Perfect virtue is to do unwitnessed what we should be capable of doing before all the world.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Virtue is too often merely local.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The home is the chief school of human virtues.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Build up virtue, and you master all.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
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
No exile at the South Pole or on the summit of Mont Blanc separates us more effectively from others than the practice of a hidden vice.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
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
Vice is a creature of such hideous mien… that the more you see it the better you like it.
—Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) American Author, Writer, Humorist
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The great slight the men of wit who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the great who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit, they have not virtue.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so happy.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Alas, human vices, however horrible one might imagine them to be, contain the proof (were it only in their infinite expansion) of man’s longing for the infinite; but it is a longing that often takes the wrong route. It is my belief that the reason behind all culpable excesses lies in this depravation of the sense of the infinite.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Our life is short, but to expand that span to vast eternity is virtue’s work.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, though nobody were to see me.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) British Statesman
The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Every condition of life, if attended with virtue, is undisturbed and delightful; but when vice is intermixed, it renders even things that appear sumptuous and magnificent, distasteful and uneasy to the possessor.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Virtue has never been as respectable as money.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Virtues are dangerous as vices insofar as they are allowed to rule over one as authorities and not as qualities one develops oneself.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Why is there no man who confesses his vices? It is because he has not yet laid them aside. It is a waking man only who can tell his dreams.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Many who have tasted all the pleasures of sin have forsaken it and come over to virtue; but there are few, if any, who having tried the sweets of virtue could ever be drawn off from it, or find in their hearts to fall back to their former course.
—Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850) Scottish Judge, Literary Critic
The time is always right to do what’s right.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Virtue is that perfect good which is the complement of a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs to mortality.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
With virtue you can’t be entirely poor; without virtue you can’t really be rich.
—Chinese Proverb
Blushing is the color of virtue.
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
What were once vices are the fashion of the day.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
He who hates vice hates men.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
There is but one pursuit in life which it is in the power of all to follow, and of all to attain. It is subject to no disappointments, since he that perseveres makes every difficulty an advancement, and every conquest a victory and this is the pursuit of virtue. Sincerely to aspire after virtue is to gain her; and zealously to labor after her ways is to receive them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
From Obedience and submission comes all our virtues, and all sin is comes from self-opinion.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
There are two things that declare, as with a voice from heaven, that he that fills that eternal throne must be on the side of virtue, and that which he befriends must finally prosper and prevail. The first is that the bad are never completely happy and at ease, although possessed of everything that this world can bestow; and that the good are never completely miserable, although deprived of everything that this world can take away. The second is that we are so framed and constituted that the most vicious cannot but pay a secret though unwilling homage to virtue, inasmuch as the worst men cannot bring themselves thoroughly to esteem a bad man, although he may be their dearest friend, nor can they thoroughly despise a good man, although he may be their bitterest enemy.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
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
The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.
—Bergen Evans
Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Ah, Eugenie, 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?
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
Virtue is uniform and fixed, because she looks for approbation only from Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
The tragedy of life is not that man loses,
but that he almost wins.
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
Virtue is insufficient temptation.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
A woman can defend her virtue from men much more easily than she can protect her reputation from women
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher