A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

We want our marriage to be a triumph, not a tragedy.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

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

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.

Even when a person has all of life’s comforts – good food, good shelter, a companion – he or she can still become unhappy when encountering a tragic situation.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I’m referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.

This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Just as the system of the sun, planets and comets is put in motion by the forces of gravity, and its parts persist in their motions, so the smaller systems of bodies also seem to be set in motion by other forces and their particles to be variously moved in relation to each other and, especially, by the electric force.

Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.

Shall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?

Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come to being.

Death wasn’t part of God’s original plan for humanity, and the Bible calls death an enemy – the last enemy to be destroyed.

Civilisations have been destroyed many times, and this civilisation is no different. It can be destroyed. We can think of time in terms of millions of years and life will resume little by little. The cosmos operates for us very urgently, but geological time is different.

We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

The strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

To destroy is always the first step in any creation.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.

A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue.

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

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

The object of the superior man is truth.