For nothing inspires love, nothing conciliates affection, like virtue.
 Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC). copy citation

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Author Marcus Tullius Cicero
Source On Friendship
Topic virtue love
Date 44 BC
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2808/2808-h/2808-h.htm

Context

“and next, when the passion of love has attained to a like strength—on our finding, that is, some one person with whose character and nature we are in full sympathy, because we think that we perceive in him what I may call the beacon-light of virtue. For nothing inspires love, nothing conciliates affection, like virtue. Why, in a certain sense we may be said to feel affection even for men we have never seen, owing to their honesty and virtue. Who, for instance, fails to dwell on the memory of Gaius Fabricius and Manius Curius with some affection and warmth of feeling, though he has never seen them?” source