Virtue Quotes

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.

It must be admitted that the conception of virtue cannot be separated from the conception of happiness-producing conduct.

We cannot have right virtue without right conditions.

Fear is the virtue of slaves; but the heart that loveth is willing.

The low desire, the base design That makes another's virtues less.

Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.

We endeavor to conceal our vices under the disguise of the opposite virtues.

In matters of government, justice means force as well as virtue.

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

The tragedy of virtue is that the more obvious, boring, unoriginal, and sermonizing the proverb, the harder it is to implement.

Most people are so constituted that they can only be virtuous in a certain routine; an irregular course of life demoralizes them.

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.

Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, and virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.

Discipline is the virtue that begins in obedience and flowers in self-control.

There's no credit in not doing what you don't want to do. There's no virtue in not falling, when you're not tempted.

Wait and see whether the religion of the Servile State is not in every case what I say: the encouragement of small virtues supporting capitalism, the discouragement of the huge virtues that defy it.

Rebellion per se is not a virtue. If it were, we would have some heroes on very low levels.

Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces.

Virtue does not truly reward her votary if she leaves him sad and half doubtful whether it would not have been better to serve vice.

'Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.

the virtue of imagination has this in common with the virtue of courage. Without it, you are less good: with it, you are not necessarily better.

there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation.

There can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth.

Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.

A woman mixed of such fine elements That were all virtue and religion dead She'd make them newly, being what she was.

What to one man is the virtue which he has sunk below the possibility of aspiring to, is to another the backsliding by which he forfeits his spiritual crown.

Righteousness alone can exalt them [America] as a nation. Reader! Whoever thou art, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others.

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

Look within. The heart is the foundation of virtue; and it is for eternity ready to do virtuous works.

The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience.

Those who believe that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.

The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.

The good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man.

If, therefore, there is any one superior in virtue and in the power of performing the best actions, him we ought to follow and obey, but he must have the capacity for action as well as virtue.

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

The virtue of the good man is necessarily the same as the virtue of the citizen of the perfect state.

Even if we could suppose the citizen body to be virtuous, without each of them being so, yet the latter would be better, for in the virtue of each the virtue of all is involved.

What is virtue? It is to hold yourself to your fullest development as a person and as a responsible member of the human community

He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue of style, perfect explicitness is not a necessary virtue.

They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

Pleasure's couch is virtue's grave.

Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when it is crushed.

There is genius as well in virtue as in intellect. 'Tis the doctrine of faith over works.

Virtue is necessary to a republic.

I think no virtue goes with size;The reason of all cowardiceIs, that men are overgrown,And, to be valiant, must come downTo the titmouse dimension.

I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.