virtues quotes

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

If you’re not going to be rewarded for your virtues, and instead you’re going to be punished for them, then what’s your motivation to continue?

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

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

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Charity bestowed upon those who are worthy of it is like good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the tyrannical yoke of the passions are like seed deposited in a bad soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were, the growth of merits.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

One of the great attractions of patriotism – it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what’s more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side… It has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological health.

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.