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Quotes about virtue

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When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Act III
- Clever Jabs
- Responsibility
Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #160
Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #89
- Courage
Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. Sheen1895–1979
- Charity
- God
When a life is at stake and it’s your child, you become fearless in a lot of ways. I mean, you just become fanatic. Nothing ever gets done unless it’s done by a fanatic.
Martin Sheenborn 1940AARP magazine interview (2008)
- Children
- Courage
I learned I had to stand for something so I could stand to be me.
Martin Sheenborn 1940Progressive magazine interview (2003)
- Character
What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
Mary Shelley1797–1851Frankenstein (1818), Letter IIIIn context
- Courage
- Motivation & Goals
Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.
Mary Shelley1797–1851Frankenstein (1818), Chapter XIn context
- Good & Evil
- Happiness
Gold is a living god and rules in scorn,
All earthly things but virtue.
Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822Queen Mab (1813), Canto V
- Money
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you⁠—
Ye are many⁠—they are few.
Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822The Masque of Anarchy (1819)In context
- Courage
- Freedom
The best philanthropy is anonymous charity.
Gene Simmonsborn 1949Interview with Radio.com (July 6, 2016)
- Charity
I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968Letter to the Louis D. Oaks, Los Angeles Chief of Police (17 May 1923)
- Courage
- Morality
Living a minimally acceptable ethical life involves using a substantial part of our spare resources to make the world a better place. Living a fully ethical life involves doing the most good we can.
Peter Singerborn 1946The Most Good You Can Do (2015), Preface, p. vii
- Charity
- Morality
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I, Section I, Chap. I.
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. 312
- Charity