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Virtue Quotes

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Virtue Quotes

“The attainment of truth is then the function of both the intellectual parts of the soul. Therefore their respective virtues are those dispositions which will best qualify them to attain truth.”

Soul Virtue Truth Is Intellectual Function Disposition Attainment

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“In [the soul] one part naturally rules, and the other is subject, and the virtue of the ruler we maintain to be different from that of the subject; the one being the virtue of the rational, and the other of the irrational part. Now, it is obvious that the same principle applies generally, and therefore almost all things rule and are ruled according to nature.”

Different Soul Principles Virtue Subjects All Things Obvious Rational Rulers Irrational

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“Now the soul of man is divided into two parts, one of which has a rational principle in itself, and the other, not having a rational principle in itself, is able to obey such a principle. And we call a man in any way good because he has the virtues of these two parts.”

Men Way Two Soul Able Principles Virtue Rational Divided

Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“Every formed disposition of the soul realizes its full nature in relation to and dealing with that class of objects by which it is its nature to be corrupted or improved.”

Soul Realizing Moral Class Virtue Objects Relation Disposition

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“Greatness of Soul seems therefore to be as it were a crowning ornament of the virtues; it enhances their greatness, and it cannot exist without them. Hence it is hard to be truly great-souled, for greatness of soul is impossible without moral nobility.”

Soul Hard Seems Moral Virtue Impossible Greatness Nobility Ornaments

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“Do not yield to Satan's enticements; rather, stand firm for truth. The unsatisfied yearnings of the soul will not be met by a never-ending quest for joy amidst the thrills of sensation and vice. Vice never leads to virtue. Hate never promotes love. Cowardice never gives courage. Doubt never inspires faith.”

Giving Soul Joy Hate Virtue Doubt Inspire Mets Vices Firm Satan Yield Sensations Cowardice Yearning Quests Never Ending Unsatisfied Stand Firm Enticement

Author:Thomas S. Monson

“Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like season'd timbered, never gives; But though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.”

World Giving Soul Whole Turns Virtue Sweet Seasons Whole World Virtuous Coal

Author:George Herbert

“A soul that makes virtue its companion is like an over-flowing well, for it is clean and pellucid, sweet and wholesome, open to all, rich, blameless and indestructible.”

Wells Soul Virtue Rich Sweet Clean Companion Indestructible Blameless

Author:Epictetus

“The effect of great and inevitable misfortune is to elevate those souls which it does not deprive of all virtue.”

Doe Soul Virtue Effects Inevitable Misfortunes

Author:Francois Guizot

“Jesus and Shakespeare are fragments of the soul, and by love I conquer and incorporate them in my own conscious domain. His virtue,--is not that mine? His wit,--if it cannot be made mine, it is not wit.”

Ifs Made Soul Jesus Christ My Own Virtue Mines Conscious Jesus Christ Wit Conquer Fragments Domain

Book:Select Essays and Poems

Source: Select Essays and Poems

“The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple, wherein man had nothing to inquire after, or to dispute, forasmuch as to obey is the proper office of a rational soul, acknowledging a heavenly superior and benefactor. From obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from self-opinion.”

Men Firsts Doe Soul Self Law Sin Simple Opinion Virtue Pure Office Spring Superiors Naked Rational Obedience Heavenly Commandments Submission Disputes Benefactors Self Opinion

Book:Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays

Source: Montaigne's Essays: Top Essays

“The recognition of virtue is not less valuable from the lips of the man who hates it, since truth forces him to acknowledge it; and though he may be unwilling to take it into his inmost soul, he at least decks himself out in its trappings.”

Men May Soul Hate Force Virtue He Man Lips Valuable Recognition Acknowledge Unwilling Deck

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“It is not only spirits who punish the evil, the soul brings itself to judgment: and also it is not right for those who endure for ever to attain everything in a short time: and also, there is need of human virtue. If punishment followed instantly upon sin, men would act justly from fear and have no virtue.”

Ifs Men Needs Humans Soul Spirit Evil Sin Virtue Judgment Endure Punishment Short Time

Author:Sallust

“Souls that have lived in virtue are in general happy, and when separated from the irrational part of their nature, and made clean from all matter, have communion with the gods and join them in the governing of the whole world. Yet even if none of this happiness fell to their lot, virtue itself, and the joy and glory of virtue, and the life that is subject to no grief and no master are enough to make happy those who have set themselves to live according to virtue and have achieved it.”

Ifs World Made Soul Matter Enough Whole Joy Grief Virtue Subjects Masters Glory Clean Whole World Irrational Communion Governing Make Happy

Author:Sallust

“Simplicity is the straightforwardness of a soul which refuses itself any reaction with regard to itself or its deeds. This virtue differs from and surpasses sincerity. We see many people who are sincere without being simple. They do not wish to be taken for other than what they are; but they are always fearing lest they should be taken for what they are not.”

People Should Soul Wish Simple Virtue Taken Regard Simplicity Refuse Deeds Reactions Sincere Sincerity

Author:Francois Fenelon

“Faith is trusting Jesus to lead us and going where He leads. What avails it to me to analyze Saratoga water, and to believe in its virtues? I must drink the water if I want its purifying power. And the soul that has not actually drunk of Christ can never be purged from sin.”

Ifs Want Believe Soul Jesus Christ Water Sin Virtue Drink Drunk Purifying

Author:Theodore L. Cuyler

“Just do right. Right may not be expedient, it may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul. It brings you the kind of protection that bodyguards can’t give you. So try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the battle. Take it up. It’s yours. This is your life. This is your world.”

World Way Giving Trying Years Kind May Soul Virtue Regret Battle Protection Your Soul Useless Live Your Life Profitable Inertia Timidity Bodyguard

Author:Maya Angelou

“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.”

“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”

Doe Soul Wisdom Virtue Humility Foundation Mere Appearance Fake People Humbleness Christian Humility

Author:Saint Augustine

“The centre of the soul is God; and, when the soul has attained to Him according to the whole capacity of its being, which is the strength and virtue of the soul, it will have reached the last and the deep centre of the soul, which will be when with all its powers it loves and understands and enjoys God.”

Soul Whole Lasts Enjoy Virtue Capacity Karma Centre

Author:John of the Cross

“Beauty is but the sensible image of the infinite. Like truth and justice, it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law, it is a companion of the soul.”

Life Soul Law Justice Moral Virtue Infinite Companion Sensible Moral Law Truth And Justice

Author:George Bancroft

“Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.”

Soul Body Moving Liberty Virtue Independence American Liberty

Book:Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc

Source: Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc

“Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue.”

Children Made Soul Sun Virtue Fire Revenge

Book:The Revenge: A Tragedy, in Five Acts

Source: The Revenge: A Tragedy, in Five Acts

“Facing the darkness, admitting the pain, allowing the pain to be pain, is never easy. This is why courage - big-heartedness - is the most essential virtue on the spiritual journey. But if we fail to let pain be pain - and our entire patriarchal culture refuses to let this happen - then pain will haunt us in nightmarish ways. We will become pain's victims instead of the healers we might become.”

Ifs Way Soul Bigs Might Happens Pain Spiritual Culture Easy Darkness Virtue Failing Journey Essentials Victim Refuse Allowing Healer Admitting Spiritual Journey

Author:Matthew Fox

“Temperance is reason's girdle and passion's bridle, the strength of the soul and the foundation of virtue.”

Soul Reason Passion Virtue Foundation Temperance Girdles

Book:Summaries of the sermons and discourses of Sherlock and Jeremy Taylor

Source: Summaries of the sermons and discourses of Sherlock and Jeremy Taylor

“O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought, Lost to the noble sallies of the soul! Who think it solitude to be alone.”

Thinking Soul Lost Virtue Solitude Noble Manly

Book:Extracts from Young's Night thoughts, with observations upon them

Source: Extracts from Young's Night thoughts, with observations upon them

“Everything is destroyed by its own particular vice: the destructive power resides within. Rust destroys iron, moths destroy clothes, the worm eats away the wood; but greatest of all evils is envy, impious habitant of corrupt souls, which ever was, is, and shall be a consuming disease.”

War Soul Evil Virtue Particular Disease Clothes Vices Corruption Woods Envy Destroyed Destructive Iron Worms Consuming Prohibition Rust Moths Destructive Power

Author:Menander

“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.”

Want Persons Soul Action Natural Poor Fiction Virtue Subjects Materials Limits Tragedy Contrary Instruction Elegant Limbs Envious Deflection

Book:The Works of George Chapman: Plays

Source: The Works of George Chapman: Plays

“One of the greatest artifices the devil uses to engage men in vice and debauchery, is to fasten names of contempt on certain virtues, and thus fill weak souls with a foolish fear of passing for scrupulous, should they desire to put them in practice.”

Men Should Soul Use Desire Certain Names Practice Virtue Devil Weak Vices Foolish Passing Passings Contempt Artifice Debauchery

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Virtue is a kind of health, beauty and good habit of the soul.”

Kind Soul Virtue Habit Good Habits Health Beauty

Book:The Works of Plato: The Republic, Timaeus, and Critias

Source: The Works of Plato: The Republic, Timaeus, and Critias

“No structure of virtue can possibly be raised in our soul unless, first, the foundations of true humility are laid in our heart.”

Firsts Heart Soul Virtue Humility Foundation Structure Raised True Humility

Book:The Sacred Writings of John Cassian (Annotated Edition)

Source: The Sacred Writings of John Cassian (Annotated Edition)

“Virtue is to the soul what health is tot he body.”

Soul Body Virtue Tots

Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue.”

Firsts Real Soul Sin Principles Virtue Eternal Rewards Profit Mortals Merit Good Work Mortal Sin

Book:The Interior Castle (Annotated Edition)

Source: The Interior Castle (Annotated Edition)

“... it is a lonely programme. The very virtues you cultivate become walls that inevitably separate you from your kind.... A new danger comes to your soul, and intolerance and impatience with those who are as you have been all but destroy that which you have taken such pains to build up. Not alone are there spiritual barriers between you and the friends that you have, but your business training has made your mind incisive. In the swift rush of business you have no time for small debates and petty dilemmas.”