Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
Oh, for a forty-parson power to chant Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh, for a hymn Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt, Not practise!
Though pride is not a virtue, it is the parent of many virtues.
He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values. Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism.
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
Punctuality is one of the cardinal business virtues: always insist on it in your subordinates.
The plastic virtues: purity, unity, and truth, keep nature in subjection.
I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood so cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal. I'll touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death.
As to virtue . . . it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality.
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.
Reform must come from within, not from without. You cannot legislate for virtue.
Patience is the virtue of an ass, who treads beneath his burden and complains not.
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase are fruits of innocence and blessedness.
Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.
Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.
It is easier for a woman to defend her virtue against men than her reputation against women.
Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?
Jane borrow'd maxims from a doubting school, And took for truth the test of ridicule; Lucy saw no such virtue in a jest, Truth was with her of ridicule the test.
Princes that would their people should do well Must at themselves begin, as at the head; For men, by their example, pattern out Their limitations, and regard of laws: A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.
A prince, the moment he is crown'd, Inherits every virtue sound, As emblems of the sovereign power, Like other baubles in the Tower: Is generous, valiant, just, and wise, And so continues till he dies.
It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.
Why should we fear; and what? The laws? They all are armed in virtue's cause; And aiming at the self-same end, Satire is always virtue's friend.
Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others' bare.