“In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue.” LongRunningInterestVirtueDependsLong RunsPublic Interest Book:On Character: Essays Source: On Character: Essays
“No benefit comes from a just man's prayer if he who asks for it finds more pleasure in sin than in virtue. For Samuel mourned over Saul when he sinned, but he was not able to obtain God's mercy, for his grief was not supported by the necessary change of life on the part of the sinner. Hence God put an end to the pointless grief of His servant, saying to him, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?' (I Sam. 16:1).” IfsMenLongEndsAbleChristianAsksPrayerSinPleasureGriefVirtueSeeingBenefitsMercyIsraelServantLife ChangingSinnerOrthodoxRejectedMournPointlessNecessary Change Author:Maximus the Confessor
“Men were created for something better than merely to make money. A close application to business, until a competence is gained, is one of the chief virtues; but to continue in trade long after this result is obtained, is one of the signs, not to be mistaken, of a sordid and ignoble nature.” MenLongResultsMoneyVirtueTradeChiefsMaking MoneyApplicationMistakenCompetenceSomething BetterIgnoble Author:Christian Nestell Bovee
“Men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition, by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude, wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden, and to desire what is denied us.” MenWellsLongActionDesireTurnsBornCompanyBreakVirtueHonestHonorInstinctVicesNobleShakesHonourDeniedVirtuousDispositionForbiddenConstraintsSpursServitudeNature Of ManSubjection Author:Francois Rabelais