Virtuous Quotes - Page 7

• The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.

  Voltaire

  Funny Friendship, Real, Self

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• To point out the importance of circumspection in your conduct, it may be proper to observe that a good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

  George Washington

  Character, Men, Important

  George Washington (1983). “The Papers of George Washington”

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• Nothing is more important for the public wealth than to form and train youth in wisdom and virtue. Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Character, People, Important

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• All art is the struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.

  Iris Murdoch

  Art, Struggle, Literature

  "The Philosopher's Pupil".

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• There is much that is difficult and challenging in the world today, my brothers and sisters, but there is also much that is good and uplifting. As we declare in our thirteenth article of faith, 'If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.' May we ever continue to do so.

  Thomas S. Monson

  Uplifting, Brother, Adversity

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  I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

  George Washington

  Land, America, Atheism

  George Washington, Stephen Lucas (1999). “The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot”, p.5, Rowman & Littlefield

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• A virtuous man concentrates on his own work, not that of others.

  Zengzi

  Humility, Men

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• To procrastinate seems inherent in man, for if you do to-day that you may enjoy to-morrow it is but deferring the enjoyment; so that to be idle or industrious, vicious or virtuous, is but with a view of procrastinating the one or the other.

  Benjamin Haydon

  Procrastination, Men, Views

  Benjamin Robert Haydon, Frederick Wordsworth Haydon (1876). “Correspondence and Table-talk: With a Memoir”, p.294

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• Americans, both politicians and voters, may have become corrupted by big government beyond redemption. A virtuous government requires a virtuous people. A frugal government requires a self-reliant people. A free country requires people who value liberty more than money.

  Charley Reese

  Country, Government, Self

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• It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.

  Henry George

  Religious, Men, Rights

  Henry George, A. C. Auchmuty (1908). “Gems from Henry George: being memorable passages from the writings and addresses of the author of "Progress and poverty"”

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• The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.

  Lucretia Mott

  Inspiring, Justice, Feminist

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• The perfection of joyful determination is defined as taking delight or feeling joy in doing something positive or virtuous. If you are very joyful about doing negative things or about being busy with meaningless activities, this is not called joyful exertion from a Buddhist point of view. This kind of attitude is actually a form of laziness, an attachment to frivolous activities. Such a person would not be considered diligent at all. But if you are JOYFUL and DETERMINED TO PERFORM POSITIVE ACTIONS, then as a result, you discover and learn many new things that you didn't know about before.

  Geshe Gyeltsen

  Determination, Buddhist, Attitude

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• Nor was civil society founded merely to preserve the lives of its members; but that they might live well: for otherwise a state might be composed of slaves, or the animal creation... nor is it an alliance mutually to defend each other from injuries, or for a commercial intercourse. But whosoever endeavors to establish wholesome laws in a state, attends to the virtues and vices of each individual who composes it; from whence it is evident, that the first care of him who would found a city, truly deserving that name, and not nominally so, must be to have his citizens virtuous.

  Aristotle

  Animal, Law, Cities

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• I argue that in the long run, the US would be on a far more financially secure footing if we recalibrate how we spend about two-to-three percent of the country's GNP, using state and federal taxes to create pools of money for spending on America's poor - which would, as numerous economists have argued in recent years, create virtuous spending circles, since those on lower incomes spend more of each extra dollar in their possession than do those on higher incomes.

  Sasha Abramsky

  Running, Long, Arguing

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• The best means of forming a manly, virtuous, and happy people will be found in the right education of youth. Without this foundation, every other means, in my opinion, must fail.

  George Washington

  Education, Mean, People

  George Washington, Stephen Lucas (1999). “The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot”, p.28, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Man has but little heeded the advice of the wise men. He has been - fatefully, if not willingly - less virtuous, less constant, less rational, less peaceful than he knows how to be, than he is fully capable of being. He has been led astray from the ways of peace and brotherhood by his addiction to concepts and attitudes of narrow nationalism, racial and religious bigotry, greed and lust for power.

  Ralph Bunche

  Wise, Wisdom, Religious

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• To be ordinary is the greatest virtue - because when you are just ordinary, nothing to claim, of this world or that, the ego disappears. The ego feeds on imbalance, the ego feeds on extremes. The ego lives on the polarities - in the middle it disappears. And in every area, in every direction of life, remember this: just stop in the middle and soon you will find the mind has stopped, the ego has stopped. Nothing to claim, it disappears. And when it disappears you have become virtuous. Now the door is open for the divine. In the middle you meet him; at the extremes you miss.

  Rajneesh

  Doors, Missing, Ego

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• There is nothing more becoming any wise man, than to make choice of friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art: let them therefore be wise and virtuous, and none of those that follow thee for gain; but make election rather of thy betters, than thy inferiors.

  Walter Raleigh

  Friendship, Wise, Art

  Sir Walter Raleigh (1829). “Miscellaneous works”, p.557

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• Sin is a dangerous toy in the hands of the virtuous. It should be left to the congenitally sinful, who know when to play with it and when to let it alone.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hands, Play, Toys

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.281, Vintage

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• Never suppose that in any possible situation or under any circumstances that it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing however slightly so it may appear to you... Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise ... and that exercise will make them habitual.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Truth, Lying, Exercise

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.60, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Happiness lies in virtuous activity, and perfect happiness lies in the best activity, which is contemplative

  Aristotle

  Lying, Philosophical, Perfect

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• It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.

  Thomas Reid

  Psychology, Agents, Ethics

  Thomas Reid (1827). “Essays on the powers of the human mind: An essay on quantity. An analysis of Aristotl's logic”, p.630

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• There is no more beautiful sight than a young woman who glows with the light of the spirit who is confident and courageous because she is virtuous.

  Elaine S. Dalton

  Beautiful, Spiritual, Light

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• The loftiest in status are those who do not know their own status, and the most virtuous of them are those who do not know their own virtue.

  Al-Shafi‘i

  Islam, Virtue, Knows

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• Keep your analysis pure and virtuous.

  Theodor Billroth

  Analysis, Pure

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