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Quotes about virtue

884 quotes from 395 people

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The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away.
Wayne Dyer1940–2015
- Charity
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. 113
- Courage
- Happiness
How difficult the task to quench the fire and the pride of private ambition, and to sacrifice ourselves and all our hopes and expectations to the public weal! How few have souls capable of so noble an undertaking!
Abigail Adams1744–1818Letter to John Adams (10 July 1775)
If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
Abigail Adams1744–1818Letter to John Thaxter (29 September 1778)
- Charity
You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances.
Abigail Adams1744–1818Letter to John Adams (27 November 1775)
Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people.
John Adams1735–1826Diary entry (31 July 1796)
- Government
If Virtue & Knowledge are diffus’d among the People, they will never be enslav’d. This will be their great Security.
Samuel Adams1722–1803Letter to James Warren (12 February 1779)
- Knowledge
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
Scott Adams1957–2026
- Forgiveness
Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
Scott Adams1957–2026“A Kind Word”, in DNRC Newsletter #9 (December 1995)
- Charity
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. 14
- Charity
What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them.
Jane Addams1860–1935Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922), Chapter 7: Personal Reactions During War
- Courage
- Hope
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
Joseph Addison1672–1719
- Talking
Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.
Joseph Addison1672–1719Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
- Honor
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Guardian (1713), No. 99
- Justice
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 162 (5 September 1711)
- Character