Quotes About Virtue

Most of us can stay away from doing wrong but few of us take the challenge of doing right

And though I continually fight impatience, in all but this vice... I am truly content.

Most of us can stay away from doing wrong, but few of us take on the challenge of doing right.

History teaches us that masculinity without morality is lethal. But masculinity constrained by morality is powerful and constructive, and a gift to women.

The ancient world was not a place for modern gender equity. But the Stoic philosophers, in their discourses on political and moral life, held that virtue, or ethical excellence, had no gender. Zeno of Citium envisaged an ideal community of sages that included women. The view follows from the Stoic doctrine that all humans are endowed with reason.

Living virtuously is how we live well with others. Seneca's claim is that social fellowship is finely textured, a matter of noticing a furrowed brow, an air of arrogance, a groan, hesitation, or on the positive side, the warmth of a smile or a shared laugh.

The Stoics are exhorters. And at their best, they exhort us to rise to our potential through reason, cooperation, and selflessness.

How pleasant is Saturday night, When I've tried all the week to be good, And not spoke a word that was bad, And obliged everyone that I could.

Lucy had to guard her reputation - her reputation for sanity - the way that a woman a hundred years before would have had to guard her reputation for virtue.

There was no greater hypocrite than one with a high moral tone, Miss Marple reflected.

Heroes prided themselves on a thing called generosity. And what was generosity? It was the giving away of something to those that had not earned it, and it was usually done by those that had not earned it.

the first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue

The moral is to the physical as three is to one

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.

It is not true that men never change; they change for the worse, as well as for the better. It is not true they are ungrateful; more often the benefactor rates his favors higher than their worth; and often too he does not allow for circumstances. If few men have the moral force to resist impulses, most men do carry within themselves the germs of virtues as well as of vices, of heroism as well as of cowardice. Such is human nature — education and circumstances do the rest.

With respect to the first of these obstacles, it has often been made a matter of grave complaint against Political Economists, that they confine their attention to Wealth, and disregard all consideration of Happiness or Virtue.

Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.

Pride is the emotional reward of achievement. It is not a vice to be overcome but a virtue to be attained.

The opposite of self-assertiveness is self-abnegation--abandoning or submerging your personal values, judgment, and interests. Some people tell themselves this is a virtue. It is a "virtue" that corrodes self-esteem.

Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say he was hard. Hardness wasn't toughness, nor was it courage, although both were part of it. Hardness was the ability to face an overwhelming situation with aplomb, smile calmly at it, and then triumph through sheer professional pride.

True kindness isn't something we're born with. It's something we have to work at. Not everyone has it. But I think everyone has the potential. Sometimes you just have to look really close before you can tell it's there."-Kyoko

Don't fear, just live right.