The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
Virtues go ever in troops; they go so thick, that sometimes some are hid in the crowd; which yet are, but appear not.
It would not be easy even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life.
Charity and good-nature give a sanction to the most common actions; and pride and ill-nature make our best virtues despicable.
I cannot worship the abstractions of virtue: she only charms me when she addresses herself to my heart, speaks through the love from which she springs.
The virtuous to those mansions go Where pleasures unembitter'd flow, Where, leading up a jocund band, Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand, Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales, Pipes softest music through the vales, And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd, With velvet carpet spread the ground; With livelier blush where roses bloom, And every shrub expires perfume.
The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.
Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.
The ages of greatest public spirit are not always eminent for private virtue.
Where is the reward of virtue? and what recompense has nature provided for such important sacrifices as those of life and fortune, which we must often make to it? O sons of earth! Are ye ignorant of the value of this celestial mistress? And do ye meanly inquire for her portion, when ye observe her genuine beauty?
No virtue fades out of mankind. Not over-hopeful by inborn temperament, cautious by long experience, I yet never despair of human virtue.
The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.
True virtue, when she errs, needs not the eyes of men to excite her blushes; she is confounded at her own presence, and covered with confusion of face.
Our virtues, as well as our vices, are often scourges for our own backs.
Virtue, vain word, futile shadow, slave of chance! Alas! I believe in thee!
Virtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.
Virtue were a kind of misery if fame were all the garland that crowned her.
There have been men who could play delightful music on one string of the violin, but there never was a man who could produce the harmonies of heaven in his soul by a one-stringed virtue.
Most virtue lies between two vices.
No one dies too soon who has finished the course of perfect virtue.
That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue. [Lat., Nam quae voluptate, quasi mercede aliqua, ad officium impellitur, ea non est virtus sed fallax imitatio simulatioque virtutis.]
Too much virtue can be criminal.
Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.
Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement
We cannot have right virtue without right conditions.
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