Quotes about virtue
884 quotes from 395 people
Unblemish’d let me live, or die unknown;
O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!
Alexander Pope1688–1744The Temple of Fame (1711), Closing lineWe may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
Karl Popper1902–1994The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Introduction
Colin Powell1937–2021The Powell Principles (2003)To judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like judging the power of the ocean by one wave.
Elvis Presley1935–1977Handwritten note in his King James Bible
Marcel Proust1871–1922Notes to his translation of Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies (Sésame et les lys, 1906); in Marcel Proust: On Reading Ruskin, tr. Jean Autret and William Burford (Yale University Press, 1987), p. 152Assist a man in raising a burden; but do not assist him in laying it down.
Pythagoras583–491 BCSymbol 11Cowards fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.
Walter Raleigh1552–1618On the snuff of a candle the night before he died; Raleigh’s Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661
Ayn Rand1905–1982The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.
John Rawls1921–2002A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter I, Section 1, pg. 3-4
Ronald Reagan1911–2004Speech at the Republican National Convention, Platform Committee Meeting, Miami, Florida” (31 July 1968)The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.
- Ronald Reagan1911–2004Final speech as President (1989)
Christopher Reeve1952–2004Still Me (1999)