1,046 Quotes About Virtue

In order to know virtue, we must acquaint ourselves with vice. Only then can we know the true measure of a man.

Part of the problem about authenticity is that virtues aren't the only things that are habit forming: the more someone behaves in a way that is damaging to self or to others, the more "natural" it will both seem and actually be. Spontaneity, left to itself, can begin by excusing bad behavior and end by congratulating vice.

Sade's manicheistic dualism sees the world as irredeemably evil; vice must always prosper, virtue always despair. There is no hope for us as we are now.[...]Sade's vision is utterly without transcendence.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

If you seek money, be wise; if you seek power, be strong; if you seek honor, be virtuous; if you seek happiness, be yourself.

A man treats his own faults as original sin and supposes them scattered everywhere with the seed of Adam. He supposes that men have then added their own foreign vices to the solid and simple foundation of his own private vices. It would astound him to realize that they have actually, by their strange erratic path, avoided his vices as well as his virtues.

If you venture to be a sageLet your virtues subside your rageFor deep wisdom you’ll be veneratedLet cold veins feel blood cells generated

Virtues become vices when they are carried to an extreme.

Honesty, like any inclination, can become a ruling passion, a monomania almost.