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Quotes about virtue

884 quotes from 395 people

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To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods
Thomas Babington Macaulay1800–1859Horatius (1842)In context
- Courage
- Life & Death
Was none who would be foremost
To lead such dire attack;
But those behind cried, “Forward!”
And those before cried, “Back!”
Thomas Babington Macaulay1800–1859Horatius (1842)In context
- Comedy
- Courage
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever
One grand, sweet song.
Charles Kingsley1819–1875A Farewell (1858)In context
- Advice
I am not what you call a civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating.
Jules Verne1828–1905Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), Part One, Chapter XIn context
- Character
- Freedom
This is man’s highest end,
To others’ service all his powers to lend.
Sophocles496–406 BCOedipus the King (c. 429 BC), spoken by OedipusIn context
- Charity
Two souls, alas! reside within my breast,
And each withdraws from, and repels, its brother.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Scene II, spoken by FaustIn context
- Character
- Emotion
A good man, through obscurest aspiration,
Has still an instinct of the one true way.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Prologue in Heaven, spoken by The LordIn context
- Character
- Good & Evil
See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
Homer900–800 BCThe Odyssey (8th century BC), Book IIn context
- God
- Responsibility
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man’s a man for a’ that.
Robert Burns1759–1796A Man’s a Man for A’ That (1795)In context
- Character
- Money
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,⁠—
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
Christina Rossetti1830–1894In the Bleak Midwinter (1872)In context
Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.
Edwin Arlington Robinson1869–1935Miniver Cheevy (1907)In context
- Character
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night⁠—
Ten to make and the match to win⁠—
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
Henry Newbolt1862–1938Vitaï Lampada (1897)In context
- Courage
- Sports
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”
Henry Newbolt1862–1938Vitaï Lampada (1897)In context
- Honor
- Sports
I am a sick man…. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Notes from Underground (1864), Part I: Underground, Chapter IIn context
- Character
- Health
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892Ulysses (1842)In context
- Courage
- Motivation & Goals