Quotes on Virtue

Those who believe that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.

There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

If I am virtuous and worthy, for whom should I not maintain a proper concern?

We look for some reward of our endeavors and are disappointed that not success, not happiness, not even peace of conscience, crowns our ineffectual efforts to do well. Our frailties are invincible, our virtues barren; the battle goes sore against us to the going down of the sun.

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.

As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause.

To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall.

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

Self-denial is not a virtue; it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.

For youthful faults ripe virtues shall atone.

A good disposition is a virtue in itself, and it is lasting; the burden of the years cannot depress it, and love that is founded on it endures to the end.

But whoso is heroic must find crises to try his edge. Human virtue demands her champions and martyrs, and the trial of persecution always proceeds.

The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself.

If it were given to a man to see virtue's reward in the next world, he would occupy his intellect, memory and will in nothing but good works, careless of danger or fatigue.

Giving to others selflesly and anonymously, radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darkness, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.

Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.

There are some virtues to not saying what you think all the time.

Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.