Quotes
Quotes about Virtue
Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379 Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and bond of all virtue.
Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are ours to be trained and strengthened. Our affections are not ours to be blighted and crucified; they are ours to be deepened and purified. The rich opportunities of life are not held out to us only to be snatched away by an invisible hand patiently waiting for the hour when the cup is sweetest; they are given to us that we may grow, alike through their rise or their withdrawal. They are real, they are sweet, and they are worthy of our longing for them; we gain nothing by calling them dross, or the world an illusion, or ourselves the victims of deception, or by exalting renunciation as the highest virtue. When these opportunities are denied us, it is a real, not an imaginary, loss which we sustain; and our part is not that of bare renunciation, of simple surrender; our part is to recognize the loss, to bear the pain, and to find a deeper and richer life in doing the will of God.
The Christian clearly understands that Jesus does not reveal all that is signified by the word "God", but only as much as could be revealed through a perfect human personality living in absolute obedience to God's will. The knowledge of God that men have by virtue of Jesus' revelation is quite enough for men to live by in this life, and to live gloriously and thankfully by, Christians maintainâthe knowledge that God the Creator, the Almighty and Eternal, the Lord of history, is man's Heavenly Father, and that love might well be, and indeed is, the ultimate meaning of human existence.
We must face the recognition that what the early Christians saw in Jesus Christ, and what we must accept if we look at him rather than at our imaginations about him, was not a person characterized by universal benignity, loving God and loving man. His love of God and his love of neighbor are two distinct virtues that have no common quality but only a common source. Love of God is adoration of the only true good; it is gratitude to the bestower of all gifts; it is joy in holiness; it is "consent to Being." But the love of man is pitiful rather than adoring; it is giving and forgiving rather than grateful. It suffers for them in their viciousness and profaneness; it does not consent to accept them as they are, but calls them to repentance. The love of God is nonpossessive Eros; the love of man pure Agape; the love of God is passion; the love of man, compassion. There is duality here, but not of like-minded interest in two great values, God and man. It is rather the duality of the Son of Man and Son of God, who loves God as man should love Him, and loves man as only God can love, with powerful pity for those who are foundering.
Every Christian, by virtue of membership in the Church, has a vocation to share in the ministry of Christ to the world which has been entrusted to the Church. The vocation is answered in the home and office and factory and field. There it is that the People of God bears its witness to the vocation of the People of God, a people with a people's diversity and complex vitality, a people comprising a multiplicity of cultures and histories and colours and tongues, a people and not a collection of individuals, a people bound together in allegiance to one King and in obedience to one purpose.
Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns, and wholly devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretence of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God.
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted. [Lat., Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur.]
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
Successful crime is dignified with the name of virtue; the good become the slaves of the impious; might makes right; fear silences the power of the law. [Lat., Prosperum ac felix scelus Virtus vocatur; sontibus patent boni; Jus est in armis, opprimit leges timor.]
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
You may wear your virtues as a crown, As you walk through life serenely, And grace your simple rustic gown With a beauty more than queenly. Though only one for you shall care, One only speak your praises; And you never wear in your shining hair, A richer flower than daisies.
Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
Abashed the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her own shape how lovely; saw And pined his loss.
If by saying that all men are born equal, you mean that they are equally born, it is true, but true in no other sense; birth, talent, labor, virtue, and providence, are forever making differences.
I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers ... We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the.
There is no virtue in being uncritical; nor is it a habit to which the young are given. But criticism is only the burying beetle that gets rid of what is dead, and, since the world lives by creative and constructive forces, and not by negation and destruction, it is better to grow up in the company of prophets than of critics.
Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.
I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend. Abraham Lincoln There is no little enemy. â¢Benjamin Franklin The friend of my enemy is my enemy. â¢Anonymous With friends like this, who needs enemies? â¢Henny Youngman It is impossible for one person to know another so well that he can dispense with belief. â¢Friedrich Durrenmatt The quarrels of friends are the opportunities of foes. â¢Aesop The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. â¢Sam Levenson It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. â¢William Blake He hasn't an enemy in the world - but all his friends hate him. â¢Eddie Cantor You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. â¢Eric Hoffer I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business. â¢Bette Davis It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. â¢Sally Kempton We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection. â¢Ricther Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work. â¢Anonymous Enemies promises were made to be broken. â¢Aesop The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts. â¢William Ellery Channing You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. â¢Joseph Conrad Love your enemies just in case your friends turn out to be a bunch of bastards. â¢R A Dickson I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people. â¢Benjamin Franklin A wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool from his friends. â¢Baltasar Gracian I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends. They're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights! â¢Warren Gamaliel Harding Man's chief enemy is his own unruly nature and the dark forces put up within him. â¢Ernest Jones Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. â¢John F. Kennedy Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. â¢Stephen King Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves. â¢Francois De La Rochefoucauld There is no stronger bond of friendship than a mutual enemy. â¢Frankfort Moore He who lives by fighting with an enemy has an interest in the preservation of the enemy's life. â¢Friedrich Nietzsche Bear patiently with a rival. â¢Ovid Talk well of your friends and of your enemies say nothing. â¢Proverb Was it a friend or foe that spread these lies? Nay, who but infants question in such wise, 'twas one of my most intimate enemies. â¢Dante Gabriel Rossetti Remember, to them it is us who are the enemy. â¢N. F. Simpson Convince an enemy, convince him that he's wrong. To win a bloodless battle, the victory is long. A simple act of faith, reason over might. To blow up his children would only prove him right. â¢Gordon Sumner One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good. â¢Jonathan Swift In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.
The diamond's virtues well might grace The epigram, and both excel In brilliancy in smallest space, And power to cut as well.
Some learned writers . . . have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram . . . because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl, so the force and virtue of an epigram is in the conclusion.
Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues.
