Motivational Quotes

Virtue

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

- Butler, Samuel

Best Quotes about Virtue

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

Murdoch, Iris

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

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

Shaw, George Bernard

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

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

Shaw, George Bernard

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

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

Burke, Edmund

Virtue is harmony.

Pythagoras

10.

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.

11.

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

Bible

12.

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.

13.

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

Franklin, Billy Boy

14.

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

Nehru, Jawaharlal

15.

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

Rogers, Will

16.

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

17.

When you can't have anything else, you can have virtue.

Marquis, Don

18.

It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.

Horace

19.

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

Johnson, Samuel

20.

I used to be snow white, but I drifted.

West, Mae

21.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

22.

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

23.

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.

24.

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

25.

Temperance and labor are the two best virtues. Labor whets the appetite, temperance curbs it.

26.

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

Antrim, Minna

27.

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

Butler, Samuel

28.

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

Smith, Adam

29.

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

Confucius

30.

I have never seen a man as fond of virtue as of women.

Confucius

31.

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

Bush, George

32.

Virtue is the strongest shield.

Motto

33.

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

Schlegel, Friedrich

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.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

36.

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

Jordan, David Starr

37.

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

38.

Few people have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Washington, George

39.

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

Swift, Jonathan

40.

Virtue that wavers is not virtue.

Milton, John

41.

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

Camus, Albert

42.

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

43.

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

Lippmann, Walter

44.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

45.

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

Plato

46.

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

Burroughs, William S.

47.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

48.

Virtue survives the grave.

Motto

49.

Ah, Eug?nie, have done with virtues! Among the sacrifices that can be made to those counterfeit divinities, is there one worth an instant of the pleasures one tastes in outraging them?

Sade, Marquis De

50.

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