Virtue Quotes

All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.

Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning.

Patience, the beggar's virtue, shall find no harbor here.

I know myself too well to believe in pure virtue.

I'd rather make a show 100 people need to see, than a show that 1000 people want to see.

In other words, we are never freer than when we become most ourselves, most human, most just, most excellent, and the like.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

To refrain from evil and from strong drink and to be always, steadfast in virtue; this is the good luck.

Wonder of wonders! Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, endowed with wisdom and virtue, but because men's minds have become inverted through delusive thinking they fail to perceive this.

To me it seems that liberty and virtue were made for each other. If any man wish to enslave his country, nothing is a fitter preparative than vice; and nothing leads to vice so surely as irreligion.

There is explosive power in virtue.

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.

The love of economy is the root of all virtue.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.

To act with doubleness towards a man whose own conduct was double, was so near an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called by no meaner name than diplomacy.

It is not a sin to be happy, it is not a virtue to be miserable.

May we understand that joy is not a sin, sacrifice is not a virtue.

When you know how to use it, disobedience can be a virtue.

There are some persons on whom virtue sits almost as ungraciously as vice.

Let thy virtue be too high for the familiarity of names, and if thou must speak of it, be not ashamed to stammer about it.

Le bonheur engloutit nos forces, comme le malheur e teint nos vertus. Happiness engulfs our strength, just as misfortune extinguishes our virtues.

Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things.

Virtue is not a thing you can have by halves; it is or it is not.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

We hate virtue when it is safe; when removed from our sight we diligently seek it. [Lat., Virtutem incolumem odimus, Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus.]

Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

Sincerity is a great but rare virtue, and we pardon to it much complaining, and the betrayal of many weaknesses.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

Somehow the wondrous promise of the earth is that there are things beautiful in it, things wondrous and alluring, and by virtue of your trade you want to understand them.

In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.

Pepper is small in quantity and great in virtue.

Discordance is evil. Harmony is virtue.

It was one thing to go to the end of the world; it was quite another thing to make oneself at home there. Even respectability seemed to lose some of its virtue when one practiced it in a tent.

Remember our words, then, and whatever is your aim let virtue be the condition of the attainment of your aim, and know that without this all possessions and pursuits are dishonourable and evil.

The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

I say that virtue is really all about enjoying yourself, living fully; but of course it is far from obvious what living fully actually means.

He, who practices right, but in the hope of acquiring great renown, is very near to vice.

If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.

Vice is its own reward. It is virtue which, if it is to be marketed with consumer appeal, must carry Green Shield stamps.

I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

Lowliness is the base of every virtue, And he who goes the lowest builds the safest.

Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

Honesty is a selfish virtue. Yes I am honest enough.

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

Tolerance is a virtue of people who don't believe in anything anymore.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

Pain is God's midwife, that helps some virtue into existence.

Without courage, all other virtues are useless.