Virtue Quotes

In every Revolution a dictator is needed to save the state by force, or censors to save it by virtue.

Renunciation-is a piercing Virtue-The letting go A Presence-for an Expectation-.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

There are those who would misteach us that to stick in a rut is consistency - and a virtue, and that to climb out of the rut is inconsistency - and a vice.

A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay.

Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound, Which takes not solid virtue for its ground.

Without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues.

The surest step toward joy in the morning is virtue in the evening.

Never trust a sentimentalist. They are all alike, pretenders to virtue, at heart selfish frauds and sensualists.

Flirting is the sin of the virtuous and the virtue of the sinful.

All great virtues become great men.

It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.

No adulation; 'tis the death of virtue; Who flatters, is of all mankind the lowest Save he who courts the flattery.

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.

[L]iberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted . . .

Both tolerance and respect are empty virtues until we actually understand whatever it is we are supposed to be tolerating or respecting.

Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter.

Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.

You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people.

We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.

Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.

To know your faults and be able to change is the greatest virtue.

There is nothing more vulgar than a petty bourgeois life with its halfpence, its victuals, its futile talk, and its useless conventional virtue.

Virtue is its own punishment.

Disobedience was man's Original Virtue.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don't dare stop.

Exemplary people concern themselves with virtue, small people concern themselves with territory. The ruling class thinks of punishment, the lower classes hope for benevolence.

The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind.

Art is the inheritance of every individual, it activates evolutionary growth, it is an intellectual virtue, and the fostering principle for all that is made, done, or known.

The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.

Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.

Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, jasmine - the fragrance of virtue is unrivalled by such kinds of perfume.

In struggling with misfortunes lies the true proof of virtue.

Whoever wants to set a good example must add a grain of foolishness to his virtue: then others can imitate and yet at the same time surpass the one they imitate-which human beings love to do.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. [Lat., Gratus animus est una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum onmium reliquarum.]

I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.

Elegance is inferior to virtue.

The first contributing factor to a happy home is the sublime virtue of loyalty, one of the noblest attributes of the human soul.

Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.

Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs.

Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.

Perseverance is a virtue that cannot be understated.

Independent thinking is not encouraged in a professional Army. It is a form of mutiny. Obedience is the supreme virtue.

Get money first; virtue comes after.

A coerced "choice" does not reflect virtue, only compliance.

It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.

True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.