Motivational Quotes

Virtue

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

- Hazlitt, William

Best Quotes about 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

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

Virtue has its own reward, but no sales at the box office.

West, Mae

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

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

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

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

Marquis, Don

But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [Ephesians 5:3]

Bible

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

10.

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

Burroughs, William S.

11.

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

12.

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

Bible

13.

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

14.

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

Burke, Edmund

15.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

16.

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

Schlegel, Friedrich

17.

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

Nehru, Jawaharlal

18.

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

Virgil

19.

If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

20.

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

Bradley, Francis H.

21.

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

Rogers, Will

22.

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

Bush, George

23.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

Dahlberg, Edward

24.

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

Antrim, Minna

25.

Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

26.

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

Franklin, Billy Boy

27.

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

28.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

29.

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

Smith, Adam

30.

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.

31.

Virtue is a sure anchor.

Motto

32.

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

Swift, Jonathan

33.

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

Hazlitt, William

34.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

35.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

36.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

37.

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

Confucius

38.

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

Barney, Natalie Clifford

39.

The first time you see Winston Churchill you see all his faults and the rest of your life you spend discovering his virtues.

Lytton, Lady Constance

40.

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

41.

Virtue survives the grave.

Motto

42.

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.

43.

Virtue is the strongest shield.

Motto

44.

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

45.

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

Horace

46.

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

47.

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

48.

I used to be snow white, but I drifted.

West, Mae

49.

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

Sallust

50.

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