Virtue Quotes

Virtue is debased by self-justification.[La vertu s’avilit à se justifier.]

Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter.

You cannot have Liberty in this World without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.

When laziness and timidity yoke us to our duties, we often give virtue the credit for it.[Pendant que la paresse et la timidité nous retiennent dans notre devoir, notre vertu en a souvent tout l’honneur.]

We should often be ashamed of our noblest actions if the world but knew all the motives that helped shape them.[Nous aurions souvent honte de nos plus belles actions si le monde voyait tous les motifs qui les produisent.]

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.[Μηκέθ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδραδιαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον.]

Virtues are swallowed up by self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.[Les vertus se perdent dans l’intérêt, comme les fleuves se perdent dans la mer.]

Virtue will not be followed but for herself; and, if we sometimes borrow her mask for some other occasion, she presently pulls us own sake, it off again.[La vertu ne veut être pratiquée que pour elle-même; si, dans un autre but, on lui emprunte parfois son masque, elle nous l’arrache aussitôt du visage.]

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.[La vertu a un voile, le vice a un masque.]

To be proud of Knowledge, is to be blind with Light; to be proud of Virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.[Ἄριστος τρόπος τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι τὸ μὴ ἐξομοιοῦσθαι.]

Some people’s faults are becoming, other people’s virtues prove drawbacks.[Il y a des personnes à qui les défauts siéent bien, et d’autres qui sont disgraciées avec leurs bonnes qualités.]