Quotes

Quotes about Virtue


Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
Each man makes his own stature, builds himself.
Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;
Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.

Edward Young

Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,
With whom revenge is virtue.

Edward Young

In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

Alexander Pope

Know then this truth (enough for man to know),--
"Virtue alone is happiness below."

Alexander Pope

That virtue only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.

Alexander Pope

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in decencies forever.

Alexander Pope

To Berkeley every virtue under heaven.

Alexander Pope

To heal divisions, to relieve th' opprest;
In virtue rich; in blessing others, blest.

Alexander Pope

Note 19.'T is virtue makes the bliss where'er we dwell.--William Collins: Oriental Eclogues, i. line 5.

Alexander Pope

Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide,--
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

James Thomson

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny:
You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace,
You cannot shut the windows of the sky
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve:
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave:
Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave.

James Thomson

Whoe'er amidst the sons
Of reason, valour, liberty, and virtue
Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble
Of Nature's own creating.

James Thomson

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Samuel Johnson

Can't I another's face commend,
And to her virtues be a friend,
But instantly your forehead lowers,
As if her merit lessen'd yours?

Edward Moore

Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction,--
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour
Serves but to brighten all our future days.

John Brown

Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell:
'T is virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.

William Collins

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side.

Oliver Goldsmith

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

Edmund Burke

All government,--indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act,--is founded on compromise and barter.

Edmund Burke

Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.

William Cowper

No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.

Erasmus Darwin

Humility, that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot.

Thomas Moore

Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires,
And decorate the verse herself inspires:
This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,--
Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron

He left a corsair's name to other times,
Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes.

George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron

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