme, unalterable by man or his institutions.

Locke said, as have others, that natural law is forever and enduring, and man-made law, which may vary from place to place and time to time, clearly is not. That which is just and virtuous is just and virtuous regardless of the passage of laws or time.

Fearlessness is indispensable for the growth of the other noble qualities. How can one seek Truth, or cherish Love, without fearlessness?

C. S. Lewis wrote of temptation, "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

Character is you doing what is right when no one is looking and no one will know.

There are those who would misteach us that to stick in a rut is consistency - and a virtue; and that to climb out of the rut is inconsistency - and a vice.

Be good and you will be lonely.

I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won't.

To be good is noble but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler--and less trouble.

Virtue has never been as respectable as money.

Spears thought he had taught the aliens the meaning of fear./ [The aliens] had merely discovered the virtue of patience.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

The power of noble deeds is to be preserved and passed on to the future.

Now let us thank th' eternal power, convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction: That oft the cloud that wraps the present hour Serves but to brighten all our future days.

True virtue would never liken its rewards to points on a loyalty card, not because it is its own reward, but because it is not something we should practice to accrue future benefits.

Forgiveness is a virtue of beauty. You learn to see a person no longer defined by a past but one that has re-created itself anew.

The goal is to rise spiritually, not simply to avoid sin.

Daily, I examine myself in three areas. Have I done my best when doing things for others? Have I been trustworthy in my dealings with my friends? Have I revised the lessons I have been taught?

If someone with the right conduct tries to attain to something that lies outside of it, is his goal not the right conduct.

What matters is not your outward appearance. . . but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle gracious kind that God delights in.