Motivational Quotes

Virtue

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

- Smith, Adam

Best Quotes about Virtue

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

Schlegel, Friedrich

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

Confucius

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

Howe, Edgar Watson

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

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

Johnson, Samuel

Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.

Pope, Alexander

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

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

Butler, Samuel

Virtue is harmony.

Pythagoras

10.

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

Johnson, Samuel

11.

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.

12.

The highest virtue found in the tropics is chastity, and in the colder regions, temperance.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

13.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

14.

Virtue survives the grave.

Motto

15.

Virtue is the strongest shield.

Motto

16.

Few people have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Washington, George

17.

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

Bush, George

18.

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

Barney, Natalie Clifford

19.

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

20.

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

Smith, Adam

21.

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

Murdoch, Iris

22.

Virtue rejects facility to be her companion. She requires a craggy, rough and thorny way.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

23.

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

Sallust

24.

It is easy enough to be virtuous When nothing tempts you to stray; When without or within No voice of sin Is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

25.

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

Plato

26.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

27.

With virtue you can't be entirely poor; without virtue you can't really be rich.

Proverb, Chinese

28.

Purity is the feminine, truth the masculine of honor.

Hare, David

29.

Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person.

Virgil

30.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

Burke, Edmund

31.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

32.

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

33.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

Dahlberg, Edward

34.

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

35.

I used to be snow white, but I drifted.

West, Mae

36.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.

Jordan, David Starr

37.

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

38.

Why does a virtuous man take delight in the landscapes? Because the din of the dusty world and the locked-in-ness of human habitations are what human nature habitually abhors; while on the contrary, haze, mist, and the haunting spirits of the mountains are what human nature seeks, and yet can rarely find.

His, Kuo

39.

From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

40.

To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.

Hazlitt, William

41.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

42.

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.

Swift, Jonathan

43.

Be generous, good and just, when anything is to be gained by virtue.

Franklin, Billy Boy

44.

Unless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail.

Lippmann, Walter

45.

Virtue is a sure anchor.

Motto

46.

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.

47.

Mona Lisa is the only beauty who went through history and retained her reputation.

Rogers, Will

48.

Virtuous people are simply those who have not been tempted sufficiently, because they live in a vegetative state, or because their purposes are so concentrated in one direction that they have not had the leisure to glance around them.

Duncan, Isadora

49.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.

Proverb, English

50.

If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.

Bovee, Christian Nevell