Hang virtue! [ Ben Jonson ]
Virtue is beauty. [ William Shakespeare ]
Sorrow teaches virtue. [ A. de Musset ]
Tenderness is a virtue. [ Goldsmith ]
Virtue never grows old. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Vice makes virtue shine. [ Proverb ]
Virtue lies in the mean. [ Proverb ]
By virtue of his office.
Virtue is her own reward. [ Drydon ]
Night is virtue's friend. [ E. Young ]
Virtue is not hereditary. [ Thomas Paine ]
Remorse is virtue's root. [ Bryant ]
Kindness is virtue itself. [ Lamartine ]
Make a virtue of necessity. [ Burton ]
Blushing is virtue's colour. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is built upon itself. [ Proverb ]
To maken virtue of necessity. [ Chaucer ]
Virtue is the truest liberty. [ Owen Feltham ]
Virtue is praised and freezes. [ Juvenal ]
I wrap myself up in my virtue. [ Horace ]
Virtue alone is true nobility. [ Gifford ]
Honor is the reward of virtue. [ Cicero ]
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbour give
To more virtue than doth live. [ Jonson, on Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland ]
Virtue is the strongest shield. [ Motto ]
Go back; the virtue of your name
Is not here passable. [ William Shakespeare ]
Pardon is the virtue of victory. [ Mazzini ]
Virtue hath few Platonic lovers. [ Proverb ]
Virtue alone is happiness below. [ Crabbe ]
Flirtation is the tomb of virtue. [ Mme. Roland ]
Virtue is the only true nobility. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is seldom followed gratis. [ Proverb ]
Blushing is the livery of virtue. [ Bacon ]
Virtue is the beauty of the soul. [ Proverb ]
Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue. [ Rivarol ]
Beauty without virtue is a curse. [ Proverb ]
Honours are the rewards of virtue. [ Motto ]
God looks at pure, not full bands. [ Syrus ]
Pride is both a virtue and a vice. [ Theodore Parker ]
Virtue is necessary to a republic. [ Montesquieu ]
Patience is the courage of virtue. [ Bernardin de St. Pierre ]
Persevere in virtue and diligence. [ Livy ]
Virtue is not secure against envy. [ Proverb ]
Beauty is the flowering of virtue. [ Gr. Proverb ]
There is no virtue like necessity. [ William Shakespeare ]
Pleasure's couch is virtue's grave. [ Duganne ]
Most virtue lies between two vices. [ Horace ]
A temperate anger has virtue in it. [ Haliburton ]
For virtue only finds eternal fame. [ Petrarch ]
Virtue is health, vice is sickness. [ Petrarch ]
Praise is the reflection of virtue. [ Bacon ]
Virtue scorns a he for its defense. [ Proverb ]
Love's like virtue, its own reward. [ Vanbrugh ]
Beauty vanishes; virtue is lasting. [ Goethe ]
The tall oak, towering to the skies,
The fury of the wind defies,
From age to age, in virtue strong.
Inured to stand, and suffer wrong. [ Montgomery ]
The virtue of a coward is suspicion. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. [ William Shakespeare, Hamlet ]
Virtue is presupposed in friendship. [ Landor ]
The only reward of virtue is virtue. [ Emerson ]
Virtue is tied to no degrees of men. [ Proverb ]
Virtue may be gay, yet with dignity. [ Statius ]
Because my blessings are abus'd,
Must I be censur'd, curs'd, accus'd?
Even virtue's self by knaves is made
A cloak to carry on the trade. [ Gay ]
Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition. [ William Shakespeare ]
It is your virtue, being men, to try;
And it is ours, by virtue to deny. [ Drayton ]
Prudence is the virtue of the senses. [ Emerson ]
Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
Virtue is to herself the best reward. [ Henry Moore ]
Conscience is the sentinel of virtue. [ Johnson ]
Virtue's a stronger guard than brass. [ Edmund Waller ]
His failings lean'd to virtue's side. [ Goldsmith ]
Virtue is the politeness of the soul. [ Balzac ]
The virtue of books is to be readable. [ Emerson ]
Everything is two-faced - even virtue. [ Balzac ]
Void of freedom, what would virtue be? [ Lamartine ]
Virtue is voluntary, vice involuntary. [ Plato ]
Virtue is the first title of nobility. [ Moliere ]
All bow to virtue - and then walk away. [ De Finod ]
Rare is the union of beauty and virtue. [ Juvenal ]
Prudery is the bastard child of virtue. [ Ouida ]
Persevere in virtue; go on and prosper.
Virtue, the greatest of all monarchies. [ Swift ]
Virtue respects not blood and alliance. [ Proverb ]
He who dies for virtue does not perish. [ Plautus ]
Virtue is a man's both guard and glory. [ Proverb ]
Heaven made virtue; man, the appearance. [ Voltaire ]
Virtue brings honour, and honour vanity. [ Proverb ]
A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. [ William Shakespeare ]
The virtue of Christianity is obedience. [ J. C. Hare ]
Nobody hath too much prudence or virtue. [ Proverb ]
High birth is an accident, not a virtue. [ Metastasio ]
Our virtues are commonly disguised vices. [ Rochefoucauld ]
Virtue rejoices in being put to the test.
It is easy to be virtuous in prospective. [ J. Petit-Senn ]
Put no money in the scale against virtue. [ Proverb ]
To purchase Heaven has gold the power?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No - all that's worth a wish - a thought.
Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought.
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let nobler views engage thy mind. [ Dr. Johnson ]
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue in his outward parts. [ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice ]
Integrity of life is fame's best .friend. [ John Webster ]
Virtue's office never breaks men's troth. [ William Shakespeare ]
Crime, as well as virtue, has its degrees. [ Racine ]
There is no sanctuary of virtue like home. [ Edward Everett ]
We give to necessity the praise of virtue. [ Quinct ]
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearfuL [ William Shakespeare ]
Did Charity prevail, the press would prove
A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love. [ Cowper ]
Against diseases here the strongest fence.
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence. [ Herrick ]
Literature, like virtue, is its own reward. [ Chesterfield ]
Our virtues and vices spring from one root. [ Goethe ]
The good hate sin because they love virtue. [ Horace ]
Sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed. [ Pope ]
The great theatre for virtue is conscience. [ Cicero ]
Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs. [ Helvetius ]
Reason and virtue alone can bestow liberty. [ Shaftesbury ]
For virtue's self may too much zeal be had:
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad. [ Pope ]
Remorse is the last sigh of expiring virtue. [ La Beaumelle ]
Virtue withers away if it has no opposition. [ Seneca ]
Who thinks all science, as all virtue, vain. [ Dryden ]
Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice. [ Joubert ]
To heal divisions, to relieve the oppressed.
In virtue rich; in blessing others, bless'd. [ Homer ]
Upon her wit doth earthly honours wait,
And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown. [ William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II. Sc.1 ]
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set. [ Bacon ]
The only amaranthine flower on earth
Is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth. [ William Cowper ]
The whole of virtue consists in its practice. [ Cicero ]
Virtue itself escapes not calumnious strokes. [ William Shakespeare ]
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:
His faults lie open to the laws; let them.
Not you, correct him. [ William Shakespeare ]
Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact. [ Burke ]
To be slow in words is a woman's only virtue. [ William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III. Sc.1 ]
Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is in the mind, not in the appearance. [ Saadi ]
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Defer not the least virtue; life's poor span
Make not an ell by trifling in thy woe.
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains;
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains. [ George Herbert ]
Come, fair repentance, daughter of the skies!
Soft harbinger of soon returning virtue!
The weeping messenger of grace from heaven! [ Brown ]
Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds!
Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue! [ Johnson ]
He lives in fame, that died in virtue's cause. [ William Shakespeare ]
When love once pleads admission to our hearts,
In spite of all the virtue we can boast,
The woman that deliberates is lost. [ Addison ]
Who fights
With passions and overcomes, that man is armed
With the best virtue - passive fortitude. [ Webster ]
Content with poverty, my soul I arm;
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm. [ Dryden after Hor ]
True valor, friends, on virtue founded strong,
Meets all events alike. [ Mallet ]
Night is fair virtue's immemorial friend;
The conscious moon, through every distant age.
Has held a lamp to wisdom, and let fall
On contemplation's eye her purging ray. [ Young ]
Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow. [ Cicero ]
But on he moves to meet his latter end,
Angels around befriending virtue's friend;
Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay,
While resignation gently slopes the way;
And all his prospects bright'ning to the last,
His heaven commences, ere the world be past! [ Goldsmith ]
Know then this truth (enough for man to know),
Virtue alone is happiness below. [ Alexander Pope ]
Gold glitters most when virtue shines no more. [ Young ]
A man of the old-fashioned virtue and loyalty. [ Ter ]
Virtue's paths are first rugged then pleasant. [ Proverb ]
And even his failings leaned to virtue's side. [ Goldsmith ]
Zeal, when it is a virtue, is a dangerous one. [ Proverb ]
Men are more prone to pleasure than to virtue. [ Cicero ]
Vice is abominable, when it preaches up virtue. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is praised by all; but practiced by few. [ Proverb ]
Virtue merits veneration, wherever she appears. [ Proverb ]
Virtue flies from the heart of a mercenary man. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself:
Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;
Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall. [ Edward Young ]
The virtue lies in the struggle, not the prize. [ R. M. Milnes ]
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure escape; brick-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes: what king so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? [ William Shakespeare ]
And whether coldness, pride, or virtue, dignify
A woman; so she's good, what does it signify? [ Byron ]
That is not a duty in which there is not virtue. [ Hitopadesa ]
There are things
Which make revenge a virtue by reflection,
And not an impulse of mere anger; though
The laws sleep, justice wakes, and injured souls
Oft do a public right with private wrong. [ Byron ]
As this auspicious day began the race
Of every virtue join'd with every grace;
May you, who own them, welcome its return,
Till excellence, like yours, again is born.
The years we wish, will half your charms impair;
The years we wish the better half will spare;
The victims of your eyes will bleed no more,
But all the beauties of your mind adore. [ Jeffrey ]
Roman virtue it was that raised the Roman glory. [ Proverb ]
Vice often rides triumphant in virtue's chariot. [ Proverb ]
Who would ever care to do brave deed,
Or strive in virtue others to excel.
If none should yield him his deserved meed
Due praise, that is the spur of doing well?
For if good were not praised more than ill,
None would choose goodness of his own free will. [ Spenser ]
Courtesy is the inseparable companion of virtue. [ Proverb ]
Men generally look more upon decency than virtue. [ Proverb ]
Back-wounding calumny the whitest virtue strikes. [ William Shakespeare ]
Vain-glorious man, when fluttering wind does blow
In his light wings, is lifted up to sky;
The scorn of knighthood and true chivalry,
To think, without desert of gentle deed
And noble worth, to be advanced high,
Such praise is shame, but honour, virtue's meed.
Doth bear the fairest flower in honourable seed. [ Spenser ]
Fond man! though all the heroes of your line
Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine
In proud display; yet take this truth from
Virtue alone is true nobility! [ Gifford ]
How many people assume boldly the mask of virtue! [ Mlle. de Scuderi ]
That is not virtue from which fear approacheth us. [ Hitopadesa ]
Virtue dwells not in the tongue, but in the heart. [ Proverb ]
There must be in prudence also some master virtue. [ Aristotle ]
Virtue itself without good manners, is laughed at. [ Proverb ]
Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume. [ French Proverb ]
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
He that regards not his reputation despises virtue. [ Proverb ]
There cannot possibly be friendship without virtue. [ Sall ]
No radiant pearl which crested fortune wears,
No gem that, twinkling, hangs from beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn.
Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks
For other's woe, down virtue's manly cheeks. [ Darwin ]
Be a father to Virtue, but a father in-law to Vice. [ Proverb ]
Virtue, not pedigree, should characterise nobility. [ Motto ]
Virtue now is in herbs, and stones, and words only. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
They only have lived long who have lived virtuously. [ Sheridan ]
The friend of order has made half his way to virtue. [ Lavater ]
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. [ Washington ]
Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice. [ Ouida ]
Silver is of less value than gold, gold than virtue. [ Horace ]
The way from poverty to virtue is an obstructed one. [ Proverb ]
Peace is the soft and holy shadow that virtue casts. [ H. W. Shaw ]
The true ornament of matrons is virtue, not apparel. [ Justin ]
Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue. [ Horace ]
Virtue and a trade are the best portion for children. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Servility is to devotion what hypocrisy is to virtue. [ E. de Girardin ]
The spell is thine that reaches
The heart, and makes the wisest head its sport;
And there's one rare, strange virtue in thy speeches,
The secret of their mastery - they are short. [ Halleck ]
Charity is a virtue of the heart and not of the hands. [ Addison ]
Though modesty be a virtue, yet bashfulness is a vice. [ Proverb ]
They are the heritage that glorious minds
Bequeath unto the world! — a glittering store
Of gems, more precious far than those he finds
Who searches miser's hidden treasures over.
They are the light, the guiding star of youth.
Leading his spirit to the realms of thought,
Pointing the way to Virtue, Knowledge, Truth,
And teaching lessons, with deep wisdom fraught.
They cast strange beauty round our earthly dreams,
And mystic brightness over our daily lot;
They lead the soul afar to fairy scenes,
Where the world's under visions enter not;
They're deathless and immortal — ages pass away,
Yet still they speak, instruct, inspire, amidst decay! [ Emeline S. Smith ]
Virtue and Love are two ogres: one must eat the other. [ D'Houdetot ]
It is reason and virtue alone that can bestow liberty. [ Shaftesbury ]
Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. [ Benjamin Franklin ]
Fanaticism is to religion what hypocrisy is to virtue. [ Palissot ]
The first step towards virtue, is to abstain from vice. [ Proverb ]
Good nature is the proper soil upon which virtue grows. [ Proverb ]
We condemn vice and extol virtue only through interest. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Whither the fates lead virtue will follow without fear. [ Lucan ]
Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity of a man. [ Adam Smith ]
Hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue. [ Proverb ]
Hypocrisy is the ready homage that vice pays to virtue. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Nobility without virtue is a fine setting without a gem. [ Jane Porter ]
Reputation serves to virtue, as light does to a picture. [ Proverb ]
If virtue keep court within, honour will attend without. [ Proverb ]
I have loved my friends as I do virtue, my soul, my God. [ Sir Thomas Browne ]
Courage and resolution are the spirit and soul of virtue. [ Proverb ]
Beauty is an exquisite flower, and its perfume is virtue. [ Ruffini ]
There is but one virtue, - the eternal sacrifice of self. [ Mme. Dudevant, pen name George Sand ]
Bad examples may be as profitable to virtue as good ones. [ Montaigne ]
Homeliness is the best guardian of a young girl's virtue. [ Mme. de Genlis ]
Virtue is of worth, by itself alone; and so is not birth. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is despised, if it be seen in a thread-bare cloak. [ Proverb ]
A large part of Christian virtue consists in right habits. [ Paley ]
Suspicion is no less an enemy to virtue than to happiness. [ Johnson ]
Virtue is of noble birth; but riches take the wall of her. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is the only ground for friendship to be built upon. [ Proverb ]
Earnestness is needed in this world as much as any virtue. [ James Ellis ]
Virtue and happiness are but two names for the same thing. [ Proverb ]
The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it. [ Hazlitt ]
Not to go forward in the way of virtue is to go backwards. [ Proverb ]
Virtue: a word easy to pronounce, difficult to understand. [ Voltaire ]
A monster whose vices are not redeemed by a single virtue. [ Juv ]
All the praise of inward virtue consists in outward action. [ Proverb ]
Prayer is a virtue that prevaileth against all temptations. [ Bernard ]
As virtue is its own reward, so vice is its own punishment. [ Proverb ]
He hath no mean portion of virtue that loves it in another. [ Proverb ]
The first step to virtue, is to love virtue in another man. [ Proverb ]
It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
For science is, like virtue, its own exceeding great reward. [ Chas. Kingsley ]
Prosperity often best discovers vices, and adversity virtue. [ Proverb ]
He is no great heir that inherits not his ancestor's virtue. [ Proverb ]
How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little! [ Horace ]
In struggling with misfortunes lies the true proof of virtue. [ William Shakespeare ]
It were no virtue to bear calamities if we did not feel them. [ Madame Necker ]
Many people place virtue more in regretting than in amendment. [ Lichtenberg ]
The virtue of women is often the love of reputation and quiet. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
The virtue which we appreciate, we to some extent appropriate. [ Thoreau ]
For one virtue that makes us walk, how many vices make us run! [ Pichot ]
Ugliness, after virtue, is the best guardian of a young woman. [ Mme. de Genlis ]
When we destroy an old prejudice, we have need of a new virtue. [ Mme. de Stael ]
Even virtue is more fair when it appears in a beautiful person. [ Virgil ]
Every vice has a cloak, and creeps in under the name of virtue.
Virtue would not go far, if a little vanity walked not with it. [ Proverb ]
Virtue, with some women, is but the precaution of locking doors. [ Lemontey ]
Virtue may be overclouded a while, but 'twill shine at the last. [ Proverb ]
There is some virtue or other to be exercised, whatever happens. [ Proverb ]
Life in harmony with virtue is the only life safe from contempt. [ Edwin P. Whipple ]
A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue. [ Bonaventura ]
Deeds of lowly virtue fade before the glare of lofty ostentation. [ Klopstock ]
It is easier to run from virtue to vice, than from vice to virtue. [ Proverb ]
It is seldom that beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue. [ Bacon ]
If you can be well without health, you maybe happy without virtue. [ Proverb ]
Even virtue appears more lovely when enshrined in a beautiful form. [ Virgil ]
Virtue carries a reward with it; and so does vice with a vengeance. [ Proverb ]
Calumny will sear virtue itself; these shrugs, these hums and ha's. [ Shakespeare ]
Suitors of a wealthy girl seldom seek for proof of her past virtue.
Fear is the virtue of slaves; but the heart that loveth is willing. [ Longfellow ]
Money must be sought for in the first instance; virtue after riches. [ Horace ]
Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue. [ Addison ]
Virtue and vice divide the world; but vice has got the greater share. [ Proverb ]
Virtue hath such charms, that even the vicious inwardly reverence it. [ Proverb ]
The virtuous action, done for virtue's sake alone, is truly laudable. [ Marguerite de Valois ]
Virtue is more persecuted by the wicked, than encouraged by the good. [ Proverb ]
Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew Himself, or his own virtue. [ Mallet ]
There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. [ Edmund Burke ]
Distress is virtue's opportunity: we only live to teach us how to die. [ Southern ]
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn all earthly things but virtue. [ Shelley ]
Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth. [ Daniel Webster ]
My heart laments that virtue cannot live out of the teeth of emulation. [ William Shakespeare ]
Confidence in another man's virtue is no slight evidence of a man's own. [ Montaigne ]
Friendship is given us by nature, , not to favor vice, but to aid virtue. [ Cicero ]
Provocation is a play of coquetry of which virtue often pays the penalty. [ Lingrie ]
A republic is not founded on virtue, but on the ambition of its citizens. [ Voltaire ]
A man of virtue, judgment, and prudence speaks not until there is silence. [ Saadi ]
In regard to virtue, each one finds certainty by consulting his own heart. [ Renan ]
He that boasts of his ancestors confesses that he has no virtue of his own. [ Charron ]
The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is quiet. [ Richter ]
Travellers should correct the vice of one country by the virtue of another. [ Proverb ]
Virtue is so praiseworthy that wicked people practice it from self-interest. [ Vauvenargues ]
Fewer possess virtue than those who wish us to believe that they possess it. [ Cicero ]
Prosperity doth best discover vice, and adversity doth best discover virtue. [ Bacon ]
What saves the virtue of many a woman is that protecting god, the impossible. [ Balzac ]
A knowledge of mankind tends to induce a want of faith in virtue and probity. [ C. J. Weber ]
If there is a virtue in the world which we should always aim, it cheerfulness. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
There is in us more of the appearance of sense and virtue than of the reality. [ Marguerite de Valois ]
Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious. [ Carlyle ]
All men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue alone, that makes the difference. [ Voltaire ]
To be silent is but a small virtue; but it is a serious fault to reveal secrets. [ Ovid ]
A readiness to resent injuries is a virtue only in those who are slow to injure. [ Sheridan ]
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it. [ Saadi ]
True dignity is his whose tranquil mind virtue has raised above the things below. [ Beattie ]
Persecution to persons in a high rank stands them in the stead of eminent virtue. [ Cardinal de Retz ]
He who seeks repentance for the past, should woo the angel virtue for the future. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
There is no vice so simple, but assumes some mark of virtue on its outward parts. [ William Shakespeare ]
As threshing separates the corn from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue. [ Bacon ]
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace. [ Cowper ]
As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue. [ Robert Burton ]
What's true beauty but fair virtue's face, - virtue made visible in outward grace? [ Young ]
Rarely they rise by virtue's aid who lie plunged in the depth of helpless poverty. [ Juvenal ]
Provocation is one of the arts of coquetry for which virtue often pays the penalty. [ Lingree ]
He that would have his virtue published is not the servant of virtue, but of glory. [ Ben Jonson ]
The virtue most in request in society is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. [ Emerson ]
If you would have the nuptial union last, Let virtue be the bond that ties it fast. [ Rowe ]
There was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. [ Benjamin Franklin ]
Lowliness is the base of every virtue, and he who goes the lowest builds the safest. [ Bailey ]
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase are fruits of innocence and blessedness. [ Bryant ]
Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law. [ Milton ]
Everything, virtue, glory, honor, things human and divine, all are slaves to riches. [ Horace ]
Virtue hath some perverseness, for she will neither believe her good nor other's ill. [ Donne ]
There are no women to whom virtue comes easier than those who possess no attractions.
True virtue, being united to heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection. [ Milton ]
Modesty in woman is a virtue most deserving, since we do all we can to cure her of it. [ Lingrie ]
Virtue, as understood by the world, is a constant struggle against the laws of nature. [ De Finod ]
Nor virtue, wit, or beauty, could preserve from death's hand this their heavenly mould. [ Carew ]
Hypocrisy has become a fashionable vice, and every fashionable vice passes for a virtue. [ Moliere ]
It is not enough merely to possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practised. [ Cicero ]
A man may as well expect to be well, and at ease without wealth, as happy without virtue. [ Proverb ]
There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting. [ Lowell ]
Show a good man his error, and he turns it to a virtue; but an ill, it doubles his fault. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
There is genius as well in virtue as in intellect. It is the doctrine of faith over works. [ Emerson ]
Beauty in women is like the flowers in the spring; but virtue is like the stars of Heaven. [ Proverb ]
Either virtue is an empty name, or the man of enterprise justly aims at honour and reward. [ Horace ]
Modesty is the graceful, calm virtue of maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth. [ Mary Wollstonecraft ]
Fly from the crowd, and be to virtue true. Content with what thou hast, though it be small. [ Chaucer ]
A prude exhibits her virtue in word and manner; a virtuous woman shows hers in her conduct. [ La Bruyere ]
The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue. [ Cowper ]
A man's virtue is to be measured not by his extraordinary efforts, but his everyday conduct. [ Pascal ]
Peace is the evening star of the soul, as virtue is its sun, and the two are never far apart. [ Colton ]
It is easier for a woman to defend her virtue against men, than her reputation against women. [ Rochebrune ]
The belief and hope of heaven, is a sufficient encouragement to virtue, when all others fail. [ Proverb ]
Wisdom and virtue are the greatest beauty, but it is an advantage to a diamond to be well set. [ Matthew Henry ]
I show you what you can do for yourself; the only path to a tranquil life lies through virtue. [ Juv ]
Gold glitters most where virtue shines no more, as stars from absent suns have leave to shine. [ Young ]
The blush is nature's alarm at the approach of sin, and her testimony to the dignity of virtue. [ Fuller ]
Affliction is a school of virtue: it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning. [ Atterbury ]
Negligence and inattention to minute actions will, ultimately, be prejudicial to a man's virtue. [ J. Hamilton ]
Reckon no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may overlook it. [ Confucius ]
Vanity, shame, and, above all, temperament, often make the valor of men, and the virtue of women. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
However virtuous a woman may be, a compliment on her virtue is what gives her the least pleasure. [ Prince de Ligne ]
Like other plants, virtue will not grow unless its root be hidden, buried from the eye of the sun. [ Carlyle ]
Evil is generally committed under the hope of some advantage the pursuit of virtue seldom obtains. [ B. R. Haydon ]
Men of wit. learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays. [ Swift ]
The drama is the looking-glass in which we see the hideousness of vice and the beauties of virtue. [ Frances Anne Kemble ]
Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, Courage, my boy; that is the complexion of virtue.
[ Diogenes Laertius ]
Women complain of the lack of virtue in men, and do not esteem those who are too strictly virtuous. [ Blondel ]
For everything divine and human, virtue, fame and honor, now obey the alluring influence of riches. [ Horace ]
Be it mine to draw from wisdom's fount, pure as it flows, that calm of soul which virtue only knows. [ Eschylus ]
And there's one rare strange virtue in their speeches, The secret of their mastery - they are short. [ Halleck ]
The resistance of a woman is not always a proof of her virtue, but more frequently of her experience. [ Ninon de Lenclos ]
It is difficult for one who has enjoyed uninterrupted good fortune to have a due reverence for virtue. [ Cicero ]
Man is man by virtue of willing, not by virtue of knowing and understanding; and as he is, so he sees. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority. [ Mencius ]
When a beautiful woman yields to temptation, let her consult her pride, though she forgets her virtue. [ Junius ]
Restraint of discipline, emulation, examples of virtue and of justice, form the education of the world. [ Burke ]
Since Cupid is represented with a torch in his hand, why did they place virtue on a barrel of gunpowder? [ Levis ]
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice and both are acts of the will. [ Epictetus ]
Humility is a virtue of so general, so exceeding good influence, that we can scarce purchase it too dear. [ Thomas à Kempis ]
Every generous action loves the public view, yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it. [ Cicero ]
Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone carry themselves into practice. [ Mencius ]
As much virtue as there is, so much appears; as much goodness as there is, so much reverence it commands. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
A good inclination is only the first rude draught of virtue, but the finishing strokes are from the will. [ South ]
Casuists who made absolute chastity a virtue, have produced but false appearances in a hypocritical society. [ Mme. Louise Colet ]
Adulation is the death of virtue. Who flatters is of all mankind the lowest, save he who courts the flattery. [ Hannah More ]
It is a masterpiece to draw good out of evil, and by the help of virtue to improve misfortune into blessings. [ Seneca ]
He that boasts of his ancestors, the founders and raisers of a family, doth confess that he hath less virtue. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
Every trait of beauty may be traced to some virtue, as to innocence, candor, generosity, modesty, and heroism. [ St. Pierre ]
The thirst after fame is greater than that after virtue; for who embraces virtue if you take away its rewards? [ Juvenal ]
He is the best gentleman that is the son of his own deserts, and not the degenerated heir of another's virtue. [ Victor Hugo ]
Adversity tries men, and virtue strives for glory through adverse circumstances, undeterred by hard obstacles. [ Silius Italicus ]
The virtue of widows is a laborious virtue: they have to combat constantly with the remembrance of past bliss. [ St. Jerome ]
Doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself. [ Izaak Walton ]
What is past is past. There is a future left to all men, who have the virtue to repent and the energy to atone. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side. [ Addison ]
Beautiful are the roses of your youth; but time destroys them; only talents, only virtue age not and never die. [ Pfeffel ]
He has lost his arms and deserted the cause of virtue who is ever eager and engrossed in increasing his wealth. [ Horace ]
I have seen young ladies of twenty-five affecting a childish ingenuousness which has made me doubt their virtue.
Beauty, like truth and justice, lives within us; like virtue, and like moral law, it is a companion of the soul. [ Bancroft ]
The thirst for fame is greater than that for virtue; for, if you take away its reward, who would embrace virtue? [ Juvenal, Roman Poet ]
High rank and discernment are two different things, and love for virtue and for virtuous people is a third thing. [ La Bruyère ]
The affectation of virtue which characterizes this century would be very ludicrous, if it were not very tiresome. [ T. Gautier ]
Seek knowledge, as if thou wert to be here for ever; virtue, as if death already held thee by the bristling hair. [ Herder ]
Every virtue carries with it its own reward, but none in so distinguished and pre-eminent a degree as benevolence.
Glory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits. [ Vauvenargues ]
Virtue does not give talents, but it supplies their place. Talents neither give virtue, nor supply the place of it. [ Chinese Proverb ]
Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. It is the outmost action of the inward life. [ Emerson ]
Knowledge, wit, and courage alone excite our admiration; and thou, sweet and modest Virtue, remainest without honors. [ J. J. Rousseau ]
Amusements to virtue are like breezes of air to the flame - gentle ones will fan it, but strong ones will put it out. [ David Thomas ]
There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue. [ Pope ]
To profess one thing and to do another occurs very often, especially with those who continually boast of their virtue. [ T. Gautier ]
It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune. [ La Bruyere ]
Happiness and virtue react upon each other - the best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best. [ Lytton ]
Of all the rewards of virtue, the most splendid is fame, for it is fame alone that can offer us the memory of posterity. [ Cicero ]
By virtue, integrity, perseverance and true modesty it is possible for all men to win the esteem of their fellow beings. [ C. N. Douglas ]
The crudest foe is a masked benefactor. The wars which make history so dreary have served the cause of truth and virtue. [ Emerson ]
Prudence is that virtue by which we discern what is proper to be done under the various circumstances of time and place. [ Milton ]
I see nothing worth living for but the divine virtue which endures and surrenders all things for truth, duty, and mankind. [ Channing ]
Can that which is the greatest virtue in philosophy, doubt, be in religion, what we priests term it, the greatest of sins? [ Bovee ]
Bees will not work except in darkness; thought will not work except in silence; neither will virtue work except in secrecy. [ Carlyle ]
Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty. [ Goldsmith ]
Prosperity is the touchstone of virtue; for it is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure. [ Tacitus ]
Perseverance is a Roman virtue that wins each godlike act, and plucks success even from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger. [ Harvard ]
Degrees of happiness vary according to the degrees of virtue, and consequently, that life which is most virtuous is most happy. [ Norris ]
Great souls are not those which have less passion and more virtue than common souls, but only those which have greater designs. [ La Roche ]
Let us not disdain glory too much - nothing is finer except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life. [ Chateaubriand ]
Good-nature is the very air of a good mind, the sign of a large and generous soul, and the peculiar soil in which virtue prospers. [ Goodman ]
We must avoid fastidiousness; neatness, when it is moderate, is a virtue; but when it is carried to an extreme, it narrows the mind. [ Fenelon ]
Affliction is the wholesome soul of virtue; Where patience, honor, sweet humanity. Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish. [ Mallet and Thomson ]
There is a mean in all things. Even virtue itself hath its stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue. [ Horace ]
Forgiveness, that noblest of all selfdenial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another. [ Colton ]
Love is the eldest, noblest, and mightiest of the gods, and the chiefest author and giver of virtue in life and happiness after death. [ Plato ]
Without settled principle and practical virtue, life is a desert; without Christian piety, the contemplation of the grave is terrible. [ Sir William Knighton ]
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. [ Addison ]
You will find angling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of other blessings attending upon it. [ Izaac Walton ]
In Nature things move violently to their places, and calmly in their place; so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. [ Bacon ]
To speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroic virtue. [ Bacon ]
Wealth is a weak anchor, and glory cannot support a man; this is the law of God, that virtue only is firm, and cannot be shaken by a tempest. [ Pythagoras ]
No one, who is a lover of money, a lover of pleasure, or a lover of glory, is likewise a lover of mankind; but only he who is a lover of virtue. [ Epictetus ]
An honorable name or a good reputation is an excellent protection against wrong-doing: we fear to compromise it more through vanity than virtue.
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. [ Cato ]
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but walking orderly; its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur, but in mediocrity. [ Montaigne ]
By the ancients, courage was regarded as practically the main part of virtue; by us, though I hope we are not less brave, purity is so regarded now. [ J. C. Hare ]
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be, not a virtue, but the groundwork of a virtue. [ Johnson ]
Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. [ Lord Bacon ]
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
[ George Washington ]
That single effort by which we stop short in the down-hill path to perdition is of itself a greater exertion of virtue than a hundred acts of justice. [ Goldsmith ]
The word independence
is united to the accessory ideas of dignity and virtue. The word dependence
is united to the ideas of inferiority and corruption. [ Bentham ]
There is no vice or crime that does not originate in self-love; and there is no virtue that does not grow from the love of others out of and beyond self. [ Anon ]
He who is always in a hurry to be wealthy and immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune has lost the arms of reason and deserted the post of virtue. [ Horace ]
The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it. [ Burke ]
Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful. Every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine. [ Emerson ]
Candor is the seal of a noble mind, the ornament, and pride of man, the sweetest charm of woman, the scorn of rascals and the rarest virtue of sociability. [ Bentzel-Sternaft ]
Venerable to me is the hard hand, - crooked, coarse, - wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indispensably royal as of the sceptre of the planet. [ Carlyle ]
Home is the chief school of human virtue. Its responsibilities, joys, sorrows, smiles, tears, hopes, and solicitudes, form the chief interests of human life. [ Channing ]
Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three. [ Rochefoucauld ]
The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honor which set off virtue. [ Moliere ]
Out of a horrible depth the height steps boldly forth; out of a hard shell virtue fights its way to the light; pain is the birth (medium) of the higher natures. [ Tiedge ]
How sweet it would be to live in society if the countenance always reflected the disposition, if decency were virtue, and if our maxims were our rules of action. [ J. J. Rousseau ]
We derive from nature no fault that may not become a virtue, no virtue that may not degenerate into a fault. Faults of the latter kind are most difficult to cure. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
There is no man suddenly either excellently good or extremely wicked; but grows so, either as he holds himself up in virtue, or lets himself slide to viciousness. [ Sir P. Sidney ]
It is generally admitted, and very frequently proved, that virtue and genius, and all the natural good qualities which men possess, are derived from their mothers. [ T. Hook ]
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, yet, with my nobler reason, against my fury do I take part; the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance. [ William Shakespeare ]
He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still. [ Caleb C. Colton ]
Can that which is the greatest virtue in philosophy, doubt (called by Galileo the father of invention), be in religion what the priests term it, the greatest of sins? [ Bovee ]
Fortitude is not the appetite of formidable things, nor inconsult rashness, but virtue fighting for a truth, derived from knowledge of distinguishing good or bad causes. [ Nabb ]
Life is arid and terrible; repose is a chimera; prudence useless; reason itself serves only to dry up the heart. There is but one virtue - the eternal sacrifice of self. [ George Sand ]
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince, and virtue honorable, though in a peasant. [ Addison ]
A beautiful face fires our imagination, and we see higher virtue and intelligence in it than we can detect in its owner's head or heart when we descend to calm inspection. [ Charles Reade ]
There is but one thing necessary to keep the possession of true glory, which is to hear the opposers of it with patience, and preserve the virtue by which it was acquired. [ Steele ]
To the diamond is attributed the virtue of the talisman, and it is even said that he who wears the stone is always assured of victory, however numerous his enemies may be. [ Garcias ab Horto ]
Reputation is rarely proportioned, to virtue. We have seen a thousand people esteemed, either for the merit, they had not yet attained or for that they no longer possessed. [ St. Evremond ]
He who does not respect confidence, will never find happiness in his path. The belief in virtue vanishes from his heart, the source of nobler actions becomes extinct in him. [ Auffenberg ]
The coquette compromises her reputation, and sometimes saves her virtue: the prude, on the contrary, often sacrifices her honor in secret, and preserves it in public opinion. [ Mme. du Socage ]
There is but one case wherein a man may commend himself with good grace, and that is in commending virtue in another, especially if it be such a virtue whereunto himself pretendeth. [ Bacon ]
Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity. [ Dr. Johnson ]
We are not to be astonished that the wise walk more slowly in their road to virtue than fools in their passage to vice; since passion drags us along, while wisdom only points out the way. [ Confucius ]
Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity. Enthusiasm flourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown. [ Dr. Chalmers ]
Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief. [ Epictetus ]
A good name is properly that reputation of virtue that every man may challenge as his right and due in the opinions of others, till he has made forfeit of it by the viciousness of his actions. [ South ]
Noble blood! bah! What blood is more noble or so pure as that of the lion? And yet he is only a brute. It is merit, education and virtue, not blood, that lift men above the level of the brutes. [ Michael le Faucheur ]
Without discretion learning is pedantry and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness. The best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. [ Addison ]
Friendship, in the old heroic sense of that term, no longer exists; except in the cases of kindred or other legal affinity, it is in reality no longer expected or recognised as a virtue among men. [ Carlyle ]
Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of the hen-pecked, owed, and acknowledged that he owed a great part of his virtue to the exercise his useful wife constantly gave him. [ Steele ]
I am persuaded that music is designed to prepare for heaven, to educate for the choral enjoyment of Paradise, to form the mind to virtue and devotion, and to charm away evil and sanctify the heart to God. [ Legh Richmond ]
What is grief? It is an obscure labyrinth into which God leads man, that he may be experienced in life, that he may remember his faults and abjure them, that he may appreciate the calm which virtue gives. [ Leopold Scheffer ]
Affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue, - I mean good-nature, - are of daily use: they are the bread of mankind and staff of life. [ Dryden ]
The virtuous delight in the virtuous; but he who is destitute of the practice of virtue delighteth not in the virtuous. The bee retireth from the forest to the lotus, whilst the frog is destitute of shelter. [ Hitopadesa ]
A companion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed with them, he is the man; and let me tell you, good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue. [ Izaak Walton ]
There is power in love to divine another's destiny better than that other can, and by heroic encouragements hold him to his task; what has friendship so signal as its sublime attraction to whatever virtue is in use. [ R. W. Emerson ]
The masters painted for joy, and knew not that virtue had gone out of them. They could not paint the like in cold blood. The masters of English lyric wrote their songs so. It was a fine efflorescence of fine powers. [ Emerson ]
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated; by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed. [ Addison ]
Of all varieties of fopperies, the vanity of high birth is the greatest. True nobility is derived from virtue, not from birth. Title, indeed, may be purchased, but virtue is the only coin that makes the bargain valid. [ Burton ]
The richest endowments of the mind are temperance, prudence, and fortitude. Prudence is a universal virtue, which enters into the composition of all the rest; and where she is not, fortitude loses its name and nature. [ Voltaire ]
Plutarch has a fine expression, with regard to some woman of learning humility, and virtue; - that her ornaments were such as might be purchased without money, and would render any woman's life both glorious and happy. [ Sterne ]
If misery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice, not to be insulted, because it is perhaps itself a punishment adequate to the crime by which it was produced. [ Dr. Johnson ]
For knowledge to become wisdom, and for the soul to grow, the soul must be rooted in God: and it is through prayer that there comes to us that which is the strength of our strength, and the virtue of our virtue, the Holy Spirit. [ William Mountford ]
The idea you have once spoken, if even it were an idea, is no longer yours; it is gone from you, so much life and virtue is gone, and the vital circulations of yourself and your destiny and activity are henceforth deprived of it. [ Carlyle ]
I would rather be the author of one original thought than conqueror of a hundred battles. Yet moral excellence is so much superior to intellectual, that I ought to esteem one virtue more valuable than a hundred original thoughts. [ W. B. Clulow ]
The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who is calmest in storms, and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, is the most unfaltering. [ Channing ]
It has been shrewdly said, that when men abuse us we should suspect ourselves, and when they praise us, them. It is a rare instance of virtue to despise censure which we do not deserve; and still more rare to despise praise which we do. [ Colton ]
Light is, in reality, more awful than darkness; modesty more majestic than strength; and there is truer sublimity in the sweet joy of a child, or the sweet virtue of a maiden, than in the strength of Antaeus or the thunder-clouds of Aetna. [ John Ruskin ]
A woman who is guided by the head, and not by the heart, is a social pestilence: she has all the defects of the passionate and affectionate woman, with none of her compensations; she is without pity, without love, without virtue, without sex. [ Balzac ]
The only liberty that is valuable is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. [ Burke ]
Let him speak of his own deeds, and not of those of his forefathers. High birth is mere accident, and not a virtue; for if reason had controlled birth, and given empire only to the worthy, perhaps Arbaces would have been Xerxes, and Xerxes Arbaces. [ Metastasio ]
The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God, is most unfaltering. [ William Ellery Channing ]
Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition allies itself to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vitality of earthly desires we become superstitious, and by the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious. [ Mme. de Staël ]
Grief or misfortune seems to be indispensable to the development of intelligence, energy, and virtue. The proofs to which the people are submitted, as with individuals, are necessary then to draw them from their lethargy, to disclose their character. [ Fearon ]
There is a certain virtue in every good man, which night and day stirs up the mind with the stimulus of glory, and reminds it that all mention of our name will not cease at the same time with our lives, but that our fame will endure to all posterity. [ Cicero ]
Welfare requires one or two companions of intelligence, probity, and grace, to wear out life with, - persons with whom we can speak a few reasonable words every day, by whom we can measure ourselves, and who shall hold us fast to good sense and virtue. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. [ Bacon ]
The true greatness and the true happiness of a country consist in wisdom; in that enlarged and comprehensive wisdom which includes education, knowledge, religion, virtue, freedom, with every influence which advances and every institution which supports them. [ Henry Giles ]
Ages of ignorance and simplicity are thought to be ages of purity. But the direct contrary I believe to be the case. Rude periods have that grossness of manners, which is as unfriendly to virtue as luxury itself. Men are less ashamed as they are less polished. [ Warton ]
How many who, after having achieved fame and fortune, recall with regret the time when - ascending the hills of life in the sun of their twentieth year - they had nothing but courage, which is the virtue of the young, and hope, which is the treasure of the poor! [ H. Murger ]
Eyes speak all languages; wait for no letter of introduction; they ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither poverty nor riches, neither learning, nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
No man is more miserable than he that hath no adversity. That man is not tried, whether he be good or bad, and God never crowns those virtues which are only faculties and dispositions, but every act of virtue is an ingredient into reward - God so dresses us for heaven. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished. [ Mme. de Stael ]
Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light; takes off in some measure from the deformity of vice; and makes even folly and impertinence supportable. [ Addison ]
Just as a tested and rugged virtue of the moral hero is worth more than the lovely, tender, untried innocence of the child, so is the massive strength of a soul that has conquered truth for itself worth more than the soft peach-bloom faith of a soul that takes truth on trust. [ F. E. Abbot ]
O blessed health! thou art above all gold and treasure; 'tis thou who enlargest the soul, and openest all its powers to receive instruction, and to relish virtue. He that has thee has little more to wish for, and he that is so wretched as to want thee, wants everything with thee. [ Sterne ]
If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble. The proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none. By itself, the voice of humility is God's music, and the silence of humility is God's rhetoric. Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason. [ Enchiridion ]
Nature, when she amused herself by giving stiff manners to old maids, put virtue in a very bad light. A woman must have been a mother to preserve under the chilling influences of time that grace of manner and sweetness of temper, which prompt us to say, One sees that love has dwelt there.
[ Lemontey ]
I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the next place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then, sir, young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect. [ Dr. Johnson ]
The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, where exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue. [ Dr. Johnson ]
The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory. And the virtue of Alexander appears to me with much less vigor in his theater than that of Socrates in his mean and obscure employment. I can easily conceive Socrates in the place of Alexander, but Alexander in that of Socrates I cannot. [ Montaigne ]
Good-nature is that benevolent and amiable temper of mind which disposes us to feel the misfortunes and enjoy the happiness of others, and, consequently, pushes us on to promote the latter and prevent the former; and that without any abstract contemplation on the beauty of virtue, and without the allurements or terrors of religion. [ Fielding ]
Honor is not a virtue in itself, it is the mail behind which the virtues fight more securely. A man without honor is as maimed in his equipment as an accoutred knight without helmet. Honor is not simply truthfulness; it is truthfulness sparkling with the fire of a suspective personality. It is something more than an ornament even to the loftiest. [ George H. Calvert ]
The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice. [ Swift ]
Let the foundation of thy affection be virtue, then make the building as rich and as glorious as thou canst; if the foundation be beauty or wealth, and the building virtue, the foundation is too weak for the building, and it will fall: happy is he, the palace of whose affection is founded upon virtue, walled with riches, glazed with beauty, and roofed with honor. [ Quarles ]
Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory. It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace. [ Quarles ]
Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity. Enthusiasn: Nourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown. The terrors of persecution only serve to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amidst hosts of enemies. [ Dr. Chalmers ]
Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it, for all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker succession of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuousness. [ Johnson ]
I suppose as long as novels last, and authors aim at interesting their public, there must always be in the story a virtuous and gallant hero; a wicked monster, his opposite; and a pretty girl, who finds a champion. Bravery and virtue conquer beauty; and vice, after seeming to triumph through a certain number of pages, is sure to be discomfited in the last volume, when justice overtakes him, and honest folks come by their own. [ Thackeray ]
Eyes are bold as lions, roving, running, leaping, here and there, far and near. They speak all languages; they wait for no introduction; they are no Englishmen; ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither poverty nor riches, neither learning nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude, and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. What inundation of life and thought is discharged from one soul into another through them! [ Emerson ]
The importance of the romantic element does not rest upon conjecture. Pleasing testimonies abound. Hannah More traced her earliest impressions of virtue to works of fiction; and Adam Clarke gives a list of tales that won his boyish admiration. Books of entertainment led him to believe in a spiritual world; and he felt sure of having been a coward, but for romances. He declared that he had learned more of his duty to God, his neighbor and himself from Robinson Crusoe than from all the books, except the Bible, that were known to his youth. [ Willmott ]
I have very often lamented and hinted my sorrow, in several speculations, that the art of painting is made so little use of to the improvement of manners. When we consider that it places the action of the person represented in the most agreeable aspect imaginable, - that it does not only express the passion or concern as it sits upon him who is drawn, but has under those features the height of the painter's imagination, - what strong images of virtue and humanity might we not expect would be instilled into the mind from the labors of the pencil! [ Steele ]