Virtuous Quotes - Page 26

• Philosophers should resist the temptation to be publicly virtuous. Given an unjust society, from the vantage of what counts as the public good, they are corrupters, not edifiers. The desire to be seen to be virtuous, to make a positive contribution, is a deleterious symptom of professionalization. Philosophy's social utility is an ersatz for its duty to mount challenges to the entire social order.

  Ray Brassier

  Challenges, Temptation, Desire

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Coolidge thought budgets were virtuous. He had his econ straight. He didn't just cut taxes, he also cut the budget.

  Amity Shlaes

  Cutting, Taxes, Budgets

  Source: www.mikechurch.com

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• He who gives himself to a lover because he is a good man, and in the hope that he will be improved by his company, shows himself to be virtuous, even though the object of his affection turn out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he is deceived he has committed a noble error. For he has proved that for his part he will do anything for anybody with a view to virtue and improvement, than which there can be nothing nobler.

  Plato

  Men, Errors, Views

  Plato (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Plato (Illustrated)”, p.1051, Delphi Classics

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• The myths about Hades and the gods, though they are pure invention, help to make men virtuous.

  Diodorus Siculus

  Men, Helping, Invention

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• We are not attracted to people because they are virtuous. In fact, there's something a little creepy about people who are too good. There is a big draw to people who are successful at breaking the rules. That means we end up admiring a lot of people that we think we shouldn't.

  Lionel Shriver

  Mean, Successful, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Atheism, Literature, Reason

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.177, Courier Corporation

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• I’d give him a cup of coffee and a big helping of a knuckle sandwich. Generosity was a virtue and I was in the mood to be extremely virtuous.

  Ilona Andrews

  Coffee, Generosity, Giving

  Ilona Andrews (2010). “Magic Bleeds”, p.146, Penguin

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• America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Wise, Hate, Men

  "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969.

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• Let a ruler base his government upon virtuous principles, and he will be like the pole-star, which remains steadfast in its place, while all the host of stars turn towards it

  Confucius

  Stars, Government, Principles

  Confucius (2016). “Delphi Collected Works of Confucius - Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics

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• Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Powerful, People, Liberty

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• [Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth.No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come to the way of leaving it.And how do they leave? How is the ascent made? Must one learn virtue?Here she laughs. You have read too much, and learned too little. Virtue is a road, not a destination. Man cannot be virtuous. Understanding is the goal. When that is achieved, the soul can take wing.

  Iain Pears

  Believe, Passion, Men

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• The division into whig and tory is founded in the nature of men; the weakly and nerveless, the rich and the corrupt, seeing more safety and accessibility in a strong executive; the healthy, firm, and virtuous, feeling confidence in their physical and moral resources, and willing to part with only so much power as is necessary for their good government; and, therefore, to retain the rest in the hands of the many, the division will substantially be into Whig and Tory.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strong, Men, Hands

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.422, Cambridge University Press

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• How many young girls there are who do not see any wrongdoing in following certain shameless styles like so many sheep. They certainly would blush if they could guess the impression they make and the feelings they evoke in those who see them. Do they not see the harm resulting from excess in certain gymnastic exercises and sports not suitable for virtuous girls? What sins are committed or provoked by conversations which are too free, by immodest shows, by dangerous reading. How lax have consciences become, how pagan morals!

  Pope Pius XII

  Girl, Sports, Reading

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• Every virtuous woman desires a husband to whom she can look for guidance and protection through this world. God has placed this desire in woman's nature. It should be respected by the stronger sex. Any man who takes advantage of this, and humbles a daughter of Eve to rob her of her virtue, and cast her off dishonored and defiled, is her destroyer, and is responsible to God for the deed.

  Brigham Young

  Daughter, Sex, Husband

  Brigham Young (1867). “Journal of Discourses”, p.268

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• It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.

  Saint Augustine

  Desire, Habit, Cultivation

  St. Augustine, Saint Augustine, J. F. Shaw (2009). “On Christian Doctrine”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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• I thank god that I can say on my death bed that I am a virtuous woman.

  Belle Boyd

  Thank God, Bed, Virtuous Woman

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• I don't think I've ever been face to face with pure evil, so I don't think I've ever seen it with my own eyes. But I do understand human frailty and I do understand the capacity of people to be intermittently noble and virtuous and fallible.

  Tom Hiddleston

  Eye, Thinking, People

  "Marvel Avengers Assemble - Tom Hiddleston interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

  Alain de Botton

  Achievement, Ordinary, Enough

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, 2000.

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• There is a virtuous fear, which is the effect of faith; and there is a vicious fear, which is the product of doubt. The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we believe; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one character fear to lose God; persons of the other character fear to find Him.

  Blaise Pascal

  Fear, Believe, Character

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 244, 1895.

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• Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force. But even Capitalist cynicism will admit that however unconscionable we may be when our own interests are affected, we can be most indignantly virtuous at the expense of others.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Self, May, Belief

  "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism". Book by George Bernard Shaw, p. 214, 1928.

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• I can at once become happy anywhere, for he is happy who has found himself a happy lot. In a word, happiness lies all in the functions of reason, in warrantable desires and virtuous practice.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Happiness, Lying, Practice

  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Emperor of Rome.), Alice Zimmern (189?). “Meditations”

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• Giving alms is only a virtuous deed when you give money that you yourself worked to get.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Giving, Deeds, Alms

  "Path of Life". Book by Leo Tolstoy, p. 83, 1909.

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• Will. Honeycomb calls these over-offended ladies the outrageously virtuous.

  Richard Steele

  Virtue, Offended

  'The Spectator' no. 266 (4 January 1712)

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• It is a great mistake to think that the extremist is a better man than the moderate. Usually the difference is not that he is morally stronger, but that he is intellectually weaker. He is not more virtuous. He is simply more foolish.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mistake, Thinking, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”, p.64, Courier Corporation

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• Without a doubt, one of the things which keeps us from attaining perfection is our tongue. When one has reached the point of no longer committing faults in speech, he has surely reached perfection, as was said by the Holy Spirit. The worst defect in talking is talking too much. Hence, in speech be brief and virtuous, brief and gentle, brief and simple, brief and charitable, brief and amiable.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Simple, Attachment, Talking

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