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Virtue Quotes

Browse 5982 quotes about Virtue.

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Virtue Quotes

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

MeanCharacterHandsPoliticalValuesPeaceSidesCommunityFreedomPowerfulMoralPowerVirtueDemocracyHonestyIntegrityConflictEthicsInequalityPowerlessWashingPowerlessnessNeutralityPedagogyPedagogy Of The OppressedPraxisCommunity Action
Book:The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation
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“Truly color is vice! Of course, it can be, and has the right to be one of the finest virtues. Controlled by the strong hand and careful guidance of her Master drawing, color is a splendid Mistress, with a mate worthy of herself, her lover, but her Master likewise, the most magnificent Mistress possible, and the result is evident in all the glorious things that spring from their union.”

HandsCoursesStrongResultsVirtueColorMastersLoversSpringUnionsVicesCarefulWorthyDrawingGuidanceGloriousControlledMatesMagnificentFinestEvidentMistressSplendidStrong Hands
Author:James Whistler
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“If at great things thou would'st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.”

IfsWantFirstsHandsDifficultWealthVirtueMinesAmbitionFortuneRichesFavorsTreasureGreat ThingsThriveGet RichValorMy AmbitionGreat Ambition
Book:Paradise Regain'd: A Poem, in Four Books. To which is Added Samson Agonistes: and Poems Upon Several Occasions. The Author John Milton. A New Edition. With Notes of Various Authors, by Thomas Newton, ...
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“The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the riches of all continents - grasping with both hands, reaping where he had not sown, wasting what he thought would last forever. New railroads were opening new territory. The exploiters were pushing farther and farther into the wilderness. The man who could get his hands on the biggest slice of natural resources was the best citizen. Wealth and virtue were supposed to trot in double harness.”

MenHandsLastsNaturalWealthForeverVirtueLandHe ManCitizensResourcesRichesOpeningPushingWildernessTerritoryContinentsNatural ResourcesRailroadsGraspingHarnessNew TerritoryColossus
Book:Breaking New Ground
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“The finest virtues can become deformed with age. The precise mind becomes finicky; the thrifty man, miserly; the cautious man, timorous; the man of imagination, fanciful. Even perseverance ends up in a sort of stupidity. Just as, on the other hand, being too willing to understand too many opinions, too diverse ways of seeing, constancy is lost and the mind goes astray in a restless fickleness.”

MenWayMindEndsHandsAgeLostImaginationOpinionVirtueSeeingWillingHe ManPerseveranceStupidityOld AgeDiverseFinestPreciseRestlessCautiousConstancyThrifty
Book:Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality
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“There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power -- God, history, fate, nation, or humanity.”

HandsHumanityOrderStrongNationsPowerfulResponsibilityVirtueFateHigherWeakClaimsInstrumentsChosenObedienceImpulseLatterInclinationCravingHigher PowerQuestionableProclaimingAbsolutionMalevolence
Book:Bruce Lee: Artist of Life
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“The paths by which people journey toward happiness lie in part through the world about them and in part through the experience of their souls. On the one hand, there is the happiness which comes from wealth, honor, the enjoyment of life, from health, culture, science, or art; and, on the other hand, there is the happiness which is to be found in a good conscience, in virtue, work, philanthropy, religion, devotion to great ideas and great deeds.”

PeopleWorldArtIdeasSoulHandsLyingCultureFoundWealthVirtuePathJourneyHonorConscienceDeedsDevotionEnjoymentPhilanthropyGreat Idea
Book:Happiness - Essays On The Meaning Of Life
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“If God made no response except to perfect faith, who could hope for help? But God has regard for beginnings, and His eye perceives greatness in the germ. The hand of the woman in the crowd trembled as it was stretched toward Jesus, and the faith back of it was superstitiously reverent, trusting in the virtue of the robe, rather than in the One who wore it; yet the genuineness of that faith; feeble though it was, triumphed in God's loving sight. Real trust is real power, though the heart and hand be feeble.”

IfsHeartMadeRealHelpingHandsEyeJesusPerfectVirtueGreatnessSightRegardResponseCrowdsPerceiveHis EyesGermsRobesReal PowerGenuinenessHearts And HandsNo Response
Book:Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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“Enthusiasm is always connected with the senses, whatever be the object that excites it. The true strength of virtue is serenity of mind, combined with a deliberate and steadfast determination to execute her laws. That is the healthful condition of the moral life; on the other hand, enthusiasm, even when excited by representations of goodness, is a brilliant but feverish glow which leaves only exhaustion and languor behind.”

MindHandsLawBehindsMoralVirtueConditionsObjectsGoodnessDeterminationExcitedConnectedBrilliantSensesEnthusiasmSerenityRepresentationDeliberateExhaustionSteadfastTrue StrengthMoral Life
Author:Immanuel Kant
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“The virtuous to those mansions go Where pleasures unembitter'd flow, Where, leading up a jocund band, Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand, Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales, Pipes softest music through the vales, And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd, With velvet carpet spread the ground; With livelier blush where roses bloom, And every shrub expires perfume.”

HandsPleasureVirtueYouthBandSpringFlowRoseSpreadVirtuousCrownsPerfumeCarpetPipeHarmoniousHand In HandVigorMansionsVelvetGaleFloraShrubsZephyr
Book:The Ghost
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“Virtue, without the graces, is like a rich diamond unpolished--it hardly looks better than a common pebble; but when the hand of the master rubs off the roughness, and forms the sides into a thousand brilliant surfaces, it is then that we acknowledge its worth, admire its beauty, and long to wear it in our bosoms.”

LooksLongHandsFormSidesCommonVirtueRichGraceMastersThousandSurfaceBrilliantAdmireAcknowledgeDiamondBosomsPebblesRoughness
Book:Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
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“Some things the legislator must find ready to his hand in a state, others he must provide. And therefore we can only say: May our state be constituted in such a manner as to be blessed with the goods of which fortune disposes (for we acknowledge her power): whereas virtue and goodness in the state are not a matter of chance but the result of knowledge and purpose. A city can be virtuous only when the citizens who have a share in the government are virtuous, and in our state all the citizens share in the government.”

MayMatterStatesHandsGovernmentPurposeChanceResultsCitiesVirtueShareReadyCitizensGoodnessBlessedFortuneAcknowledgeGoodsVirtuousLegislatorsBeing Blessed
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)
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“Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic.”

WellsHandsInterestWealthVirtueConditionsTalentDangerEqualEssentialsBenefitsHarmOpeningRepublicAristocracy
Book:Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson
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“Wealth brings with it its own checks and balances. The basis of political economy is noninterference. The only safe rule is found in the self-adjusting meter of demand and supply. Open the doors of opportunity to talent and virtue and they will do themselves justice, and property will not be in bad hands. In a free and just commonwealth, property rushes from the idle and imbecile to the industrious, brave and persevering.”

SelfHandsPoliticalFoundOpportunityWealthJusticeEconomyVirtueDoorsTalentBalanceSafeDemandBasesPropertyBraveChecksIdleMeterCommonwealthAdjustingIndustriousImbecilesPolitical Economy
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us country folk, and we do not think any good will come of it. We have not dollars; merchants have; let them give them. Farmers will give corn; poets will sing; women will sew; laborers will lend a hand; the children will bring flowers.”

ThinkingWayGivingShouldChildrenCountryHandsVirtuePoetFlowerDollarsCharityFolksFarmersCornGood WillMerchantsInconvenientLaborers
Book:The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

KnowsWritingCharacterHandsEvilLanguageKnow HowVirtueHonestyIntegrityStandingInnocentInnocenceGood And EvilPower Of WordsPowerlessCreative WritingDictionaryGood WritingGood WritersGreat WritersFiction WritersWritten WordGreat WritingRight WordsGood WordsGood Against EvilGood EvilWritten LanguageWriting WordsLanguage WordsPower Of LanguageLanguage And Power
Author:Nathaniel Hawthorne
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“Others are affected by what I am, and say, and do. So that a single act of mine may spread and spread in widening circles, through a nation or humanity. Through my vice I intensify the taint of vice throughout the universe. Through my misery I make multitudes sad. On the other hand, every development of my virtue makes me an ampler blessing to my race. Every new truth that I gain makes me a brighter light to humanity.”

MayHandsLightHumanityUniverseNationsRaceVirtueMinesDevelopmentBlessingGainsMiseryVicesSpreadCirclesAffectedMultitudesBrighter
Book:The Works of William E. Channing
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“A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune.”

MenMindHandsEvilVirtueFortuneDepressingPreyEnvied
Book:Francisci Baconi Baronis de Verulamio ... Opera Omnia Quatuor Voluminibus Comprehensa: Containing, I. His Natural history. II. Physiological and medical remains. III. The new Atlantis. IV. His Apothegms. V. Essays. VI. Colours of good and evil. VII. History of the reign of Henry VII. VIII. History of Henry VIII. IX. Beginning of the history of Great Britain. X. Of a war with Spain. XI. Of an holy war. XII. The history of the office of alienations. XIII. Advice to the Duke of Buckingham, Sir Geor
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