Power does not justify sin. Power is not virtue. Virtue is that which lasts inspite of power

When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always. (151)

Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars. Cimourdain was full of virtues and truth, but they shine out of a dark background.

What are your chief vices? And virtues? I have no vices. The concept doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. My chief virtue is gratitude

There is no road or ready way to virtue.

Nature evaluates a character on the basis of its merits, not demerits.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

I can’t count the men who have tried to seduce me away from my virtue by teaching me how to defend it.

He never complained. He seemed to have no instinct for the making much of oneself that complaining requires.

To be strong and true had been the most important task he had set himself since early childhood.Once, as a boy, he had tried to outstare the sun. But before he could tell whether he had really looked at it or not, changes had occurred: the blazing red ball that had been there at first...

Humanity is not perfect in any fashion; no more in the case of evil than in that of good. The criminal has his virtues, just as the honest man has his weaknesses.

Oskar showed that virtue emerged where it would, and the sort of churchy observance bishops called for was not a guarantee of genuine humanity in a person.

Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtue we write in water.

Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none: And some condemned for a fault alone.

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

Kindness is strength. Good-nature is often mistaken for virtue, and good health sometimes passes for genius. Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. Intelligence is not the foundation of arrogance. Insolence is not logic. Epithets are the...

Theology is a superstition—Humanity a religion.

The importance of falling in love lies not in how it feels, but in what it perceives. And as always with our feelings, the key moral issue is how truthful the perception is… Falling in love is a sign that this might be someone with whom you could make a good marriage. Still, it’s not...

Modesty isn’t always a virtue; it can be a hindrance; a careful measure of personal pride builds confidence and ensures success.

I am fit to capture a unicorn, and I should not be so questioned…

I have no fear of men, as such, nor of their books. I have mixed with them–one or two of them particularly– almost as one of their own sex. I mean I have not felt about them as most women are taught to feel–to be on their guard against attacks on their virtue; for no...

Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it today because it is not of today.

Kindness expressed to a stranger is kindness expressed to God.

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you...

Those who have wisdom have all:Fools with all have nothing.

To reprove a harm-doer, put him to shame by doing a good deed in return.

Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderbeg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtuous; did they wear out virtue?

My hate is general, I detest all men;Some because they are wicked and do evil,Others because they tolerate the wicked,Refusing them the active vigorous scornWhich vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.

Happiness and goodness, according to canting moralists, stand in the relation of effect and cause. There was never anything less proved or less probable: our happiness is never in our own hands; we inherit our constitution; we stand buffet among friends and enemies; we may be so built as to feel a sneer or an...

[On the virtuous man] “He combines the highest, lowest and middle chords in complete harmony within himself.

Every life is march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.

If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.

St. Augustine hated the Stoics, Dostoevsky hated the Russian Liberals. At first sight this seems a quite inexplicable peculiarity. Both were convinced Christians, both spoke so much of love, and suddenly – such hate! And against whom? Against the Stoics, who preached self-abnegation, who esteemed virtue above all things in the world, and against the...

This idea of selfishness as a virtue, as opposed to generosity: That, to me, is unnatural.

I haven’t a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.

Moral maturity and freedom require more than mere adherence to the law; they require an understanding of the why and wherefore of its rules and regulations- the principles that make it worthy of their allegiance.

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.

The irony is, nothing is more frightening than being frightened.

To be moral, an act must be free.

He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.

…a great man who is vicious will only be a great doer of evil, and a rich man who is not liberal will be only a miserly beggar; for the possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it, but by spending it – and not by spending as he please but by knowing...

The great mistake of contemporary life is that we have made such a virtue of intellectual growth while almost totally ignoring the necessity of conscience growth. We have failed to understand that individual evolution can take place not only in mental but in moral power. The earth tragically today is full of people who remain...

Unlike the puerile loyalty to a conviction, loyalty to a friend is a virtue – perhaps the only virtue, the last remaining one.

A Credo: For the 21st Century eudaimonas architect of choosing…choose. to. live.awakened. entirely. wholly.wildly powerful, deeply masterful, authentically creative,thriving. this is not a hoped-for possible self.[reminder: we were born this way]needing not to learn the skill of being whole, life’s remedy is to unlearn the habit of living incompletely.here’s the practice:‘know thyself‘—its about spirit righteousness is underratedelevate connection with the...

Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

Ancient politicians talked incessantly about morality and virtue; our politicians talk only about business and money. One will tell you that in a particular country a man is worth the sum he could be sold for in Algiers; another, by following this calculation, will find countries where a man is worth nothing, and others where...

Virtue became less the harsh and martial self-sacrifice of antiquity and more the modern willingness to get along with others for the sake of peace and prosperity.

By the virtue of its thoroughness, the local application was successful,

Too much virtue can be criminal.