Quotes about virtue
884 quotes from 395 people
The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.
E. M. Forster1879–1970What I Believe (1938)We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1950What is unique about the “I” hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person.
Milan Kundera1929–2023The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight, ch. 9It ain’t the roads we take; it’s what’s inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.
O. Henry1862–1910Whirligigs (1910)The worst of doing one’s duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.
The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit — a reputation, character.
John D. Rockefeller1839–1937The Men Who Are Making America (1918) by Bertie Charles ForbesSeek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.
Francis Bacon1561–1626The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II, xxxiMost men become successful and famous, not through ambition, but through ability and character.
WFWilliam Feather1889–1981The Business of Life (1949)Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
Edward Abbey1927–1989Desert Solitaire (1968), “Water”, p. 113I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent — General Tubman as we call her.
John Brown1800–1859As recalled by Wendell Phillips (letter of 16 June 1868), in Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869)Private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of the city’s disinherited.
Jane Addams1860–1935Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910), Ch. 14My “act” has ended by becoming an integral part of my nature, I told myself. It’s no longer an act.
Yukio Mishima1925–1970Confessions of a Mask (1949), p. 153.Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.
Jane Goodall1934–2025With Love (1999)
Bonoborn 1960PENN Address (2004)
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
