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Virtue quotes

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“The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort.” Confucius, “Analects”

“The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“Well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don't think it right.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“Assume a virtue, if you have it not.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?” George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman” - 1903

“To be slow in words is a woman's only virtue.” William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” - 1623

“There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright.” Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” - 1791

“Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue.” Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” - 1791

“Our conclusion, then, is that political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Hence it is evident that the good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.” Confucius, “Analects”

“It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.” Samuel Butler, “The Note-Books of Samuel Butler” - 1912

“Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“Further, nothing, except sin, is contrary to an act of virtue. But war is contrary to peace. Therefore war is always a sin.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” - 1939

“Men's evil manners live in brass: their virtues we write in water.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VIII” - 1623

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.” C. S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters” - 1942

“My heart laments that virtue cannot live out of the teeth of emulation.” William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar” - 1623

“If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“Anything that's mended is but patched; virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin, and sin that amends is but patched with virtue.” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.” William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 1623

“Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.” William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus” - 1623

“Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.” William Shakespeare, “Titus Andronicus” - 1594

“Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition, and charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand; foul subornation is predominant, and equity exil'd your highness' land.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 2” - 1594

“Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it to-day because it is not of to-day.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Anyhow there was no bitterness in her; none of that sense of moral virtue which is so repulsive in good women. She enjoyed practically everything.” Virginia Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” - 1925

“Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn't done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.” Confucius, “Analects”

“The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration;— this may be called perfect virtue.” Confucius, “Analects”

“The true God has never yet smiled upon a person for his charity or virtues, but only for the sake of Christ's merits.” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“They had generally acquired some of the vices of civilization, but none of the virtues, except in individual cases.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.” Dante Alighieri, “Divine Comedy” - 1320

“To mimic virtue is of every age; but the hypocrisy of luxury belongs more particularly to the ages of democracy.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“The workings of the mind discover oft Dark deeds in darkness schemed, before the act. More hateful still the miscreant who seeks When caught, to make a virtue of a crime.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“Even if a dream of different content had the significance of this offence against majesty, it would still have been in place to remember the words of Plato, that the virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in...” Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams” - 1899

“Dependance begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favours such a confidence.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Audacity in wooing is a great virtue, but a man must measure even his virtues.” Anthony Trollope, “Phineas Redux” - 1874

“My friend, you see how perishable are the riches of this world; there is nothing solid but virtue, and the happiness of seeing Cunegonde once more.” Voltaire, “Candide” - 1759

“He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“But virtue's true reward is happiness itself, for which the virtuous work: whereas if they worked for honor, it would no longer be a virtue, but ambition.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“For moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have a choice.” Henry Kissinger, “The White House Years” - 1979

“Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them; for the temperate man desires as he ought to desire, and what he ought to desire, as stated in Ethic.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“And what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed alone, without exteriour help sustained?” John Milton, “Paradise Lost” - 1667

“Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike.” Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein” - 1818

Related topics

vice happiness sin women courage marriage God knowledge success evil ambition goodness love passion men modesty darkness leadership past time

Related authors

William Shakespeare (10)
Confucius (4)
Oscar Wilde (3)
John Steinbeck (3)
Thomas Aquinas (3)
Baruch Spinoza (3)
Henry David Thoreau (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
Benjamin Franklin (2)
Aristotle (2)
Mary Shelley (2)
Jane Austen (1)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
George Orwell (1)
C. S. Lewis (1)
Virginia Woolf (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
Martin Luther (1)
Francis Bacon (1)

Related sources

Analects (4)
Summa Theologica (3)
Ethics (3)
Civil Disobedience (2)
Self-Reliance (2)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (2)
Politics (2)
East of Eden (2)
Frankenstein (2)
Hamlet (1)
Twelfth Night (1)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1)
Henry VI, Part 2 (1)
Othello (1)
Julius Caesar (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
Man and Superman (1)
Measure for Measure (1)