Motivational Quotes

Virtue

I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice.

- Jung, Carl

Best Quotes about Virtue

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

Lao-Tzu

I used to be snow white, but I drifted.

West, Mae

Of all the benefits which virtue confers on us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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.

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.

Virtue is a sure anchor.

Motto

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

Marquis, Don

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

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.

Howe, Edgar Watson

10.

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

Confucius

11.

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

Butler, Samuel

12.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.

Proverb, English

13.

Virtue that wavers is not virtue.

Milton, John

14.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

15.

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

Bradley, Francis H.

16.

Few people have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Washington, George

17.

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

Burke, Edmund

18.

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

Nehru, Jawaharlal

19.

If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

20.

Virtue is harmony.

Pythagoras

21.

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

Camus, Albert

22.

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

23.

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

Plato

24.

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

Hazlitt, William

25.

Jung, Carl

26.

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

Confucius

27.

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

Smith, Adam

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Jordan, David Starr

32.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Addison, Joseph

33.

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

34.

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

Burroughs, William S.

35.

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

Murdoch, Iris

36.

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

Sallust

37.

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

38.

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

Bible

39.

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

Virgil

40.

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

Lippmann, Walter

41.

Virtue is the strongest shield.

Motto

42.

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

43.

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

Bush, George

44.

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

45.

Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.

Pope, Alexander

46.

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

47.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

48.

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

West, Mae

49.

With virtue you can't be entirely poor; without virtue you can't really be rich.

Proverb, Chinese

50.

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