Quotes about Virtue

Virtue is not always rewarded nor evil punished.

Virtue is its own punishment.

The true gentleman is God's servant. The world's master and his own man. Virtue is his business, study his recreation. Contentment his rest and happiness his reward. God is his father, Jesus Christ his Savior, the Saints his brethren, and all that need him his friends. Devotion is his chaplain, chastity his chamberlain, sobriety his butler, temperance his work, hospitality his housekeeper, providence his steward, purity his mistress of the house, and discretion his porter, to be let in and out as most fit; thus is his whole family made up of virtue and he is the master of the house.

Can a woman be too virtuous? Can a bank cashier be too honest? Can a witness be too truthful ? Surely not. The trouble is that none of us is half as good as we ought to be.

People don't grow wealthy or powerful through virtue or intelligence or hard work, though those things do figure in. They grow wealthy and powerful because they know how to take what's in front of them and shape it, and use it.

O Goddess Earth, O all-enduring wide expanses! Salutation to thee. Now I am going to begin cultivation. Be pleased, O virtuous One.

There be one place from which none may ever return-be he King, or Demon-Spawn, or the Lord of Hell himself. For lack of virtue has exiled them here . . . and only that virtue they lack can save them.

Deserve honor by your own virtue.

When we live habitually with the wicked, we become either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, with the virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of virtues, or at least some of their faults.

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation is principle is always a vice.

The founders of this nation understood that private morality is the fount from whence sound public policy springs. Replying to Washington's first inaugural address, the Senate stated: "We feel, sir, the force and acknowledge the justness of the observation that the foundation of our national policy should be lain in private morality. If individuals be not influenced by moral principles it is in vain to look for public virtue."

Virtue is like health: the harmony of the whole man.

It is especially important in this discussion to recognize the unity of the total process, from that first unimaginable moment of cosmic emergence through all its subsequent forms of expression until the present. This unbreakable bond of relatedness that makes of the whole a universe becomes increasingly apparent to scientific observation, although this bond ultimately escapes scientific formulation or understanding. In virtue of this relatedness, everything is intimately present to everything else in the universe. Nothing is completely itself without everything else. This relatedness is both spatial and temporal. However distant in space or time, the bond of unity is functionally there. The universe is a communion and a community. We ourselves are that communion become conscious of itself.

You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?

Every virtue is a form of obedience to God. Every evil word or act is a form of rebellion against Him. This may not be clear at first; but, if we think patiently, we shall find that it is true. Why were you angry? You will probably find that it w as because you were not willing to accept the world as God has made it, or because you were not willing to leave it to God to deal with the people that He has made.

And there's a lust in man no charm can tame Of loudly publishing our neighbour's shame; On eagles' wings immortal scandals fly, While virtuous actions are but born and die.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but . . . wealth, and every other good thing which men have . . . comes from virtue.

Think not silence the wisdom of fools; but, if rightly timed, the honor of wise men, who have not the infirmity, but the virtue of taciturnity.

If there be any among those common objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great enemy of reason, virtue, and religion, the multitude; that numerous piece of monstrosity, which, taken asunder, seem men, and the reasonable creatures of God, but, confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious than Hydra.

Will. Honeycomb calls these over-offended ladies the outrageously virtuous.

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

If to die honorably is the greatest Part of virtue, for us fate's done her best. Because we fought to crown Greece with freedom We lie here enjoying timeless fame.

I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, although nobody were to see me.

We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.