The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality which some temptation may not overtop, or undermine and destroy.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Guilt, though it may attain temporal splendor, can never confer real happiness; the evil consequences of our crimes long survive their commission, and, like the ghosts of the murdered, forever haunt the steps of the malefactor; while the paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
I was just trying to let them know how I felt about being treated as a human being.
—Rosa Parks (1913–2005) American Civil Rights Leader
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.
—Samuel Butler
Virtue is like health: the harmony of the whole man.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The imperfections of a man, his frailties, his faults, are just as important as his virtues. You can’t separate them. They’re wedded.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Here am I: at one stroke incestuous, adulteress, sodomite, and all that in a girl who only lost her maidenhead today! What progress, my friends… with what rapidity I advance along the thorny road of vice!
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. These virtue, honor, and knowledge alone can merit, alone can produce.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
We live in a war of two antagonistic ethical philosophies, the ethical policy taught in the books and schools, and the success policy.
—William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Academic, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Virtue that wavers is not virtue.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Modesty and unselfishness – these are virtues which men praise – and pass by.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Though conditions have grown puzzling in their complexity, though changes have been vast, yet we may remain absolutely sure of one thing; that now as ever in the past, and as it will ever be in the future, there can be no substitute for elemental virtues, for the elemental qualities to which we allude when we speak of a man, not only as a good man, but as emphatically a man. We can build up the standard of individual citizenship and individual well-being, we can raise the national standard and make it what it can and shall be made, only by each of us steadfastly keeping in mind that there can be no substitute for the world-old commonplace qualities of truth, justice, and courage, thrift, industry, common sense and genuine sympathy with the fellow feelings of others.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
I willingly confess that it likes me better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favored creature.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Nature does not loathe virtue: it is unaware of its existence.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
I’m as pure as the driven slush.
—Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress
Never expecting to find perfection in men, in my commerce with my contemporaries I have found much human virtue. I have seen not a little public spirit; a real subordination of interest to duty; and a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation. The age unquestionably produces daring profligates and insidious hypocrites. What then? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the world because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it? The smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value. They who raise suspicions on the good, on account of the behavior of ill men, are of the party of the latter.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman