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Virtuous Quotes

Browse 713 quotes about Virtuous.

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Virtuous Quotes

“It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order within the bounds of reason and religion, because this is empire.”

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Book:Works
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“In truth, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” isn't about Sept. 11. It's about the impulse to drain that day of its specificity and turn it into yet another wellspring of generic emotions: sadness, loneliness, happiness. This is how kitsch works. It exploits familiar images, be they puppies or babies - or, as in the case of this movie, the twin towers - and tries to make us feel good, even virtuous, simply about feeling. And, yes, you may cry, but when tears are milked as they are here, the truer response should be rage.”

FeelsShouldTryingMayFeelingsTurnsEmotionCasesSadnessLonelinessCryTearsBabyResponseRageFamiliarFeel GoodImpulseLoudWorking ItVirtuousTwinsTowersExploitsPuppyDrainsKitschGenericSpecificityWellspringSept 11Twin Towers
Author:Manohla Dargis
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“In real life, however, you don't react to what someone did; you react only to what you think she did, and the gap between action and perception is bridged by the art of impression management. If life itself is but what you deem it, then why not focus your efforts on persuading others to believe that you are a virtuous and trustworthy cooperator?”

IfsThinkingLifeBelieveArtRealActionEffortFocusPerceptionManagementReal LifeImpressionWhy NotGapsVirtuousTrustworthyPersuading
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
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“It is that faculty by which we discover and enjoy the beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime in literature, art, and nature; which recognizes a noble thought, as a virtuous mind welcomes a pure sentiment by a involuntary glow of satisfaction. But while the principle of perception is inherent in the soul, it requires a certain amount of knowledge to draw out and direct it.”

MindArtSoulBeautifulCertainLiteratureEnjoyPrinciplesAmountTastePurePerceptionDrawsDirectSatisfactionNobleFacultySentimentsVirtuousInherentSublimeInvoluntaryPicturesque
Author:Robert Aris Willmott
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“Did any great genius ever enter the world in the wake of commonplace pre-natal conditions? Was a maker of history ever born amidst the pleasant harmonies of a satisfied domesticity? Of a mother who was less than remarkable, although she may have escaped being great? Did a woman with no wildness in her blood ever inform a brain with electric fire? The students of history know that while many mothers of great men have been virtuous, none have been commonplace, and few have been happy.”

KnowsMenWorldMayHas BeensMotherBornBrainFireBloodConditionsStudentsGeniusHarmonySatisfiedPleasantGreat MenRemarkableMakersVirtuousElectricCommonplaceWildnessDomesticityNatal
Author:Gertrude Atherton
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“none but the estimable shall hear from me that I esteem them. The whole world is entitled to my courtesy, but greater tribute than that must be earned through virtuous acts.”

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Book:The History of Lady Sophia Sternheim: Extracted by a Woman Friend of the Same from Original Documents and Other Reliable Sources
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“This sutra enjoins a rule of morality. It says nobody should be disrespected. A man can impress evdrybnody by his virtues. Disrespecting others means downfall of our own virtues. A person who disrespects others, in a way disrespect himself. A virtuous man does not disrespect his friend or vevn his enemy. Disrespect to enemy can investigate him toreact. The best thing is to destroy him completely. For a ruler this is very important.”

MenWayShouldMeanPersonsDoeImportantPoliticalEnemyVirtueMoralityBest ThingsVirtuousRulersImpressRespecting OthersDisrespectDownfallDisrespected
Author:Chanakya
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“There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life.”

IfsMayArtTwoActionSocialNaturalPleasureHistoryEconomyRegardReputationFormerCharmProductiveVirtuousDispositionPrivate LifeIntercourseRefinedRoman EmpirePropensity
Book:History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus
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“If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would have been executed without hesitation by the ministers of open violence or of specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with which he proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop, discovered to the world that the privileges of the church had already revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government.”

IfsWorldHas BeensGovernmentOrderChurchHistoryViolenceCitizensDifficultyInjusticePrivilegePunishmentMinistersRepublicVirtuousDelayCautionEmperorBishopsHesitationCondemnationRoman Empire
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)
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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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“It must not be supposed that happiness will demand many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources. This may be clearly observed in experience: private citizens do not seem to be less but more given to doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates. It is sufficient then if moderate resources are forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will be essentially a happy life.”

IfsMayDoeSelfSeemsActionHappinessGivenCan DoMoralSeaLandDependsCitizensActivityDemandResourcesDeedsPossessionNobleSufficientAbundanceHappy LifeVirtuousRulersModeratesLife HappinessSelf SufficiencySufficiencyForthcomingLand And SeaNoble Deeds
Author:Aristotle
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“Those who merely possess the goods of fortune may be haughty and insolent; . . . they try to imitate the great-souled man without being really like him, and only copy him in what they can, reproducing his contempt for others but not his virtuous conduct. For the great-souled man is justified in despising other people - his estimates are correct; but most proud men have no good ground for their pride.”

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Author:Aristotle
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“Some persons hold that, while it is proper for the lawgiver to encourage and exhort men to virtue on moral grounds, in the expectation that those who have had a virtuous moral upbringing will respond, yet he is bound to impose chastisement and penalties on the disobedient and ill-conditioned, and to banish the incorrigible out of the state altogether. For (they argue) although the virtuous man, who guides his life by moral ideals, will be obedient to reason, the base, whose desires are fixed on pleasure, must be chastised by pain, like a beast of burden.”

MenPersonsStatesReasonPainLawDesireJusticePleasureMoralVirtueExpectationsIdealsBoundsIllBurdenGuidesArguingFixedBeastVirtuousPenaltiesUpbringingObedientChastisementIncorrigibleBeast Of Burden
Author:Aristotle
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“When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare physiological facts; they should be told whatever they wish to know. There should be no attempt to represent adults as more virtuous than they are, or sex as occurring only in marriage. There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.”

KnowsFeelsShouldMeanChildrenFactsHappensLyingWishSexParentLosesAdultsExcuseVirtuousDeceivingConventionalJustifiedLiedNo ExcusesPhysiological
Book:Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage
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“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.”

GivingHumansHas BeensMadeCharacterChristianLyingFallFoundHeavenHellAtheismMoralityHorrorAuthorityThreatPositive AtheismSelfishReactionsDoctrineSensualityObedienceMotiveAppropriateIdolsVirtuousPassiveSubmissionAsceticismLegalityChristian MoralityVirtuous Life
Book:Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government
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“Hollywood keeps before its child audiences a string of glorified young heroes, everyone of whom is an unhesitating and violent Anarchist. His one answer to everything that annoys him or disparages his country or his parents or his young lady or his personal code of manly conduct is to give the offender a "sock" in the jaw.... My observation leads me to believe that it is not the virtuous people who are good at socking jaws.”

PeopleGivingBelieveChildrenCountryYoungParentAnswersAudienceHeroHollywoodViolentObservationCodeStringsAnnoyingVirtuousAnarchistSockManlyLeading MeOffendersYoung Ladies
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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“In a virtuous and free state, no rewards can be so pleasing to sensible minds, as those which include the approbation of our fellow citizens. My great pain is, lest my poor endeavours should fall short of the kind expectations of my country.”

ShouldMindKindCountryStatesPainFallPoorCitizensExpectationsFellowsRewardsSensibleVirtuousPublic ServiceEndeavourFree State
Book:Thomas Jefferson: a biography in his own words
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“Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone; and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous.”

StillsBodyCertainEnemyHorribleCustomsFearfulVirtuousPrimitiveTribesModeratesIndulgeHumanePacificIndulge InCannibalism
Book:The Complete Novels of Herman Melville: Sea Tales, Maritime Adventures & Philosophical Novels: Moby-Dick, Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White-Jacket, Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man & Billy Budd, Sailor
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“All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.”

PeopleLifeHumansMayMeanSeemsMotivationalHappinessWealthHuman BeingsMoneyFocusExampleProduceActivityFulfillmentGood LifeHappy LifeWorthwhileVirtuousLife HappinessMisguidedWorthwhile Things
Author:Epictetus
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