Virtue Quotes

Quotations
Quote of the Day
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
Voltaire

The characteristic virtue of Englishmen is power of sustained practical activity and their characteristic vice a reluctance to test the quality of that activity by reference to principles.
R H Tawney

Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue
Izaak Walton

Poetry has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time.
Christopher Fry

Confidence in another man's virtue is no slight evidence of a man's own
Montaigne

Human freedom is realised in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself, for the one thing that no-one can be compelled to do by another is to adopt a particular end. - 'Metaphysical Principles of Virtue'
Imannuel Kant

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice
Montaigne

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
Indira Gandhi

Affliction is the school in which great virtues are acquired, in which great characters are formed.
Hannah More

The virtue lies
In the struggle, not the prize
Richard Monckton Milnes

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words
Hippocrates

Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.
Edward Gibbon

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.
Adam Smith

Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.
William Hazlitt

A large part of Christian virtue consists in right habits.
William Paley

A "just war" is hospitable to every self-deception on the part of those waging it, none more than the certainty of virtue, under whose shelter every abomination can be committed with a clear conscience.
Alexander Cockburn

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.
Benedict Spinoza

More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice.
R S Surtees

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
Aristotle

People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so happy.
Galbraith

Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
Tacitus

Suspicion is far more to be wrong than right; more often unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.
Hosea Ballou

I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice.
Carl Gustav Jung

As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.
Christian Nestell Bovee

Blushing is the colour of virtue
Matthew Henry

Virtues are acquired through endeavour, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.
Nagarjuna

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.
Galbraith

The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.
Brooks Anderson

One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don't share ideas.
Dorothy Nevill

Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.
Honore De Balzac

To be good and disagreeable is high treason against the royalty of virtue
Hannah More

A noble birth and fortune, though they make not a bad man good, yet they are a real advantage to a worthy one and place his virtues in a fairer light
George Lillo

Strength was the virtue of paganism; obedience is the virtue of Christianity.
David Hare

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
Jean Paul Richter

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
Rene Descartes

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.
Samuel Butler

Virtues neglected then, adored become, And graces slighted, blossom on the tomb. (The Borough)
George Crabbe

I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.
Boris Pasternak

However great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue. [Thus speaks the great philosopher]
Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
Thomas Jefferson

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.
Quintilian

There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim
Billy Graham

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
John Herschel

Good art however 'immoral' is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can not be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.
Ezra Pound

A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.
Edith Wharton

Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards
George Farquhar

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.
Anatole France

Whither the fates lead virtue will follow without fear
Lucanus

Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice.
Ouida

Every day confirms my opinion on the superiority of a vicious life - and if Virtue is not its own reward I don't know any other stipend annexed to it.
Lord Byron



  Pick another category
© Know the Web Ltd 2002-2022  |   Help  |   Advertise  |   Links  |  Home  |  Content Management System by: Clarity Media   |   Contact Us

Quotes & Authors

Author Quotes (A - Z) Popular Authors
Funny quotes Celebrity quotes Business quotes Sports quotes Famous quotes Political quotes Inspiring quotes Movie quotes Silly quotes Insurance quotes
Lists Anagrams General Election Quotes Browse Search Literature Quotes Best Quotes Fictional Characters Popular Quotes Favorite Quotes By Event Research Quotes Job / Occupation Keywords Topics Proverbs Phrase Finder
Puzzle Books