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Virtue Quotes

Browse 5982 quotes about Virtue.

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Virtue Quotes

“There can be no richer man or woman than the individual who has found his or her labor of love. Personal fulfillment through the virtue of work is the highest form of desire. Work is the conduit between the supply and the demand of all human needs, the forerunner of human progress, and the medium by which the imagination is given the wings of action. A labor of love is exalted because it provides joy and self-expression to those who perform it.”

MenNeedsHumansSelfActionFormJoyDesireFoundIndividualGivenImaginationLove IsActingVirtueProgressExpressionDemandHighestLaborWingsMediumsFulfillmentSelf ExpressionExaltedHuman NeedsHuman ProgressForerunnersPersonal FulfillmentLabor Of LoveFulfillment In Life
Book:What Makes the Great Great: Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement
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“I mean that it is more natural for me to be wicked than virtuous, when I do a bad act, and I've done many, I never feel wither shame, remorse or fear, I sometimes wish it was not necessary as I don't like the trouble, but as for any moral sense of principle, I haven't a particle. Many people are like me as actions prove, but they are not so frank in owning it and insist on keeping up the humbug of virtue.”

PeopleFeelsMeanSometimesDoneActionWishNaturalMoralPrinciplesVirtueTroubleHavensProveShameLike MeWickedFrankVirtuousRemorseParticlesHumbugOwning It
Author:Louisa May Alcott
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“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
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“Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid to a father, a wife, or child. In the same manner, though our love should reach to the whole species, a greater proportion of it should exert itself towards that community in which Providence has placed us. This is our proper sphere of action, the province allotted us for the exercise of our civil virtues, and in which alone we have opportunities of expressing our goodwill to mankind.”

ShouldChildrenWholeActionFatherOpportunityCommunityVirtueGreaterWifeMankindExerciseDegreesPaidSpeciesDuesSuperiorsProportionSpheresProvidenceOur LoveBenevolenceGoodwillProvinces
Book:Essays Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste
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“Our virtues themselves are not free and floating qualities over which we retain a permanent control and power of disposal; they come to be so closely linked in our minds with the actions in conjunction with which we have made it our duty to exercise them that if we come to engage in an activity of a different kind, it catches us off guard and without the slightest awareness that it might involve the application of those same virtues.”

IfsMindKindMadeDifferentMightActionQualityVirtueAwarenessDutyExerciseActivityMade ItPermanentApplicationDifferent KindsFloatingLinkedConjunctions
Book:In Search Of Lost Time, Vol 2: Within a Budding Grove
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“To play chess on a truly high level requires a constant stream of exact, informed decisions, made in real time and under pressure from your opponent. What's more, it requires a synthesis of some very different virtues, all of which are necessary to good decisions: calculatioñ, creativity and a desire for results. If you ask a Grandmaster, an artist and a computer scientist what makes a good chess player, you'll get a glimpse of these different strengths in action.”

IfsMadeDifferentRealPlayActionDesireArtistAsksDecisionLevelsResultsCreativityVirtuePlayerComputerScientistPressureConstantChessOpponentsStreamsGlimpseHigh LevelUnder PressureSynthesisChess PlayersDecisions MadeGood Decision
Book:How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom
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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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“Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.”

MenWellsLongEnoughActionDealsPrinciplesVirtueToo MuchHonestGuiltVicesWorthyContactMotiveManlyInfamyScrutinizeToo NiceApostasy
Book:The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with America; Security of the Independence of Parliament; on Mr. Fox's East India
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“Charity and good-nature give a sanction to the most common actions; and pride and ill-nature make our best virtues despicable.”

GivingActionCommonVirtuePrideCharityIllSanctionsDespicableGood Nature
Book:The Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. With Biographical and Critical Notices by Leigh Hunt. A New Edition
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“Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.”

KindActionPassionVirtueImpossibleFameDegreesApproachCapableSakeAffectionFormerVanityLatterMixtures
Book:Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book
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“Any base heart can devise means of vileness, and affix the ugly shapings of its own fancy to the actions of those around him; but it requires loftiness of mind, and the heaven-born spirit of virtue, to imagine greatness where it is not, and to deck the sordid objects of nature in the beautiful robes of loveliness and light.”

MindHeartMeanLightActionBeautifulSpiritHeavenBornVirtueImagineObjectsGreatnessUglyFancySuspicionDeckRobesLoveliness
Book:Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
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“Learning is not virtue but the means to bring us an acquaintance with it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and diffusion of happiness.”

MeanActionVirtueDangerousIntegrityWeakDefeatOppressionUselessMotiveReliefFraudAcquaintanceDetectionDiffusion
Book:The papers of General Nathanael Greene
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“The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldHumansHeartStillsActionPayVirtueBearsFameBenefitsDeservePraiseVanityProportionSuspectsDispositionTributePretensionSuffrageConfirmation
Book:The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler
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“The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.”

IfsMenMayStatesActionParentAbilityPrinciplesHistoryVirtueEqualAmbitionStrongerSafetyProsperityRevengeEmpiresBenevolenceDoubtfulRoman EmpireProprietyIndebtedSingle ManUndaunted
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The virtue of a faculty is related to the special function which that faculty performs. Now there are three elements in the soul which control action and the attainment of truth: namely, Sensation, Intellect, and Desire. Of these, Sensation never originates action, as is shown by the fact that animals have sensation but are not capable of action.”

SoulFactsActionDesireThreeAnimalVirtueSpecialElementsCapableFunctionIntellectRelatedFacultySensationsAttainment
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“If then, as we say, good craftsmen look to the mean as they work, and if virtue, like nature, is more accurate and better than any form of art, it will follow that virtue has the quality of hitting the mean. I refer to moral virtue [not intellectual], for this is concerned with emotions and actions, in which one can have excess or deficiency or a due mean.”

IfsLooksMeanArtActionFormEmotionQualityMoralVirtueIntellectualConcernedDuesExcessAccurateHittingDeficiencyCraftsmanMoral VirtuesIf Then
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“Not every action or emotion however admits of the observance of a due mean. Indeed the very names of some directly imply evil, for instance malice, shamelessness, envy, and, of actions, adultery, theft, murder. All these and similar actions and feelings are blamed as being bad in themselves; it is not the excess or deficiency of them that we blame. It is impossible therefore ever to go right in regard to them - one must always be wrong.”

MeanFeelingsActionEvilNamesEmotionMoralVirtueImpossibleMurderRegardBlameDuesEnvyInstanceExcessAdulteryTheftMaliceDeficiencyObservanceBeing Bad
Author:Aristotle
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“These are illusions of popular history which successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumpths; a good deed is its own rewards; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness”

MenHumansActionEvilSpeakReligiousVirtueSuccessfulRichMysteryHonestyPolicyProtectIllusionDeserveFemaleFairsBraveRewardsAncientDeedsPossessionDemonUnhappinessDoomedGood DeedsEvil ManActions Speak Louder Than WordsHonesty Is The Best PolicyTalismansActions Speak Louder
Book:Children of Dune
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“... we have broken down the self-respecting spirit of man with nursery tales and priestly threats, and we dare to assert, that inproportion as we have prostrated our understanding and degraded our nature, we have exhibited virtue, wisdom, and happiness, in our words, our actions, and our lives!”

MenSelfActionSpiritReligionUnderstandingVirtueOur LivesBrokenThreatDareTalesDeceptionOur ActionsNurseryOur WordsBroken Down
Book:Course of popular lectures as delivered by Frances Wright: with three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789. Second edition
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“In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the commonwealth, and not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.”

MenActionEvilCausesVirtueHabitEthicsPraiseAffectionVicesGood And EvilCustomsMediocrityUsefulnessCommonwealth
Book:Behemoth or The Long Parliament
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“It is a mighty error to suppose that none but violent and strong passions, such as love and ambition, are able to vanquish the rest. Even idleness, as feeble and languishing as it is, sometimes reigns over them; it usurps the throne and sits paramount over all the designs and actions of our lives, and imperceptibly wastes and destroys all our passions and all our virtues.”

SometimesAbleActionPassionStrongVirtueOur LivesDesignWasteAmbitionErrorsViolentLazinessThronesReignIdlenessParamountVanquishStrong Passion
Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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“Prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God; by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, release from sorrow, the wealth of monks.”

MenMindSoulActionSpiritualMotherPeaceWealthPrayerVirtueProgressTearsSourceWallSorrowActivityConflictDespairSpringDaughterUnionsProtectionInvisibleTemptationReleaseBridgesCrushCommunionAfflictionMonkReconciliationEnlighteningDemonstrationBoundlessCrossingsMother And DaughterSpiritual Gifts
Author:Ignatius Bryanchaninov
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“Since my logic aims to teach and instruct the understanding, not that it may with the slender tendrils of the mind snatch at and lay hold of abstract notions (as the common logic does), but that it may in very truth dissect nature, and discover the virtues and actions of bodies, with their laws as determined in matter; so that this science flows not merely from the nature of the mind, but also from the nature of things.”

MindMayDoeMatterBodyActionLawScienceUnderstandingCommonTeachVirtueFlowLogicAimLaysNotionDeterminedAbstractSlender
Book:Works of Francis Bacon: 4
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“And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.”

WantPersonsSoulActionNaturalPoorFictionVirtueSubjectsMaterialsLimitsTragedyContraryInstructionElegantLimbsEnviousDeflection
Book:The Works of George Chapman: Plays
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