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Quotes about virtue

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I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.
Oliver Cromwell1599–1658Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
- Character
- Leadership
Generosity is to help a deserving person without his request, and if you help him after his request, then it is either out of self-respect or to avoid rebuke.
AAli599–661Nahj al-Balagha
- Charity
Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ch. 9
- Art
- Honor
Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address (1933)
- Honor
No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and Reflections
- Character
- Intelligence
Not by birth does one become an outcaste, not by birth does one become a brahman. By one’s action one becomes an outcaste, by one’s action one becomes a brahman.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BCSutta Nipata (Suttas falling down), § 136
- Character
Rascals are always sociable — more’s the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others’ company.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, Vol. 1, Ch. 5, § 9
- Character
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
- Character
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lamaborn 1935“Kindness and Compassion” p. 52
- Charity
- Religion
We are firm believers in the maxim that for all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855), Goethe.
- Character
Generous, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
- Charity
- Comedy
He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Charity
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly — that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire1694–1778“Tolerance” (1764)
- Forgiveness
The infinite, absolute character of Virtue has passed into a finite, conditional one; it is no longer a worship of the Beautiful and Good; but a calculation of the Profitable.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Signs of the Times (1829)
If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
Carl Sagan1934–1996Cosmos (1980), p. 193
- Courage