Roses fair on thorns do grow:
And they tell me even so
Sorrows into virtues grow. [ Dr. W. Smith ]

Be to her virtues very kind;
Be to her faults a little blind. [ Prior ]

No distinction is 'tween man and man.
But as his virtues add to him a glory
Or vices cloud him. [ Habbington ]

Joyousness is the mother of all virtues. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Strength of body is none of the virtues. [ Proverb ]

Our virtues are commonly disguised vices. [ Rochefoucauld ]

Constancy is the basis of all the virtues. [ Motto ]

Gratitude is one of the rarest of virtues. [ Theodore Parker ]

Our virtues and vices spring from one root. [ Goethe ]

Our virtues are often but vices in disguise. [ La Rochefoucauld ]

Good manners give integrity a bleeze,
When native virtues join the arts to please. [ Allan Ramsay ]

Hail, blooming Youth!
May all your virtues with your years improve,
Till in consummate worth you shine the pride,
Of these our days, and succeeding times,
A bright example. [ Wm. Somerville ]

Virtues all agree, but vices fight one another. [ Proverb ]

Faith creates the virtues in which it believes. [ Mme. de Sevigne ]

Pride joined with many virtues chokes them all. [ Proverb ]

Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues. [ Confucius ]

There are hypocrites of vices as well as of virtues. [ Duclos ]

We please oftener by our defects than by our virtues. [ La Rochefoucauld ]

Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power. [ Goethe ]

Humility is the first of the virtues for other people. [ Holmes ]

To know the virtues of herbs and their use in healing. [ Virgil ]

Great vices, as well as great virtues, make men famous. [ Proverb ]

To restrain the tongue is not the least of the virtues.

The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest. [ Rochefoucauld ]

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues. [ Locke ]

The maintaining of one vice, costs more than ten virtues. [ Proverb ]

Our virtues would be proud if our vices whipped them not. [ Proverb ]

Great vices, and great virtues, are exceptions in mankind. [ Napoleon I ]

If misfortune comes, she brings along the bravest virtues. [ Thomson ]

Search others for their virtues, and thyself for thy vices. [ Fuller ]

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. [ Addison ]

Solitude cherishes great virtues, and destroys little ones. [ Sydney Smith ]

Envy is blind, and can only disparage the virtues of others. [ Livy ]

Prosperity unmasks the vices; adversity reveals the virtues. [ Diderot ]

Politeness is the expression or imitation of social virtues. [ Duclos ]

The dutifulness of children is the foundation of all virtues. [ Cicero ]

Idleness is not a vice: it is a rust that destroys all virtues. [ Duc de Nemours ]

We can all be heroes in our virtues, in our homes, in our lives. [ James Ellis ]

Silence is the wit of fools, and one of the virtues of the wise. [ Bonnard ]

Who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it. [ Mallet ]

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

Kindred weaknesses induce friendships as often as kindred virtues. [ Bovee ]

The yoke of love is sometimes heavier than that of all the virtues. [ Montaigne ]

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. [ Addison ]

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins. [ Horace Mann ]

From our ancestors come our names, but from our virtues our honours. [ Proverb ]

Humility - that low, sweet root from which all heavenly virtues shoot. [ Moore ]

Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors than from his virtues. [ Longfellow ]

A lover has all the virtues and all the defects that a husband has not. [ Balzac ]

He that remembers his virtues too much, bids others think of his vices. [ Proverb ]

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues the better we like him. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

True greatness is sovereign wisdom. We are never deceived by our virtues. [ Lamartine ]

Gratitude is the least of virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices. [ Proverb ]

Marriage communicates to women the vices of men, but never their virtues. [ Fourier ]

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. [ Quintilian ]

We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates. [ Denis Diderot ]

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues. [ Bishop Hall ]

The want of perception is a defect which all the virtues of the heart cannot supply. [ Thoreau ]

The weaknesses of women have been given them by nature to exercise the virtues of men. [ Mme. Necker ]

I am no herald to inquire of men's pedigrees; it sufficeth me if I know their virtues. [ Sir P. Sidney ]

Thy wife is a constitution of virtues: she's the moon, and thou art the man in the moon. [ Congreve ]

I hate hypocrites, insolent comedians, who put on their virtues with their white gloves. [ A. de Musset ]

To praise princes for virtues which they do not possess, is to insult them with impunity. [ La Roche ]

Prudence is one of the virtues which were called cardinal by the ancient ethical writers. [ William Fleming ]

He that is ungrateful has no guilt but one; all other crimes may pass for virtues in him. [ Young ]

While Selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues. Benevolence is allied to them all. [ Oliver Goldsmith ]

If all hearts were frank, just, and honest, the major part of the virtues would be useless to us. [ Moliere ]

Affliction is the school in which great virtues are acquired, in which great characters are formed. [ Hannah More ]

Our globe discovers its hidden virtues, not only in heroes and archangels, but in gossips and nurses. [ Emerson ]

To great evils one must oppose great virtues; and also to small, which is the harder task of the two. [ Carlyle ]

Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess. [ Jeremy Collier ]

The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect and virtues. [ Channing ]

Counsel and conversation is a good second education, that improves all the virtues and corrects all the vices. [ Clarendon ]

We wish others to possess, or to acquire, all the qualities and virtues that can serve our pleasures or interests. [ De Finod ]

God alone is entirely exempt from all want: of human virtues, that which needs least is the most absolute and divine. [ Plutarch ]

Fortitude has its extremes as well as the rest of the virtues, and ought, like them, to be always attended by prudence. [ Voet ]

If fortune wishes to make a man estimable she gives him virtues; if she wishes to make him esteemed she gives him success. [ Joubert ]

In witnessing the satisfaction with which some people depreciate us, one would think that their virtues fatten on our vices. [ Pichot ]

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than the common, but those only who have greater designs. [ La Rochefoucauld ]

The fragrance of the flower is never borne against the breeze; but the fragrance of human virtues diffuses itself everywhere. [ Ramayana ]

Great names stand not alone for great deeds; they stand also for great virtues, and, doing them worship, we elevate ourselves. [ H. Giles ]

Our cares are the mothers, not only of our charities and virtues, but of our best joys and most cheering and enduring pleasures. [ Simms ]

What a cruel jest it would be to condemn those who continually boast of their virtues, to the strict practice of what they profess! [ De Finod ]

I am persuaded that he who is capable of being a bitter enemy can never possess the necessary virtues that constitute a true friend. [ Fitzosborne ]

Praise is a debt we owe unto the virtues of others, and due unto our own from all whom malice hath not made mutes or envy struck dumb. [ Sir Thomas Browne ]

Brevity in writing is what charity is to all other virtues - righteousness is nothing without the one, nor authorship without the other. [ Sydney Smith ]

Riches, though they may reward virtues, yet they cannot cause them; he is much more noble who deserves a benefit than he who bestows one. [ Feltham ]

Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is often fatal to the best talents. It supplies the place of many talents. [ Simms ]

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all. [ Burke ]

The better a man is morally, the less conscious he is of his virtues. The greater the artist, the more aware he must be of his shortcomings. [ Froude ]

It is, indeed, a blessing, when the virtues of noble races are hereditary; and do derive themselves from the imitation of virtuous ancestors. [ Nabb ]

We never know the true value of friends. While they live we are too sensitive of their faults: when we have lost them we only see their virtues. [ J. C. and A. W. Hare ]

I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of mothers shall occasionally be visited on their children, as well as the sins of fathers. [ Dickens ]

The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation. [ Dr. Johnson ]

In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other, - fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other. [ Thoreau ]

When a man is base at the heart, he blights his virtues into weaknesses; but when he is true at the heart, he sanctifies his weaknesses into virtues. [ John Ruskin ]

When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even for our virtues. [ Balzac ]

A noble birth and fortune, though they make not a bad man good, yet they are a real advantage to a worthy one, and place his virtues in a fairer light. [ Lillo ]

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues. [ Hazlitt ]

No company is far preferable to bad, because we are more apt to catch the vices of others than their virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health. [ Colton ]

Among the minor virtues, cleanliness ought to be conspicuously ranked; and in the common topics of praise we generally arrange some commendation of neatness. [ J. Dennie ]

Women are only told that they resemble angels when they are young and beautiful; consequently, it is their persons, not their virtues, that procure them homage. [ Phoebe Gary ]

Adverse fortune seldom spares men of the noblest virtues. No one can with safety expose himself often to dangers. The man who has often escaped is at last caught. [ Seneca ]

There is no man so great as not to have some littleness more predominant than all his greatness. Our virtues are the dupes, and often only the plaything of our follies. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues. [ Simms ]

There is a patience that cackles. There are a great many virtues that are hen-like. They are virtues to be sure; but everybody in the neighborhood has to know about them. [ Beecher ]

Various and very absurd notions prevailed among the ancients in regard to the dew; by some it was supposed to descend from the stars, and to be possessed of wonderful virtues. [ Barnard ]

Simple nature, however defective, is better than the least objectionable affectation; and, defects for defects, those which are natural are more bearable than affected virtues. [ Saint-Evremond ]

Rich apparel has strange virtues; it makes him that hath it without means esteemed for an excellent wit; he that enjoys it with means puts the world in remembrance of his means. [ Ben Jonson ]

There is scarce any man who cannot persuade himself of his own merit. Has he commonsense, he prefers it to genius; has he some diminutive virtues, he prefers them to great talents. [ Sewall ]

Oh, if the loving, closed heart of a good woman should open before a man, how much controlled tenderness, how many veiled sacrifices and dumb virtues, would be seen reposing there! [ Richter ]

The practice of perseverance is the discipline of the noblest virtues. To run well, we must run to the end. It is not the fighting but the conquering that gives a hero his title to renown. [ E. L. Magoon ]

The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must not be exercised at the expense of any of the virtues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can only be successful at the frequent expense of his manhood. [ Simms ]

Every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity, contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed, utility. [ Sir J. Mackintosh ]

An honest reputation is within the reach of all men; they obtain it by social virtues, and by doing their duty. This kind of reputation, it is true, is neither brilliant nor startling, but it is often the most useful for happiness. [ Duclos ]

When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day something of our faults. [ Agapet ]

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 ]

Civilized society feels that manners are of more importance than morals, and the highest respectability is of less value than the possession of a good chef. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for cold entrees, nor an irreproachable private life for a bad dinner and poor wines. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades of paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colors more beautiful, though not so glowing as they would be without it. [ Addison ]

You will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults; still less of others faults. In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it ; as you can, try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes. [ Ruskin ]

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 ]

Whatever strengthens our local attachments is favorable both to individual and national character, our home, our birthplace, our native land. Think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words, and if you have any intellectual eyes, you will then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. [ Southey ]

Columbus died in utter ignorance of the true nature of his discovery. He supposed he had found India, but never knew how strangely God had used him. So God piloted the fleet. The great discoverer, with all his heroic virtues, did not know whither he went. He sailed for the back door of Asia, and landed at the front door of America, and knew it not. He never settled the continent. Thus far and no farther, said the Lord. His providence was over all. [ David James Burrell ]

Out of the ashes of misanthropy benevolence rises again; we find many virtues where we had imagined all was vice, many acts of disinterested friendship where we had fancied all was calculation and fraud - and so gradually from the two extremes we pass to the proper medium; and, feeling that no human being is wholly good or wholly base, we learn that true knowledge of mankind which induces us to expect little and forgive much. The world cures alike the optimist and the misanthrope. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

A newspaper, like a theatre, must mainly owe its continuance in life to the fact that it pleases many persons; and in order to please many persons it will, unconsciously perhaps, respond to their several tastes, reflect their various qualities, and reproduce their views. In a certain sense it is evolved out of the community that absorbs it, and, therefore, partaking of the character of the community, while it may retain many merits and virtues, it will display itself, as in some respects ignorant, trivial, narrow, and vulgar. [ William Winter ]