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Virtue Quotes

Browse 5982 quotes about Virtue.

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Virtue Quotes

“It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil. It behooves the well-intentioned, therefore, vigorously to watch the tendency of even their most highly prized institutions, since that which was established in the interests of the right, may so easily become the agent of the wrong.”

WellsMayEvilInterestPrinciplesWatchesVirtueSocietyProduceIntegrityAimInstitutionsCorruptionTendenciesAgentsAgencyProductiveGoverning
Author:James F. Cooper
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“Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.”

MenMayDoeCountryHomeAgeVirtueWifeHe ManHabitMembersPatriotismUrgesOther CountriesObsoleteLike LoveReformersElementalsWives Love
Book:American ideals and other essays, social and political
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“Strive to attain to the greater virtues, but do not neglect the lesser ones. Do not make light of a fall even if it be the most venial of faults; rather, be quick to repair it by repentance, although many others may commit a large number of faults, slight and grievous, and remain unrepentant.”

IfsMayLightFallNumbersVirtueGreaterFaultsStriveCommitNeglectRepentanceLarge Numbers
Book:Ascetical Works (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 9)
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“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldMindBelieveMayLiteratureIndividualVirtueSelf EsteemSelf LoveFaultsSelf ConfidenceEsteemCharmSelf RespectContemplatingJust Love YourselfInspiring Self Esteem
Book:The Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (20+ Books)
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“Hypocrites act by virtue.... They frame many counterfeits of her, with which they make an ostentatious parade, in all public assemblies, and processions; but the original of what they counterfeit, and which may indeed be said to have fallen from heaven, they produce so seldom, that it is cankered by the rust of sloth, and useless from non-application.”

MaySaidHeavenVirtueProduceOriginalsUselessFallenHypocrisyApplicationHypocriteAssemblyParadesSlothRustCounterfeitProcessionOstentatious
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.”

IfsMenWorldWritingBelieveMayYoungPoliticalDesireLostActingEnemyVirtueCrimeHabitHarderDareYoung ManWickedAttributesFelicityWicked ManKnowledge Of The WorldPolitical Writing
Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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“There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.”

WantGivingShouldMayPastWinningLostWealthEffortVirtueHabitReflectionResourcesAdvantageShould HaveFruitPlentyLabourMaintainingHereditary
Book:The Peloponnesian War
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“Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the suffering of others. ... To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer in order that he may be virtuous. Such is the nature of altruism.”

MenFirstsMayHas BeensImportantSufferingOrderWishVirtueTaughtHighestConcernTestsVirtuousAltruismParts Of LifeFountainheadSuffering Of Others
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“One good Man may take another's Word, if they so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.”

PeopleIfsMenMayWholeNationsVirtueHonestyDependsOughtPoliticianConscienceBuiltConstitutionAgreeUnhappyMinistersWelfareGood ManPrecarious
Author:Bernard de Mandeville
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“We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.”

WorldBelieveMayHas BeensFightingCommonVirtueFireOrdinaryPrejudiceAgreeCharityPracticalsResistanceCommon SenseShootingSpiteExcessThievesFreezingVagabondsSwindlersUsurpers
Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience
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“Man's birth is a lottery; it may be in the pleasant home of ease and affluence, or in the hut of poverty; in either case it may be a stain or an honor. If he is born in poverty, and his future life throws a lustre over an humble birth, the reward will not only be great, but his name will stand higher on the roll of honor and virtue, than he who can only boast of his proud descent.”

IfsMenMayHomeNamesBornPovertyCasesVirtueProudBirthHigherHonorRewardsHumbleEasePleasantBoastStainsLotteryDescentAffluenceHutsFuture Life
Author:James Ellis
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“For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by him, the slaves of sin that he may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that he may cure, and feeble that he may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorying that he alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in him?”

GivingMaySinVirtueGoodnessBlindFilledShiningSlaveCuresAcknowledgeGloriousEnlighteningAccordLame
Book:The Institutes Of The Christian Religion (Annotated Edition)
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“For a woman ... to explore and express the fullness of her sexuality, her ambitions, her emotional and intellectual capacities, her social duties, her tender virtues, would entail who knows what risks and who knows what truly revolutionary alteration to the social conditions that demean and constrain her. Or she may go on trying to fit herself into the order of the world and thereby consign herself forever to the bondage of some stereotype of normal femininity - a perversion, if you will.”

IfsKnowsWorldTryingMayOrderSocialForeverVirtueRiskConditionsEmotionalDutyGoes OnFitNormalAmbitionIntellectualCapacitySexualityRevolutionaryStereotypeFemininityBondageFullnessPerversionAlterationsConstrainSocial Conditions
Author:Louise J. Kaplan
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“You are born supernaturally through faith, by the grace of God, into the kingdom of righteousness; but you are born a little babe, that is all; and if you make any progress from that point on, it must be by work, by sacrifice, by the practice of Christian virtues, by benevolence, by self-denial, by resisting the adversary, by making valiant war for God and against sin; and on no other basis, am I authorized in giving you a hope that you may come to manhood in Christ Jesus.”

IfsGivingMayLittlesWarSelfChristianSpiritualityJesusChristBornSinPracticeVirtueGraceProgressSacrificeBasesKingdomsDenialRighteousnessManhoodGrace Of GodAdversariesBenevolenceBabeResistingSelf-denialValiant
Author:Charles Henry Fowler
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“What were once felt to be defects-isolation, institutional simplicity, primitiveness of manners, multiplicity of religions, weaknesses in the authority of the state-could now be seen as virtues, not only by Americans themselves but by enlightened spokesmen of reform, renewal and hope wherever they may be-in London coffeehouses, in Parisian salons, in the courts of German princes.”

MayStatesFeltVirtueAuthorityWeaknessCourtSimplicityLondonReformMannersIsolationEnlightenedDefectsRenewalMultiplicitySalons
Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
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“As every flower fades and as all youth departs, so life at every stage, so every virtue, so our grasp of truth blooms in its day and may not last forever. Since life may summon us at every age, be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavour, be ready bravely and without remorse to find new light that old ties cannot give. In all beginnings dwells a magic force for guarding us and helping us to live.”

GivingHeartMayHelpingLightAgeLastsForceForeverVirtueMagicStageYouthReadyFlowerTiesFadesRemorsePartingEndeavourGuarding
Author:Hermann Hesse
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“Where virtue is, sensibility is the ornament and becoming attire of virtue. On certain occasions it may almost be said to become virtue. But sensibility and all the amiable qualities may likewise become, and too often have become, the panders of vice and the instruments of seduction.”

MaySaidCertainQualityVirtueBecomingInstrumentsVicesOccasionsSensibilitySeductionOrnamentsAmiableAttire
Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria
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“Honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom; since, however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult for knavery to get off; and no error is more fatal than that of those who think that Virtue has no other reward because they have heard that she is her own.”

ThinkingMayDifficultVirtueHeardHonestyPolicyIntegrityThousandHighestErrorsRewardsKnavery
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.”

WritingMindHumansMayReasonSufferingFoundVirtueProduceGeniusEvidencePerformancesCuriosityAppearanceFollyHuman MindManifestTemptedRepentInfirmityInconsistency
Book:Selected poetry and prose
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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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“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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“We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves. When we see the martyr to virtue, subject as he is to the infirmities of a man, yet suffering the tortures of a demon, and bearing them with the magnanimity of a God, do we not behold a heroism that angels may indeed surpass, but which they cannot imitate, and must admire.”

ThinkingMenMaySufferingVirtueSubjectsHumilityAngelAdmireTortureDemonHeroismMartyrInfirmityMagnanimity
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.”

ShouldTryingMayLittlesMadeEnoughEnergyStrongVirtueProduceCostLaborRootsConstitutionDifficultyPlantVicesSoilWeedWheat
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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