Quotes About Virtue

Anyone who has no character is not a man, but a thing.

Education must have two foundations --morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defense for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.

Although all the good arts serve to draw man's mind away from vices and lead it toward better things, this function can be more fully performed by this art, which also provides extraordinary intellectual pleasure.

You wish to put a positive construction on your deeds and words.

Instead of looking to increase our pleasure in life, they think, we should try to become better people and do the right thing. That is what makes a life go well.

Seek ye not riches, seek but the society of good men.

You have no love for the good, then force yourself to do good, without any love for it. That will be counted an even greater merit for you than for one who does good for the love of it. Simply force yourself a few times then the love will come to you as well. Believe me, everything can be done.

Wise is he who disdains no character, but, fixing a searching eye on him, explores him down to the first causes… Blessed is the man who has chosen the most noble passion from among them all.

the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!

A worthy man is not always a holy man.

The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. There are none but have this tendency to good, just as all water flows downwards. Now by striking water and causing it to leap up, you may make it go.

Men lose more conquests by their own awkwardness than by any virtue in the woman.

That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful.

The resistance of a woman is not always a proof of her virtue, but more frequently of her experience.

Virtue beameth from a generous spirit as light from the moon, or as brilliancy from Jupiter.

The highest freedom is the freedom from evil, not the freedom of doing evil.

Virtue is what happens when wise and courageous choices have become second nature

Sen yan?lm??s?n babac???m. Beni de yan?ltt?n. Sessiz faziletlerin heykeli dikilmiyor. Daha ba?ka ölçüler var; daha do?rusu her zaman varm?? da biz bilmiyormu?uz Özellikle ülkemizde durum böyle.

Si infâmes que soient les canailles, elles ne le sont jamais autant que les honnêtes gens.

Oameni nu sunt invatati sa fie virtuosi, ci sa se comporte cum trebuie. Suntem rai pentru ca suntem prea constienti de propriul sine. Nu iertam niciodata pentru ca stim ca si noi gresim. Ne facem probleme de constiinta tocmai pentru ca ne e frica sa spunem adevarul in fata altora; ne refugiem in mandrie pentru ca ne temem sa recunoastem adevarul in fata propriei constiinte. Cum ar putea cineva sa ia lumea in serios, cand lumea in sine este un lucru ridicol?!

Oamenii nu sunt invatati sa fie virtuosi, ci sa se comporte cum trebuie. Suntem rai pentru ca suntem prea constienti de propriul sine. Nu iertam niciodata pentru ca stim ca si noi gresim. Ne facem probleme de constiinta tocmai pentru ca ne e frica sa spunem adevarul in fata altora; ne refugiem in mandrie pentru ca ne temem sa recunoastem adevarul in fata propriei constiinte. Cum ar putea cineva sa ia lumea in serios, cand lumea in sine este un lucru ridicol?!

Socrates woke to the ideal of dispassionate intelligence, Jesus to the ideal of passionate yet self-oblivious worship. Socrates urged intellectual integrity, Jesus integrity of will. Each, of course, though starting with a different emphasis, involved the other.

For suddenly it was clear to me that virtue in the creator is not the same as virtue in the creature. For the creator, if he should love his creature, would be loving only a part of himself; but the creature, praising the creator, praises an infinity beyond himself. I saw that the virtue of the creature was to love and to worship, but the virtue of the creator was to create, and to be the infinite, the unrealizable and incomprehensible goal of worshipping creatures.

A few honest men are better than numbers.