Motivational Quotes

Virtue

People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you've got to keep your feet warm.

- Diderot, Denis

Best Quotes about Virtue

There is no substitute for virtue. Keep your thoughts virtuous. Rise above the filth that's all around you in this world and stand tall in strength and virtue. You can do this and you will be happier for it for as long as you live. God bless you in cherishing, developing and holding on to this great gift, the quality of personal virtue.

Hinckley, Gordon B.

The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test.

Vizinczey, Stephen

Virtue is the strongest shield.

Motto

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

Barney, Natalie Clifford

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world.

Shaw, George Bernard

The glory that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

Sallust

Thou shalt understand that it is a science most profitable, and passing all other sciences, for to learn to die. For a man to know that he shall die, that is common to all men; as much as there is no man that may ever live or he hath hope or trust thereof; but thou shalt find full few that hath this cunning to learn to die. I shall give thee the mystery of this doctrine; the which shall profit thee greatly to the beginning of ghostly health, and to a stable fundamental of all virtues.

Suso, Heinrich

All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.

Murdoch, Iris

10.

If we've learned anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot federalize virtue.

Bush, George

11.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.

Johnson, Samuel

12.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Confucius

13.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

Plato

14.

People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you've got to keep your feet warm.

Diderot, Denis

15.

We do not place especial value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

16.

Virtue survives the grave.

Motto

17.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

Lao-Tzu

18.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.

Proverb, English

19.

Pleasure which must be enjoyed at the expense of another's pain, can never be enjoyed by a worthy mind. Pleasure's couch is virtues grave.

Duganne, Augustine J.

20.

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

Schlegel, Friedrich

21.

A homely face and no figure have aided many women heavenward.

Antrim, Minna

22.

Of all the benefits which virtue confers on us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

23.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. [Galatians 5:23, 24]

Bible

24.

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

Bradley, Francis H.

25.

Few people have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Washington, George

26.

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Smith, Adam

27.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.

Johnson, Samuel

28.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

29.

Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

30.

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.

Jung, Carl

31.

The chief assertion of religious morality is that white is a color. Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

32.

There are in every man, always, two simultaneous allegiances, one to God, the other to Satan. Invocation of God, or Spirituality, is a desire to climb higher; that of Satan, or animality, is delight in descent.

Baudelaire, Charles

33.

Virtue is like health: the harmony of the whole man.

Carlyle, Thomas

34.

If we had to seek virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, it suffices to avoid bad thoughts and to keep our souls turned toward the Lord.

Philokalia

35.

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

Butler, Samuel

36.

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

Burroughs, William S.

37.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Addison, Joseph

38.

You are a man, not God; you are human, not an angel. How can you expect to remain always in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of Heaven, nor for the first man in the Garden?

Kempis, Thomas

39.

Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.

Camus, Albert

40.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

Shaw, George Bernard

41.

For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.

Blackwell, Elizabeth

42.

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.