Joseph Addison on virtue

To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

Love, while always forgiving of imperfections and mistakes, can never cease to will their removal.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963

• Forgiveness
• Love
• Theology

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

Aristotle384–322 BC

• Courage

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope1688–1744An Essay on Criticism (1711)In context

• Forgiveness