Quotes about virtue
884 quotes from 395 people
He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first installment of it.
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65De Beneficiis (On Benefits): Book 2, cap. 22, line 1.He is great who is what he is from Nature, and who never reminds us of others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Representative Men (1850)All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.
Edmund Burke1729–1797Letters On a Regicide Peace (1796), No. 1, volume v, p. 286Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.” Tell this to everyone—“Have no fear.”
Swami Vivekananda1863–1902Pearls of WisdomI know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.
Che Guevara1928–1967Reported last words, to his executioner, La Higuera, Bolivia (9 October 1967)You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 312All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900“The Portrait of Mr. W. H.”, Blackwood’s Magazine (July 1889)Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (20 September 1773)Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (17 September 1773)Courage is of the heart by derivation,
And great it is. But fear is of the soul.
Robert Frost1874–1963A Masque of Mercy (1947)Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, Vol. 1. Ch. 4: Position, or a Man’s Place in the Estimation of Others, §4-HonorThe superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter VII, § 36Unblemish’d let me live, or die unknown;
O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!
Alexander Pope1688–1744The Temple of Fame (1711), Closing lineMen of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.
John Milton1608–1674Tetrachordon (1644–1645)He ne’er is crown’d
With immortality, who fears to follow
Where airy voices lead.
