Quotes About Virtue

The effect of one upright individual is incalculable.

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

Chastity is the greatest form of perversion.

Never look for justice in this world, never cease to give it.

Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it.

Never look for right in the other man, but never cease to be right yourself. We are always looking for justice; the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is—Never look for justice, but never cease to give

Let a man be either a hero or a saint. In between lies, not wisdom, but banality.

Hay que ser héroe o santo. En el término medio no está la sabiduría, sino la vulgaridad

Who upholds that the good is oft interred with our bones. 'Tisn't true though it is Shakspeare who says it; if you leave your family or your pet hospital a good many thousands, you will get the cardinal virtues, and a trifle more, in letters of gold on your tomb; though if you have lived up to your income, or forgotten to insure, any penny-alining La Monnoye will do to scribble your epitaph, and break off with "C'est trop mentir pour cinq écus!

We are ill appreciated, we cynics; on my honor if cynicism be not the highest homage to virtue there is, I should like to know what virtue wants? We sigh over her absence and we glorify her perfections. But Virtue is always a trifle stuck-up, you know, and she is very difficult to please.

No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.

To be silent is but a small virtue; but it is a serious fault to reveal secrets.

He who lives well, lives hidden.

Stay far hence, far hence, you prudes!

I have faith that yields to none, and ways without reproach, and unadorned simplicity, and blushing modesty.

Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.

And death is a thing much cleaner than vice.

Politicians are interested in people. Not that it is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs.

The guru said: If you want to genuinely practice the Dharma, do what is virtuous, even the most minute deed. Renounce what is evil, even the tiniest deed. The largest ocean is made from drops of water; even Mount Sumeru and the four continents are made of tiny atoms. (p. 30)

Day and night, look into your mind. If your stream of mind contains any nonvirtue, renounce it from the core of your heart and pursue virtue.

But his virtue was a matter of habit only and he had no philosophy

Do like this if you want to practice the true Dharma! Keep your master's oral instructions in mind. Don't conceptualize your experience, as it just makes you attached or angry. Day and night, look into your mind. If your stream of mind contains any nonvirtue, renounce it from the core of your heart and pursue virtue. (p. 29)

The temptation to hide in his job, to allow all his thoughts and emotions to become absorbed in the details of his career was hard to resist. It felt like virtue and it was quite possible to be completely self-righteous about it. But it was, he knew, only cowardice in disguise. If you weren't willing to face your life—all your life, including the rough parts—then you weren't truly living. You were just making a living. He