The firm, the enduring, the simple,
and the modest are near to virtue.

Confucius

   

Virtue is not to be considered in the light of mere innocence, or abstaining from harm; but as the exertion of our faculties in doing good.

Joseph Butler
  
We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.

John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley

      
There is plenty of evidence for an Original Virtue underlying Original Sin. . . .The knowledge that there is a central chamber of the soul, blazing with the light of divine love and wisdom, has come, in the course of history, to multitudes of human beings.

Aldous Huxley
  

There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as "moral indignation," which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.

Erich Fromm
Man for Himself

   

The fragrance of the flower is never borne against the breeze;
but the fragrance of human virtues diffuses itself everywhere.

unattributed

  

To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes
perfect virtue. . . gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

Confucius

  

quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
our current e-zine - the people behind the words - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation
~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

  

It has been my experience that people who have no vices have very few virtues.

Abraham Lincoln

   

Superior virtue is not conscious of itself as virtue, and so really
is a virtue.  Inferior virtue cannot let go of being virtuous, and so is
not virtue.  Superior virtue does not seem to be busy, and yet there
is nothing which it does not accomplish.  Inferior virtue is
always busy, and yet in the end leaves things undone.

Lao-tzu

   

Virtues are virtues because they give joy once they are practiced.
If a virtue does not give joy, it is not a virtue.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

   

   
Absolute virtue is as sure to kill a person as absolute vice is,
let alone the dullness of it and the pomposities of it.

Samuel Butler
   

Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think of these things.

Philippians 4:8

    

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and
unheeded, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks
out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for,
not without dust and heat.

John Milton

  

Crusaders for virtue are an awkward embarrassment for any society;
they force us to make choices:  either side with them, which is difficult
and dangerous, or condemn them, which leads to self-betrayal.

Edward Abbey

  

To bring forth and preserve, to produce without possessing, to act without
hope of reward, and to expand without waste, this is the supreme virtue.

Lao-tzu

    

  
Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume.

French proverb
  

The moral virtues are habits, an habits are formed by acts.

Robert M. Hutchins

  

Suffering--how divine it is, how misunderstood!  We owe to it all
that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it
pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

Anatole France
The Garden of Epicurus

  

HOME - contents - Daily Meditations - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - advertising - aging - ambition
anger - anticipation - anxiety - apathy - appreciation - arrogance - art - attitude - authenticity - awakening - awareness - awe
balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - caring - celebration - challenges -
change - character
charity - children - choices - Christianity - coincidence - commitment - common sense - community - comparison - compassion
competition - complaining - compliments - compromise - confidence - conformity - conscience - contentment - control - cooperation
courage - covetousness - creativity - crisis - criticism - cruelty -  death - decisions - desire - determination - disappointment
discipline - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - emotions - encouragement - enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy - eternity - ethics - example - exercise - experience - failure - faith - fame - family - fate - fathers - fault-finding
fear - feelings - finances - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - frustration - fun - the future - garden of life - gardening
generosity - gentleness - giving - goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greatness - greed - grief - growing up - guilt - habit
happiness - hatred - healing - health - heart - helpfulness - home - honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - hurry - ideals - identity
idleness  - idolatry - ignorance - illusion - imagination - impatience - individuality - the inner child - inspiration - integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition - jealousy - journey of life - joy - judgment - karma - kindness - knowledge - language - laughter - laziness
leadership - learning - letting go - life - listening - loneliness - love - lying - magic - marriage - materialism - meanness - meditation
mindfulness - miracles - mistakes - mistrust - moderation - money - mothers - motivation - music - mystery - nature - negative attitude
now - oneness - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - pain - parenting - passion - the past - patience - peace - perfectionism
perseverance - perspective - pessimism - play - poetry - positive thoughts - possessions - potential - poverty - power - praise
prayer
- prejudice - pride - principle - problems - progress - prosperity - purpose - reading -recreation - reflection - relationships
religion - reputation - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest - revenge - risk - role models - running - ruts - sadness - safety
seasons of life - self - self-love - self-pity - self-reliance - self-respect selfishness - serving others - shame - silence - simplicity
slowing down - smiles -solitude - sorrow - spirit - stories - strength - stress - stupidity - success - suffering - talent
the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts - time - today - tolerance - traditions - trees - trust - truth - unfulfilled dreams - values
vanity - virtue - vulnerability - walking - war - wealth - weight issues - wisdom - women - wonder - work - worry - worship
youth - spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - America - Zen sayings - articles & excerpts
Native American wisdom - The Law of Attraction - obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents
our most recent e-zine - Great Thinkers - the people behind the words

  

Virtue is the art of the whole life.

Philo

  

Virtue is its own reward, but it's very satisfactory when
Providence throws in some little additional bonus.

Woman's Home Companion

  

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after
and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

Ernest Hemingway

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

  
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without
courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

Maya Angelou
  

The virtuous person contents him- or herself with dreaming
that which the wicked person does in actual life.

Sigmund Freud
The Interpretation of Dreams

  

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be
thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

Voltaire

  
  
Every good quality runs into a defect; economy borders on avarice,
the generous are not far from the prodigal, the brave man is close to
the bully; he who is very pious is slightly sanctimonious; there are
just as many vices to virtue as there are holes in the mantle of Diogenes.

Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
  

When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean
and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation;
we will automatically be meditating always.

Swami Satchidananda
The Yoga Sutras

  

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
De Amicitia

   
The study of virtue is not quite the same as the study of morals (right and wrong, good and evil).  Aristotle defined the virtues simply as the ways of behaving that are most conducive to happiness in life.  Vice was defined as the ways of behaving least conducive to happiness.  He observed that the virtues always aim for balance and avoid the extremes of the vices.  Aristotle studied the virtues and the vices in his Nicomachean Ethics.  It was a book based on experience and observation, not conjecture, about the kind of happiness that was possible for human beings.  Cultivating judgment about the difference between virtue and vice is the beginning of wisdom, something that can never be out of date.

Jordan Peterson

12 Rules for Life
   
People of virtue think beyond personal interests and consider how
their actions affect the whole.  They are less concerned with what
they can get for themselves, and more concerned with
how they can contribute to the community.


Alan Cohen
The Tao Made Easy
  

        
    

Alone in his car heading west, it's easy for Jason
to feel sorry for himself and mad at the world.  But
then he gives a ride to Hector and learns that life
isn't nearly as negative as we sometimes see it,
and that the prejudice and discrimination that
he's experiencing aren't unique to him--and aren't
impossible to overcome.  The friendship between
this young man and his 70-year-old passenger is
an inspiring story of love and dealing with
obstacles in our lives.    
Book - Kindle