Virtue Quotes
Most popular virtue quotes
It is easy to be virtuous in prospective.
Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue with bigots.
Our virtues live upon our incomes; our vices consume our capital.
Those virtues which cost us dear prove that we love God; those which are easy to us prove that He loves us.
Virtue is its own reward.
Virtue consists not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
There is no road or ready way to virtue.
Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.
In all circumstances, try to cultivate virtue.
Virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of a man, public as well as private.
All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.
The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.
All of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance.
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
No virtue can be great if it is not constant.
There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Being virtuous is no feat once temptation ceases.
Perhaps no phenomenon contains so much destructive feeling as "moral indignation," which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.
There are certain small faults that offset great virtues. There are certain great faults that are forgotten in small virtues.
Many an attack of depression is nothing but the expression of regret at having to be virtuous.
Saintliness is also a temptation.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.
I refuse to make a hierarchy of human actions and ascribe worthiness to some and ill-repute to others. The terms vice and virtue have no significance for me. I do not confer praise or blame: I accept.
Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.
Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.
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.
Woman's virtue is man's greatest invention.
It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing – I used to be a good boy.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Only the young die good.
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.
To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
A bit of virtue will never hurt you.
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.
Elegance is inferior to virtue.
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles.
If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue.
Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.
Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart.
The rouge of sin is often applied with virtue as a mirror.
There can be no virtue without temptation; for virtue is victory over temptation.
There isn't any virtue where there has never been any temptation. Virtue is just temptation, overcome.
Virtue would not go nearly so far if vanity did not keep her company.
Virtue is a mean state between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.
Moral virtue is the child of habit.
Virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
Virtue is, perhaps, no more than a kind of politeness of the soul.
We should make virtue our master, not our servant.
Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.
Virtue has always been conceived of as victorious resistance to one's vital desire.
Virtue is the music of the soul, the harmony of the passions.
Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it shall have neighbors.
Virtue, thriving most where little seen.
We can acquire some virtues by feigning them for a long time.
Virtue's paths are first rugged, then pleasant.
Virtue, sir, consists in actions, and not in words.
The virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.
The greatest offense against virtue is to speak ill of it.
It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward.
Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water.
Virtue must shape itself in deed.
The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.
Virtue is the roughest way, But proves at night a bed of down.
The classical virtues are all decision-making heuristics to make one optimize for the long term rather than for the short term.
Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.
Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.
We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
Virtue is never left to stand alone. He who has it will have neighbours.
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.
There are no national virtues. We are alone, each one of us. If we are good, we are good ourselves. If we are bad, the virtues of others will not make us better. We cannot borrow morals. They are ours or they do not exist for us.
It takes a lot of skills to be virtuous without being boring.
The weak may be virtuous but you may never know.
