1,046 Quotes About Virtue

There is virtue in a vision.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Do good quietly.

Virtue, always more useful to others than to us, is not the essential thing; truth alone serves us and if we find it only by moving away from virtue, is it not better to reach the light by such diversion than remain in the dark and be a good-hearted dupe?

   "I'm infinitely less afraid," she told me one night, "of serving this monster's pleasures than being his main course at dinner."   "Not me! I'd prefer a thousand times to be eaten than satisfy his disgraceful lust."   "Don't you think that's taking virtue too far?"   "No, it's only to cherish the man I love."   "When things calm down a little, you'll explain to me such délicatesse. I still don't understand it."   

If you'll permit me, the distance that separates debauchery from impiety is far greater than that between debauchery and religious superstition. One does what one likes when safe from reproach under the mantle of religion; but the woman who loves virtue for its own sake and serves it because it inflames her heart, who's brazen and bares her soul—she'll be seen rushing headlong to commit errors she can't hide.

If really wise, a man should unquestionably prefer a libertine for a spouse than a woman who's only served modesty; and he should stop thinking that such modesty, treasured only by ugly women, is worth a whit to anybody else.

One can be, in a word, virtuous in thought, character, and temperament—without being obliged to adopt a thousand absurd systems that have nothing to do with virtue.

The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes Titus or Marcus Aurelius; the people is often Nero, and never Marcus Aurelius.