Moral Virtues Quotes - Page 2

• The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.

  John Adams

  Government, People, Liberty

  Letter to Zabdiel Adams, "Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 4", memory.loc.gov. June 21, 1776.

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• We have a very foolish notion in Western countries that progress delivers freedom. But progress doesn't necessarily bring moral virtue.

  Richard Flanagan

  Country, Progress, Moral

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• Faith is an unclassified cognitive illness disguised as a moral virtue.

  Peter Boghossian

  Moral, Illness, Virtue

  Peter Boghossian (2013). “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, p.150, Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)

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• Some empirical feelings, such as sympathy, are indispensable parts of certain moral virtues.

  Allen W. Wood

  Feelings, Moral, Virtue

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Our moral virtues benefit mainly other people; intellectual virtues, on the other hand, benefit primarily ourselves; therefore the former make us universally popular, the latter unpopular.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Hands, People, Intellectual

  Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.341, Oxford University Press

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• Moral virtue is ... a mean between two vices, that of excess and that of defect, and ... it is no small task to hit the mean in each case, as it is not, for example, any chance comer, but only the geometer, who can find the center of a given circle.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Two, Circles

  Aristotle (1869). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle”, p.56

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• It is visible then that it was not any Heathen Religion or other Idolatrous Superstition, that first put Man upon crossing his Appetites and subduing his dearest Inclinations, but the skilful Management of wary Politicians; and the nearer we search into human Nature, the more we shall be convinced, that the Moral Virtues are the Political Offspring which Flattery begot upon Pride.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Pride, Men, Political

  Bernard de Mandeville (1723). “The Fable of the Bees”, p.23, Jazzybee Verlag

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• We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.

  Aristotle

  Pain, Opposites, Quality

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.36, Wordsworth Editions

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• That education should be regulated by law and should be an affair of state is not to be denied, but what should be the character of this public education, and how young persons should be educated, are questions which remain to be considered. As things are, there is disagreement about the subjects. For mankind are by no means agreed about the things to be taught, whether we look to virtue or the best life. Neither is it clear whether education is more concerned with intellectual or with moral virtue.

  Aristotle

  Education, Character, Mean

  Aristotle (2016). “Pocket Aristotle”, p.320, Simon and Schuster

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• The aim of education is to guide young persons in the process
  through which they shape themselves as human persons-armed with knowledge, strength of judgment, and moral virtues-while at the same time conveying to them the spiritual heritage of the nation and the civilization in which they are involved.

  Jacques Maritain

  Spiritual, Civilization, Aim Of Education

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• Music like religion, unconditionally brings in its train all the moral virtues to the heart it enters, even though that heart is not in the least worthy.

  Jean-Baptiste Joseph Emile Montegut

  Music, Heart, Moral

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• The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom.

  Aristotle

  Philosophy, Men, Words Of Wisdom

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• Rightness in our choice of an end is secured by [Moral] Virtue.

  Aristotle

  Choices, Moral, Virtue

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• [the virtues] cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is [i.e. moral virtue] and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.

  Aristotle

  Defining, Principles, Add

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• [Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Choices, Moral

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• Justice is a moral virtue, merely because it has that tendency to the good of mankind, and indeed is nothing but an artificial invention to that purpose. The same may be said of allegiance, of the laws of nations, of modesty, and of good manners. All these are mere human contrivances for the interest of society.

  David Hume

  Law, Justice, Good Man

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature”, p.984, David Hume

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• Atheism leads a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue.

  Francis Bacon

  Atheist, Philosophy, Men

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• There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice, nor truth that passes over injustice in silence, nor moral virtue that condones it.

  Tadeusz Borowski

  Silence, Moral, Injustice

  Tadeusz Borowski (1967). “This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen: and other stories”

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• Our disregard of civic and moral virtue as an educational priority is having a tangible effect on the attitudes, understanding and behavior of large portions of the youth population in the United States today.

  William Damon

  Attitude, Educational, Priorities

  William Damon (2014). “Failing Liberty 101: How We Are Leaving Young Americans Unprepared for Citizenship in a Free Society”, p.3, Hoover Institution Press

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• I believe that courage is morally neutral. I can well imagine wicked people being brave and good people being timid or afraid. I don't consider it a moral virtue.

  Susan Sontag

  Believe, People, Brave

  "The 'Traitor' Fires Back". Interview with David Talbot, www.salon.com. October 17, 2001.

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• Prudence as well as Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of a man's proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of the end we aim at, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain that end.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Men, Gains

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• Moral virtue is a mean . . . between two vices, one of excess and the other of defect; . . . it is such a mean because it aims at hitting the middle point in feelings and in actions. This is why it is a hard task to be good, for it is hard to find the middle point in anything.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Two, Feelings

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.46, Wordsworth Editions

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• If then, as we say, good craftsmen look to the mean as they work, and if virtue, like nature, is more accurate and better than any form of art, it will follow that virtue has the quality of hitting the mean. I refer to moral virtue [not intellectual], for this is concerned with emotions and actions, in which one can have excess or deficiency or a due mean.

  Aristotle

  Art, Mean, Intellectual

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.40, Wordsworth Editions

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• Our western science is a child of moral virtues; and it must now become the father of further moral virtues if its extraordinary material triumphs in our time are not to bring human history to an abrupt, unpleasant and discreditable end.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Children, Father, Science

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• Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, Design, Inability

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense: and The American Crisis I”, p.16, Penguin

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