Virtuous Quotes - Page 14

• I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. [...] I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this world, I firmly believe He delights to see me virtuous.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Believe, Men, Perfect

  "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion". Book by Benjamin Franklin, 1728.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.

  Ford Madox Ford

  Suicide, Mind, Passionate

  Ford Madox Ford (2016). “The Good Soldier: Ford's works”, p.190, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Grace, Wells

  William Shakespeare (1823). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings”, p.125

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despite what you've been conditioned to believe, sexual desire is sacred and virtuous. When you and your beloved merge physically and emotionally, you go beyond the boundaries of the ego and experience timelessness, naturalness, playfulness and defenselessness .

  Deepak Chopra

  Believe, Ego, Desire

  11 Copy quote

• It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens; Louis must die that the country may live

  Maximilien Robespierre

  Country, Regret, Citizens

  49 Copy quote

• If we want to really see the Buddha, we should observe his virtuous qualities. Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.

  Ajahn Chah

  Giving Up, Quality, Needs

  19 Copy quote

• Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Lying, Believe, Men

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.533, Barbour Publishing

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Christian, Sacrifice, Doe

  19 Copy quote

• We start... imitation of Christ with Holy Baptism, which symbolizes the Lord's Burial and Resurrection. Virtuous living and conduct in accord with the Gospel are its intermediate stage, and its perfection is victory through spiritual struggles against the passions, which procures painless, indestructible, heavenly life.

  Gregory Palamas

  Christian, Spiritual, Struggle

  10 Copy quote

• ...the wise providence of God orders our affairs in many different ways and lovingly bestows on each one of us what is appropriate and profitable both for virtuous deeds and the mysteries of faith.

  Gregory Palamas

  Wise, Christian, Order

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Christopher Veniamin, Monastery of St. John the Baptist (Essex, England) (2009). “The homilies”, Mount Thabor Pub

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everything we do, our every objective, must be undertaken for the sake of... purity of heart... we must practice the reading of the Scripture, together with all the other virtuous activities... to hold our hearts free of the harm of every dangerous passion and in order to rise step by step to the high point of love.

  John Cassian

  Christian, Reading, Passion

  22 Copy quote

• You have a great destiny before you. This is your moment! I truly believe that one virtuous young woman, led by the Spirit, can change the world.

  Elaine S. Dalton

  Believe, Destiny, World

  19 Copy quote

• Whenever we practise meditation, whether or not our meditation is clear, we are performing a virtuous mental action that is a cause of our future happiness and peace of mind.

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

  Meditation, Mind, Future Happiness

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (2011). “Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom - Volume 1 Sutra”, p.35, Tharpa Publications US

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• For, in the language of Heraclitus, the virtuous soul is pure and unmixed light, springing from the body as a flash of lightning darts from the cloud. But the soul that is carnal and immersed in sense, like a heavy and dank vapor, can with difficulty be kindled, and caused to raise its eyes heavenward.

  Plutarch

  Eye, Clouds, Light

  10 Copy quote

• No single virtue is, on its own, necessarily virtuous.

  Jonathan V. Last

  Virtue

  4 Copy quote

• we do know now, all of us, that the most appalling cruelties are committed by apparently virtuous governments in expectation of a great good to come, never learning that the evil done now is the sure destroyer of the expected good.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Government, Evil, Expectations

  Katherine Anne Porter, Darlene Harbour Unrue (2008). “Collected stories and other writings”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Temptations make one very censorious. If you are virtuous you condemn the wicked and if you are wicked, you condemn the virtuous.

  Elizabeth Bibesco

  Temptation, Wicked, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Charles Churchill

  Spring, Hands, Rose

  Charles Churchill (1762). “The Ghost”, p.38

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• This insinuation of the interests of the self into even the most ideal enterprises and most universal objectives, envisaged in moments of highest rationality, makes hypocrisy an inevitable by product of all virtuous endeavor.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Self, Hypocrisy, Moments

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.218, Library of America

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Proportion

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.771, Delphi Classics

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• For tutors, although they may make youth learned, do not always make them virtuous.

  Samuel Richardson

  Youth, Tutor

  "The Works of Samuel Richardson: With a Sketch of His Life and Writings".

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.

  Henry Fielding

  Support, Vices, Insult

  7 Copy quote

• Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Grace

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1755). “M.T. Cicero, His Offices: Or, His Treatise Concerning the Moral Duties of Mankind; His Cato Major, Concerning the Means of Making Old Age Happy; His Laelius, Concerning Friendship; His Moral Paradoxes; The Vision of Scipio, Concerning a Future State; His Letter Concerning the Duties of a Magistrate. With Notes Historical and Explanatory”, p.53

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• Psychologically speaking, one may say that the hypocrite is too ambitious; not only does he want to appear virtuous before others, he wants to convince himself.

  Hannah Arendt

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, Ambitious

  Hannah Arendt (1963). “On revolution”, Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Evil, Degrees

  Henry Ward Beecher (1856). “Lectures to young men: on various important subjects”, p.134

  4 Copy quote

  Show source