Virtuous Quotes - Page 7

• Most people are so constituted that they can only be virtuous in a certain routine; an irregular course of life demoralizes them.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  People, Routine, Virtue

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• What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

  Honore de Balzac

  People, Judging, Crime

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• This insinuation of the interests of the self into even the most ideal enterprises and most universal objectives, envisaged in moments of highest rationality, makes hypocrisy an inevitable by product of all virtuous endeavor.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Self, Hypocrisy, Moments

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.218, Library of America

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• Exploding many things under the name of trifles is a very false proof either of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great check to virtuous actions with regard to fame.

  Jonathan Swift

  Names, Action, Fame

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.612

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• It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Christian, Sacrifice, Doe

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• I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. [...] I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this world, I firmly believe He delights to see me virtuous.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Believe, Men, Perfect

  "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion". Book by Benjamin Franklin, 1728.

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• For tutors, although they may make youth learned, do not always make them virtuous.

  Samuel Richardson

  Youth, Tutor

  "The Works of Samuel Richardson: With a Sketch of His Life and Writings".

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• We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our Liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good.

  John Adams

  Party, Independent, Government

  John Adams' Inaugural Address, avalon.law.yale.edu. March 4, 1797.

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• One beautiful diamond is worth more than a mountain of stones, and one virtuous act of acquiescence and submission is better than an abundance of good works done for others.

  Vincent de Paul

  Beautiful, Mountain, Done

  Saint Vincent de Paul (1985). “Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: I. Correspondence. v. 1. 1607-1639”, BNA Books (Bureau of National Affairs)

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• You must do the asana with your soul. How can you do an asana with your soul? We can only do it with the organ of the body that is closest to the soul - the heart. So a virtuous asana is done from the heart and not from the head. Then you are not just doing it, but you are in it. Many people try to think their way into an asana, but you must instead feel your way into it through love and devotion

  B.K.S. Iyengar

  Heart, Thinking, People

  B.K.S. Iyengar, John J. Evans, Douglas Abrams (2006). “Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom”, p.63, Rodale

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• Nothing more surely cultivates and embellishes a man than association with refined and virtuous women.

  William E. Gladstone

  Men, Association, Virtuous Woman

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• Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.

  Sakya Pandita

  Beauty, Men, Flames

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• Do we wish men to be virtuous? Then let us begin by making them love their country.

  Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

  Country, Men, Patriotism

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• All amusements to which virtuous women are not admitted, are, rely upon it, deleterious in their nature.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Rely Upon, Amusement, Virtuous Woman

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• We start... imitation of Christ with Holy Baptism, which symbolizes the Lord's Burial and Resurrection. Virtuous living and conduct in accord with the Gospel are its intermediate stage, and its perfection is victory through spiritual struggles against the passions, which procures painless, indestructible, heavenly life.

  Gregory Palamas

  Christian, Spiritual, Struggle

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• No single virtue is, on its own, necessarily virtuous.

  Jonathan V. Last

  Virtue

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• ...the wise providence of God orders our affairs in many different ways and lovingly bestows on each one of us what is appropriate and profitable both for virtuous deeds and the mysteries of faith.

  Gregory Palamas

  Wise, Christian, Order

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Christopher Veniamin, Monastery of St. John the Baptist (Essex, England) (2009). “The homilies”, Mount Thabor Pub

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• Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Lying, Believe, Men

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.533, Barbour Publishing

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• Everything we do, our every objective, must be undertaken for the sake of... purity of heart... we must practice the reading of the Scripture, together with all the other virtuous activities... to hold our hearts free of the harm of every dangerous passion and in order to rise step by step to the high point of love.

  John Cassian

  Christian, Reading, Passion

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• If we want to really see the Buddha, we should observe his virtuous qualities. Whatever he taught, we should practise it. Only bowing to him is not enough. We need to renounce, give up, stop, so that we may see the Buddha.

  Ajahn Chah

  Giving Up, Quality, Needs

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• Despite what you've been conditioned to believe, sexual desire is sacred and virtuous. When you and your beloved merge physically and emotionally, you go beyond the boundaries of the ego and experience timelessness, naturalness, playfulness and defenselessness .

  Deepak Chopra

  Believe, Ego, Desire

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• One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Grace, Wells

  William Shakespeare (1823). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings”, p.125

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• Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.

  Ford Madox Ford

  Suicide, Mind, Passionate

  Ford Madox Ford (2016). “The Good Soldier: Ford's works”, p.190, VM eBooks

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• You have a great destiny before you. This is your moment! I truly believe that one virtuous young woman, led by the Spirit, can change the world.

  Elaine S. Dalton

  Believe, Destiny, World

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• Whenever we practise meditation, whether or not our meditation is clear, we are performing a virtuous mental action that is a cause of our future happiness and peace of mind.

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

  Meditation, Mind, Future Happiness

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (2011). “Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom - Volume 1 Sutra”, p.35, Tharpa Publications US

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