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Virtue Quotes

Browse 5982 quotes about Virtue.

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Virtue Quotes

“Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic systems would produce poets, painters, and musicians.”

WayLittlesArtIdeasWould BeTurnsMoralVirtueProducePoetGeniusHolyMusicianInstrumentsNobleFoolishPainterEthicalAestheticVirtuousEmployedBarren
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
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“The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.”

MenMaySelfActionCausesVirtueBearsSelf LovePleaseVicesMotiveDistinctionStrictEmployedInquiryIncline
Book:The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author
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“Cruelty, very far from being a vice, is the first sentiment Nature injects in us all. The infant breaks his toy, bites his nurse's breast, strangles his canary long before he is able to reason; cruelty is stamped in animals, in whom, as I think I have said, Nature's laws are more emphatically to be read than in ourselves; cruelty exists amongst savages, so much nearer to Nature than civilized men are; absurd then to maintain cruelty is a consequence of depravity. . . . Cruelty is simply the energy in a man civilization has not yet altogether corrupted: therefore it is a virtue, not a vice.”

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Author:Marquis de Sade
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“Virtue is the highest reward. Virtue truly goes before all things. Liberty, safety, life, property, parents, country, and children are protected and preserved. Virtue has all things in herself; he who has virtue has all things that are good attending him. [Lat., Virtus praemium est optimum. Virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto. Libertas, salus, vita, res, parentes, Patria et prognati tutantur, servantur; Virtus omnia in se habet; omnia assunt bona, quem penes est vertus.]”

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Author:Plautus
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“the leading error of the human mind, - the bane of human happiness - the perverter of human virtue ... is Religion - that dark coinage of trembling ignorance! It is Religion - that poisoner of human felicity! It is Religion - that blind guide of human reason! It is Religion - that dethroner of human virtue! which lies at the root of all the evil and all the misery that pervade the world!”

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Author:Frances Wright
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“There was only one virtue, pugnacity; only one vice, pacifism. That is an essential condition of war.”

WarVirtueConditionsEssentialsVicesPacifism
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“It has been shrewdly said, that when, men abuse us we should suspect ourselves, and when they praise us, them. It is a rare instance of virtue to despise which censure which we do not deserve; and still more rare to despise praise which we do.”

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Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“That an author's work is the mirror of his mind is a position that has led to very false conclusions. If Satan himself were to write a book it would be in praise of virtue, because the good would purchase it for use, and the bad for ostentation.”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Natural good is' so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if I heard a voice from heaven proclaim it, that God is on the side of virtue. He has learnt much, and has not lived in vain, who has practically discovered that most strict and necessary connection, that does and will ever exist between vice and misery, and virtue and happiness.”

IfsDoeCertainEvilHeavenSidesVoiceNaturalMoralVirtueHeardGoodnessConnectionsMiseryVicesConnectedVainStrictVirtue And HappinessMoral Evil
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that, when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would seem almost as though our better thoughts and sympathies were charms, in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom we loved in life. Alas! how often and how long may these patient angels hover around us, watching for the spell which is so soon forgotten!”

HeartMayLongSoulFeelingsSeemsBeautifulDeathSpiritMemoriesVirtueAngelPatientForgottenMysteriousCharmTouchedOver ItMost PowerfulSpellsBeautiful ThingsVagueAlasExquisiteIntercourseTranquilAffectionate
Author:Charles Dickens
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“When death strikes down the innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he lets the panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy, charity, and love, to walk the world and bless it. Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes.”

WorldFormYoungDeathSpiritBornWalksVirtueTearsShapesHundredMercyAnd LoveGreenCharityStrikesGravesInnocentMortalsBlessFragileShedCharity And Love
Book:The Old Curiosity Shop: And Reprinted Pieces
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