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Quotes about virtue

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The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Economy (1 of 3)In context
- Morality
Life is to entered upon with courage.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859
- Courage
- Life & Death
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three, Chapter XVIII.
- Honor
You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.
Eckhart Tolleborn 1948A New Earth (2005)
What you react to in others, you strengthen in yourself.
Eckhart Tolleborn 1948A New Earth (2005)
- Character
If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does. With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace.
Eckhart Tolleborn 1948Stillness Speaks (2003) (Ch 8)
- Forgiveness
The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910What Is To Be Done? (1886) Chap. XL, as translated in The Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoï (1902) edited by Nathan Haskell Dole, p. 281
- Charity
To be good and lead a good life means to give to others more than one takes from them.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910The First Step (1892), Ch. VII
- Charity
If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Anna Karenina (1878), Part Eight, Chapter 12In context
- Good & Evil
He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so.
Anthony Trollope1815–1882The Warden (1855), Ch. 3
- Character
The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world.
Harry S. Truman1884–1972Address to Congress (April 16, 1945)
- Power
- Responsibility
Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
Desmond Tutu1931–2021Without Forgiveness There Is No Future (1998)
- Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.
Mark Twain1835–1910
- Forgiveness
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may.
Mark Twain1835–1910Papers of the Adam Family (1939), Part VI: “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History’ “
- Responsibility
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Mark Twain1835–1910Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), Ch. 12.
- Courage