All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.
Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.
'No soul is willing to be robbed of truth', he says. The same holds of justice, too, of temperance, of kindness, and the like. It is most necessary to remember this continually, for thus you will be more gentle to all men.
Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered.
There is no happiness without courage, nor virtue without struggle.
Humility is not a virtue; that is, it does not arise from reason.
The virtues lose themselves in interest as the rivers are lost in the sea.
Recommend virtue to your children it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.
Virtue is its own reward.
The Sage will bear the name of insane, and the Just the name of unjust, if in their search for Virtue they go beyond what is sufficient.
If virtue precede us every step will be safe.
Silver is worth less than gold, gold less than virtue.
Virtue will not be followed but for herself; and, if we sometimes borrow her mask for some other occasion, she presently pulls it off again.
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
And therefore justice is often thought to be the greatest of virtues, and 'neither evening nor morning star' is so wonderful; and proverbially 'in justice is every virtue comprehended'.
Virtue is in the heart, and nowhere else.
Among moral qualities, true virtue alone is sublime.
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.
Character is the virtue of hard times.
The end is life in agreement with nature.
Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.
Consistency is the foundation of virtue.
To make a virtue out of necessity; that is the beautiful and great work.
Virtue is the same both for men and for women.
O philosophy, life’s guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life.
Suffering! 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.
Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth comes from virtue.
We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
