The weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.

For there is no virtue, the honor and credit for which procures a man more odium than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among...

Falsehood of a good man is better than truth of a bad one.

What a difference! Under the esthetic sky, everything is buoyant, beautiful, transient! when ethics arrives on the scene, everything becomes harsh, angular and infinitely boring

Those are fools however learnedWho have not learned to walk with the world.

Kindness expressed to a stranger is kindness expressed to God.

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.

But after all kindness isn’t the only virtue.

Virtue has need of limits.

Liberation from the tyranny of the body contributes to greatness, but just as much to greatness in sin as to greatness in virtue.

Tolerance! The virtue that makes one bite his tongue so that he can tear out his hair.

Virtues are common, but the virtuous are very few. This is because ordinarily, people know but do not apply what they know. To break the culture, look for more information; learn more and apply more....

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.

Perception of personal danger very often set people on the path of virtue.

Ambrosio was yet to learn, that to an heart unacquainted with her, Vice is ever most dangerous when lurking behind the Mask of Virtue.

Being defiant is a two-year-old who doesn’t want to go to bed when he’s tired. Being resolute is standing one’s ground even in the face of opposition. It’s a man’s virtue, not a toddler’s vice.

From the days of old, those who walk in the way have replaced those who deviate therefrom; those who lack virtue have fallen before those who possess it. Can one escape fate?

[J]ene Entsagungen, die die Menschen alberner Weise Tugenden nennen […]

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

Folded hands may conceal a dagger –Likewise a foe’s tears.

In the Bible, the opposite of Sin, with a capital ‘S,’ is not virtue – it’s faith: faith in a God who draws all to himself in his resurrection.

Patience is not a virtue. It is an achievement.

You can fuck anyone but when it comes to making love your virtue will be questioned.

Remember in any case, that not only the Adept, but anyone with the smallest capacity for Adeptship, is fundamentally an Artist; he will certainly not possess any of those bourgeois “virtues” which are just so...

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

What virtue is there in a man who demonstrates goodness because he has been bred to it? It is his habit from youth. But a man who has known unkindness and want, for him to...

Integrity is never a given. It is a quality that can only be proven over time.

Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.

For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.

Such is the pure movement of nature prior to all reflection. Such is the force of natural pity, which the most depraved mores still have difficulty destroying, since everyday one sees in our theaters someone...

You do me proud, Captain. But, dear, I want to say one thing and then I’m done; for you don’t need much advice of mine after my good man has spoken. I read somewhere that...

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

…when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen – only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because he’s in touch...

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

Flirting is the sin of the virtuous and the virtue of thesinful.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”[On British Labour politician Stafford Cripps.]

Theology is a superstition—Humanity a religion.

I prefer a loose woman to a selfish one and a wanton to a fool.

He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He...

To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.

A virtuous mother sows and sows seeds of greatness with great life in mind.

We’ve spent centuries moving them away from that word virtue and especially The Virtues and that’s precisely how we did it —by making it lower case.

If the gentleman abandons ren, how can he be worthy of that name? The gentleman does not violate ren even for the amount of time required to eat a meal. Even in times of urgency...

Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and...

Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.

A truly virtuous man would come to the aid of the most distant stranger as quickly as to his own friend. If men were perfectly virtuous, they wouldn’t have friends.

I really believe,” said Wanda thoughtfully,”that your madness is nothing but a demonic, unsatisfied sensuality. Our unnatural way of life must generate such illnesses. Were you less virtuous, you would be completely sane.

A true woman of virtue is one who will socialize with every man on earth, and doesn’t share her body with any of them.

Wisdom ain’t a virtue I ever aspired to.

Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love o fidelity. It is the foundations that underlies and gives reality to all other virtue and personal values. (p. 13)