The advantage to be derived from virtue is so evident that the wicked practise it from sinister motives.
      - Unattributed Author

It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.
      - Joseph Addison

Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country.
      - Joseph Addison, Cato (act IV, sc. 4)

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man!
      - Joseph Addison, Cato (act IV, sc. 4)

If there's a power above us, (and that there is all nature cries aloud
  Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.
      - Joseph Addison, Cato (act V, sc. 1)

One's outlook is a part of his virtue.
      - Amos Bronson Alcott,
        Concord Days--April Outlook

Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain, in respect to ourselves, to our fellowmen, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.
      - Archibald Alexander

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
      - Aristotle

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the nonperformance of base ones.
      - Aristotle

Virtue and sense are one; and, trust me, still
  A faithless heart betrays the head unsound.
      - John Armstrong, Art of Preserving Health
         (bk. IV, l. 265)

Virtue, the strength and beauty of the soul,
  Is the best gift of Heaven: a happiness
    That even above the smiles and frowns of fate
      Exalts great Nature's favourites: a wealth
        That ne'er encumbers, nor can be transferr'd.
      - John Armstrong, Art of Preserving Health
         (bk. IV, l. 284)

A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others; for men's minds will either feed upon their own good or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other.
      - Francis Bacon

Virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
      - Francis Bacon

Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
      - Francis Bacon, Essays--Of Adversity

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
      - Francis Bacon, Essays--Of Beauty

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!
      - Honore de Balzac

Virtue is always too much of a piece and too ignorant of those shades of feeling and of temperament that enable us to squint when we are placed in a false position.
      - Honore de Balzac

Virtue is not a thing you can have by halves; it is or it is not.
      - Honore de Balzac

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

Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues. God mad a million spears of grass where he made one tree. The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with forests, but with grasses. Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.
      - Henry Ward Beecher

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make happy, not gold.
      - Ludwig van Beethoven

Some, by admiring other men's virtues, become enemies to their own vices.
      - Bias of Priene

Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
  [Fr., La vertu d'un coeur noble est la marque certaine.]
      - Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, Satires (V, 42)

The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.
      - Saint Bonaventura

There are some persons on whom virtue sits almost as ungraciously as vice.
      - Dominique Bouhours

Our virtues, as well as our vices, are often scourges for our own backs.
      - Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.
      - Bertolt Brecht

There is no community or commonwealth of virtue; every man must study his own economy, and erect these rules unto the figure of himself.
      - Sir Thomas Browne

Virtue, vain word, futile shadow, slave of chance! Alas! I believe in thee!
      - Marcus Junius Brutus

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
      - Edmund Burke

Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.
      - Edmund Burke

What shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart.
      - Edmund Burke,
        Reflections on the Revolution in France

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.
      - Bishop Joseph Butler

No virtue can be real that has not been tried. The gold in the crucible alone is perfect; the loadstone tests the steel, and the diamond is tried by the diamond, while metals gleam the brighter in the furnace.
      - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

He who talks much about virtue in the abstract, begins to be suspected; it is shrewdly guessed that where there is great preaching there will be little almsgiving.
      - Thomas Carlyle

Virtue is, like health, the harmony of the whole man.
      - Thomas Carlyle

If thou takest virtue for the rule of life, and valuest thyself upon acting in all things comfortably thereto, thou wilt have no cause to envy lords and princes; for blood is inherited, but virtue is common property, and may be acquired by all; it has, moreover, an intrinsic worth, which blood has not.
      - Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)

All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self-determination. The best books have most beauty.
      - William Ellery Channing

There have been men who could play delightful music on one string of the violin, but there never was a man who could produce the harmonies of heaven in his soul by a one-stringed virtue.
      - Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Virtue is not malicious; wrong done her
  Is righted even when men grant they err.
      - George Chapman, Monsieur D'Olive
         (act I, sc. 1, l. 127)

The firste vertu, sone, if thou wolt leere,
  Is to restreyne and kepe wel thy tonge;
    Thus lerne childen whan that they been yonge.
      - Geoffrey Chaucer

Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. These virtue, honor, and knowledge alone can merit, alone can produce.
      - 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope

Virtue maketh men on the earth famous, in their graves illustrious, in the heavens immortal.
      - Mrs. Lydia Maria Child

The virtuous to those mansions go
  Where pleasures unembitter'd flow,
    Where, leading up a jocund band,
      Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand,
        Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales,
          Pipes softest music through the vales,
            And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd,
              With velvet carpet spread the ground;
                With livelier blush where roses bloom,
                  And every shrub expires perfume.
      - Charles Churchill

Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound,
  Which takes not solid virtue for its ground.
      - Charles Churchill

Every generous action loves the public view; yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

It is difficult to persuade mankind that the love of virtue is the love of themselves.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

It is not enough merely to possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practised.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

No one dies too soon who has finished the course of perfect virtue.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

The whole of virtue consists in its practice.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

Virtue is uniform, conformable to reason, and of unvarying consistency; nothing can be added to it that can make it more than virtue; nothing can be taken from it, and the name of virtue be left.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short)

That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.
  [Lat., Nam quae voluptate, quasi mercede aliqua, ad officium impellitur, ea non est virtus sed fallax imitatio simulatioque virtutis.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Academici (IV, 46)

Honor is the reward of virtue.
  [Lat., Honor est premium virtutis.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Brutus (LXXXI)

Fewer possess virtue, than those who wish us to believe that they possess it.
  [Lat., Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse, quam videri volunt.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        De Amicitia (XXVI)

The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.
  [Lat., Nam ut quisque est vir optimus, ita difficillime esse alios improbos suspicatur.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Epistoloe Ad Fratrem (I, 1)

It is the stain and disgrace of the age to envy virtue, and to be anxious to crush the very flower of dignity.
  [Lat., Est haec saeculi labes quaedam et macula virtuti invidere, velle ipsum florem dignitatis infringere.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Gratio Pro Lucio Cornelio Balbo (VI)

In the approach to virtue there are many steps.
  [Lat., In virtute sunt multi adscensus.]
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Oratio Pro Cnoeo Plancio (XXV)

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.
      - Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short),
        Rhetorical Invention (bk. II, sc. LIII)

Virtue is indeed its own reward.
  [Lat., Ipsa quidem pretium virtus sibi.]
      - Claudian (Claudianus),
        De Consulatu Mallii--Theodorii Panegyris
         (V, I)

Virtue when concealed is a worthless thing.
  [Lat., Vile latens virtus.]
      - Claudian (Claudianus),
        De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti Panegyris
         (222)

Well may your heart believe the truths I tell;
  'Tis virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.
      - Wilkie (William) Collins, Eclogue I
         (l. 5, Selim)

Sincerely to aspire after virtue is to gain her, and zealously to labor after her wages is to receive them.
      - Charles Caleb Colton

There is but one pursuit in life which it is in the power of all to follow, and of all to attain. It is subject to no disappointments, since he that perseveres makes every difficulty an advancement and every contest a victory; and this is the pursuit of virtue.
      - Charles Caleb Colton

Virtue, without talent, is a coat of mail without a sword; it may indeed defend the wearer, but will not enable him to protect his friend.
      - Charles Caleb Colton

Is any one able for one day to apply his strength to virtue? I have not seen the case in which his strength would be sufficient.
      - Confucius

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.
      - Confucius

To be able under all circumstances to practise five things constitutes perfect virtue: these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
      - Confucius

Virtue is like the polar star, which keeps its place, and all stars turn towards it.
      - Confucius

Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.
      - Confucius

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue is at hand.
      - Confucius, Analects (bk. I, ch. IV)

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
      - Confucius, Analects (bk. IV, ch. XXV)

All great virtues become great men.
  [Fr., Toutes grandes vertus conviennent aux grands hommes.]
      - Pierre Corneille,
        Notes de Corneille par La Rochefoucauld

Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,--all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.
      - William Cowper

The only amarantine flower on earth
  Is virtue.
      - William Cowper, Task (bk. III, l. 268)

And he by no uncommon lot
  Was famed for virtues he had not.
      - William Cowper, To the Rev. William Bull
         (l. 19)

Virtue alone is happiness below.
      - George Crabbe, The Borough (letter XVI)

Virtue does not truly reward her votary if she leaves him sad and half doubtful whether it would not have been better to serve vice.
      - George William Curtis

I believe that Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen.
      - Charles Dickens

Virtue was sufficient of herself for happiness.
      - Laertius Diogenes, Plato (XLII)

To worthiest things, virtue, art, beauty, fortune, now I see, rareness of use, not nature value brings.
      - Dr. John Donne

Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.
      - John Dryden

Virtue, the more it is exposed, like purest linen, laid in open air, will bleach the more, and whiten to the view.
      - John Dryden

And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
      - John Dryden, Imitation of Horace
         (bk. I, ode XXIX, l. 87)

Beware of the virtue which a man boasts is his.
      - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Even virtue is an art; and even its devotees are divided into those who practise it and those who are merely amateurs.
      - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Virtue alone is sweet society,
  It keeps the key to all heroic hearts,
    And opens you a welcome in them all.
      - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
      - Ralph Waldo Emerson,
        Essays--First Series--Self-Reliance

The only reward of virtue is virtue.
      - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays--Friendship

Virtue consisteth of three parts,--temperance, fortitude, and justice.
      - Epicurus

O virtue, I have followed you through life, and find you at last but a shade.
      - Euripides

Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.
      - Edward Everett

Virtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.
      - Owen Felltham (Feltham)

Virtue is the truest liberty.
      - Owen Felltham (Feltham)

Virtue were a kind of misery if fame were all the garland that crowned her.
      - Owen Felltham (Feltham)

As they suspect a man in the city who is ostentatious of his riches, so should the woman he who makes the most noise of her virtue.
      - Henry Fielding

Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.
      - Henry Fielding

All bow to virtue and then walk away.
      - J. de Finod

The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere.
      - Jacques Anatole I. France (Jacques Anatole Thibault)

Hast thou virtue? acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue.
      - Benjamin Franklin

Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.
      - Benjamin Franklin

Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy.
      - Benjamin Franklin

Yet why should learning hope success at court?
  Why should our patriots' virtues cause support?
    Why to true merit should they have regard?
      They know that virtue is its own reward.
      - John Gay, Epistle to Methuen (l. 39)

Shall ignorance of good and ill
  Dare to direct the eternal will?
    Seek virtue, and, of the possest,
      To Providence resign the rest.
      - John Gay, The Father and Jupiter

Virtue alone is true nobility.
      - Humphrey Gifford

Our virtues and view spring from one root.
      - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty,
  Even though this world is forever altering its values.
      - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (pt. II)

And even his failings leaned to virtue's side.
      - Oliver Goldsmith

That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.
      - Oliver Goldsmith

The virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel.
      - Oliver Goldsmith

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
  And e'en his failings lean'd to virtue's side.
      - Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
         (l. 163)

The virtuous nothing fear but life with shame,
  And death's a pleasant road that leads to fame.
      - George Granville, Lord Landsdowne l. 47,
        verses written 1690

Virtues go ever in troops; they go so thick, that sometimes some are hid in the crowd; which yet are, but appear not.
      - Joseph Hall

By great and sublime virtues are meant those which are called into action on great and trying occasions, which demand the sacrifice of the dearests interests and prospects of human life, and sometimes of life itself; the virtues, in a word, which, by their rarity and splendor, draw admiration, and have rendered illustrious the character of patriots, martyrs, and confessors.
      - Robert Hall

They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon.
      - Augustus William Hare

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

I have known persons without a friend--never any one without some virtue. The virtues of the former conspired with their vices to make the whole world their enemies.
      - William Hazlitt (1)

The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.
      - William Hazlitt (1)

The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.
      - William Hazlitt (1)

Virtue may be said to steal, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy; it clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.
      - William Hazlitt (1)

Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs.
      - Claude Arien Helvetius

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
  Like season'd timbered, never gives;
    But though the whole world turn to coal,
      Then chiefly lives.
      - George Herbert, The Church--Vertue

Virtue, for us, is obedience to God in Christ.
      - Roswell Dwight Hitchcock

What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a wound?
      - Richard Hooker

Most virtue lies between two vices.
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

Virtue knowing no base repulse, shines with untarnished honour; nor does she assume or resign her emblems of honour by the will of some popular breeze.
  [Lat., Virtus repulse nescia sordidae,
    Intaminatis fulget honoribus;
      Nec sumit aut ponit secures
        Arbitrio popularis aurae.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
         (III, 2, 17)

Virtue, opening heaven to those who do not deserve to die, makes her course by paths untried.
  [Lat., Virtus, recludens immeritis mori
    Coelum, negata tentat iter via.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
         (III, 2, 21)

We hate virtue when it is safe; when removed from our sight we diligently seek it.
  [Lat., Virtutem incolumem odimus,
    Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
         (III, 24, 31)

I wrap myself up in virtue.
  [Lat., Mea virtute me involvo.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
         (III, 29, 55)

Virtue consists in avoiding vice, and is the highest wisdom.
  [Lat., Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus),
        Epistles (I, 1, 41)

Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue.
  [Lat., Vilius argentum est auro virtutibus aurum.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus),
        Epistles (I, 1, 52)

The good hate sin because they love virtue.
  [Lat., Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore.]
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus),
        Epistles (I, 16. 52)

Virtue, dear friend, needs no defence,
  The surest guard is innocence:
    None knew, till guilt created fear,
      What darts or poison'd arrows were.
      - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Odes
         (bk. I, ode XII, st. 1),
        (Wentworth Dillon's translation)

Men are virtuous because women are; women are virtuous from necessity.
      - Edgar Watson Howe

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.
      - Edgar Watson Howe

The ages of greatest public spirit are not always eminent for private virtue.
      - David Hume

Where is the reward of virtue? and what recompense has nature provided for such important sacrifices as those of life and fortune, which we must often make to it? O sons of earth! Are ye ignorant of the value of this celestial mistress? And do ye meanly inquire for her portion, when ye observe her genuine beauty?
      - David Hume

Virtue herself is her own fairest reward.
  [Lat., Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces.]
      - Titus Caius Silius Italicus, Punica
         (bk. XIII, l. 663)

Adversity tries men; but virtue struggles after fame regardless of the adverse heights.
  [Lat., Explorant adversa viros. Perque aspera dura
    Nititur ad laudem virtus interrita clivo.]
      - Titus Caius Silius Italicus, Punica
         (IV, 605)

Everything is useful which contributes to fix the principles and practices of virtue.
      - Thomas Jefferson

Virtue is a beautiful thing in woman when they don't go about with it like a child with a drum making all sorts of noise with it.
      - Douglas William Jerrold

Some of 'em [virtues] like extinct volcanoes,
  with a strong memory or fire and brimstone.
      - Douglas William Jerrold, The Catspaw
         (act III, sc. 1)

No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.
      - Samuel Johnson (a/k/a Dr. Johnson) ("The Great Cham of Literature")

His virtues walked their narrow round,
  Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
    And sure th' Eternal Master found
      The single talent will employed.
      - Samuel Johnson (a/k/a Dr. Johnson) ("The Great Cham of Literature"),
        On the Death of Mr. Robert Lovett

Hang virtue!
      - Ben Jonson

It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.
      - Ben Jonson

'T is virtue which they want; and, wanting it, honor no garment to their backs can fit.
      - Ben Jonson

Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue.
      - Joseph Joubert

Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice.
      - Joseph Joubert

Virtue is the health of the soul. It gives a flavor to the smallest leaves of life.
      - Joseph Joubert

Virtue is praised and freezes.
  [Lat., Probitas laudatur et alget.]
      - Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenal), Satires
         (I, 74)

Virtue is the only and true nobility.
  [Lat., Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus.]
      - Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenal), Satires
         (VIII, 20)

The thirst for fame is much greater than that for virtue; for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards?
  [Lat., Tanto major famae sitis est quam
    Virtutis: quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam
      Praemia se tollas.]
      - Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenal), Satires
         (X, 140)

The only path to a tranquil life is through virtue.
  [Lat., Semita certe
    Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.]
      - Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenal), Satires
         (X, 363)

To be discontented with the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ of the first upgrowth of all virtue.
      - Charles Kingsley,
        Health and Education--The Science of Health

Virtue must be the result of self-culture; the gods do not take pupils.
      - Baroness Barbara Juliane de Krudener

The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.
      - Jean de la Bruyere

Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason.
      - Lao-Tzu (Lao-Tsze or Laosi)("The Venerable Philosopher")

Our virtues are commonly disguised vices.
      - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
      - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

What we take for virtues is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry know how to arrange; and it is not always from valor and from chastity that men are valiant, and that women are chaste.
      - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.
      - Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maxims
         (179),
        (ed. 1665), in 4th ed. at head of "Reflexions"

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.
      - Ephraim Gotthold Lessing

If we should cease to be generous and charitable because another is sordid and ungrateful, it would be much in the power of vice to extinguish Christian virtues.
      - Sir Roger L'Estrange

However virtuous a woman may be, a compliment on her virtue is what gives her the least pleasure.
      - Prince de Ligne, Karl Joseph

All virtue lies in a power of denying our own desires where reason does not authorize them.
      - John Locke (1)

Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave.
      - James Russell Lowell

A vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice. The evil terminates in itself. A vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character. The former is a local malady; the latter, constitutional taint. When the reputation of the offender is lost, he too often flings the remainder of his virtue after it in despair.
      - Thomas Babington Macaulay

Nothing is more easy than irreproachable conduct.
      - Mme. Francoise d'Aubigne de Maintenon

Parley and surrender signify the same thing where virtue is concerned.
      - Mme. Francoise d'Aubigne de Maintenon

Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask of Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.
      - Horace Mann,
        A Few Thoughts for a Young Man

An old man said, "There is no stronger virtue than to scorn no man."
      - Saint Martin of Braga

Virtue, thou in rags, may challenge more than vice set off with all the trim of greatness.
      - Philip Massinger

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.
      - Mencius

It would not be easy even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life.
      - John Stuart Mill

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, 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

Most men admire virtue who follow not her lore.
      - John Milton

Virtue can see to do what virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon were in the flat sea sunk.
      - John Milton

Virtue that wavers is not virtue, but vice revolted from itself, and after a while returning. The actions of just and pious men do not darken in their middle course.
      - John Milton

Virtue, which breaks through opposition and all temptation can remove, most shines, and most is acceptable above.
      - John Milton

God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous person, more that the restraint of ten vicious.
      - John Milton,
        Areopagitica--A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing

Or, if Virtue feeble were,
  Heaven itself would stoop to her.
      - John Milton, Comus (l. 1,022)

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would
  By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
    Were in the flat sea sunk.
      - John Milton, Comus (l. 373)

Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,
  Surprised by unjust force, but not inthralled;
    Yea, even that which mischief meant most harm
      Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
      - John Milton, Comus (l. 589)

I prefer an accommodating vice to an obstinate virtue.
  [Fr., J'aime mieux un vice commode
    Qu'une fatigante vertu.]
      - Moliere (pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Poquelin),
        Amphitryon (I, 4)

Birth is nothing where virtue is not.
  [Lat., La naissnace n'est rien ou la vertu n'est pas.]
      - Moliere (pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Poquelin),
        Don Juan (IV, 6)

Where does virtue go to lodge?
  [Fr., Ou la vertu va-t-elle se nicher?]
      - Moliere (pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Poquelin),
        Exclamation of Moliere

The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own; and it is by order and good conduct, and not by force, that it is to be acquired.
      - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The recognition of virtue is not less valuable from the lips of the man who hates it, since truth forces him to acknowledge it; and though he may be unwilling to take it into his inmost soul, he at least decks himself out in its trappings.
      - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

There is no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature; there is a kind of I know not what congratulation in well-doing, that gives us an inward satisfaction, and a certain generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience.
      - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.
      - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne,
        Essays--That we Taste Nothing Pure

Virtue is necessary to a republic.
      - Charles de Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat)

Some virtue is needed, but not too much.
  Excess in anything is a defect.
    [Fr., Faut d'la vertu, pas trop n'en faut,
      L'exces en tout est un defaut.]
      - Jacques Marie Boutet Monvel,
        from a comic opera, "Erreur d'un Moment"

Virtue is to herself the best reward.
      - Henry More

I cannot worship the abstractions of virtue: she only charms me when she addresses herself to my heart, speaks through the love from which she springs.
      - Reinhold Niebuhr

Verily, virtue must be her own reward, as in the Socratic creed; for she will bring no other dower than peace of conscience in her gift to whosoever weds her. "I have loved justice, and fled from iniquity; wherefore here I die in exile," said Hildebrand upon his death-bed.
      - Ouida (pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramee)

In your judgment virtue requires no reward, and is to be sought for itself, unaccompanied by external benefits.
  [Lat., Judice te mercede caret, per seque petenda est
    Externis virtus incomitata bonis.]
      - Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso),
        Epistoloe ex Ponto (bk. II, 3, 25)

Virtue is not hereditary.
      - Thomas Paine

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
      - Thomas Paine

Positive virtues are of all others the severest and most sublime.
      - William Paley, Archdeacon of Saragossa

The four cardinal virtues are prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.
      - William Paley, Archdeacon of Saragossa

No virtue fades out of mankind. Not over-hopeful by inborn temperament, cautious by long experience, I yet never despair of human virtue.
      - Theodore Parker

Virtue is safe only when it is inspired.
      - Charles Henry Parkhurst

The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his every-day conduct.
      - Blaise Pascal

Content not thyself that thou art virtuous in the general; for one link being wanting, the chain is defective.
      - William Penn

Let them (the wicked) see the beauty of virtue, and pine at having forsaken her.
  [Lat., Virtutem videant, intabescantque relicta.]
      - Persius (Aulus Persius Flaccus), Satires
         (III, 38)

It is easy to be virtuous in prospective.
      - Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

Our virtues live upon our incomes; our vices consume our capital.
      - Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

Virtue is health, vice is sickness.
      - Francesco Petrarch

For virtue only finds eternal Fame.
      - Francesco Petrarch, The Triumph of Fame
         (pt. I, l. 183)

The most virtuous of all men is he that contents himself with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
      - Plato (originally Aristocles}

Virtue is voluntary, vice involuntary.
      - Plato (originally Aristocles}

Virtue is the highest reward. Virtue truly goes before all things. Liberty, safety, life, property, parents, country, and children are protected and preserved. Virtue has all things in herself; he who has virtue has all things that are good attending him.
  [Lat., Virtus praemium est optimum.
    Virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto.
      Libertas, salus, vita, res, parentes,
        Patria et prognati tutantur, servantur;
          Virtus omnia in se habet; omnia assunt bona, quem penes est vertus.]
      - Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus), Amphitruo
         (act II, 2, 17)

He who dies for virtue, does not perish.
  [Lat., Qui per virtutem peritat, non interit.]
      - Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus), Captivi
         (III, 5, 32)

Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains,
  'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains:
    And grant the bad what happiness they would,
      One they must want--which is, to pass for good.
      - Alexander Pope

Sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.
      - Alexander Pope

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
  The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
    Is virtue's prize.
      - Alexander Pope

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.
      - Alexander Pope

Virtue may choose the high or low degree,
  'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me;
    Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king,
      She's still the same belov'd, contented thing.
      - Alexander Pope, Epilogue to Satires
         (satire I, l. 137)

But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.
  What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?
      - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man
         (ep. IV, l. 149)

The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy,
  Is virtue's prize.
      - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man
         (ep. IV, l. 168)

Know then this truth (enough for man to know)
  "Virtue alone is happiness below."
      - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man
         (ep. IV, l. 309)

Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
  Born where Heav'n influence scarce can penetrate.
    In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,
      They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
      - Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
         (ep. I, l. 141)

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
  Content to dwell in decencies forever.
      - Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
         (ep. II, l. 163)

There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue.
      - Alexander Pope, On his Death-Bed,
        Johnson's "Lives of Poets; Life of Pope"

O let us still the secret joy partake,
  To follow virtue even for virtue's sake.
      - Alexander Pope, Temple of Fame (l. 364)

The virtues, like the muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.
      - Jane Porter

True virtue, when she errs, needs not the eyes of men to excite her blushes; she is confounded at her own presence, and covered with confusion of face.
      - Jane Porter

Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be surrendered at her voice. The law may seem hard, but it is the guardian of what it commands; and is the only sure defence of happiness.
      - Jane Porter

Wealth is a weak anchor, and glory cannot support a man; this is the law of God, that virtue only is firm, and cannot be shaken by a tempest.
      - Pythagoras

Though virtue give a ragged livery, she gives a golden cognizance; if her service make thee poor, blush not. Thy poverty may disadvantage thee, but not dishonor thee.
      - Francis Quarles

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.
      - Francis Quarles

Although virtue receives some of its excellencies from nature, yet it is perfected by education.
  [Lat., Virtus, etiamsi quosdam impetus a natura sumit, tamen perficienda doctrina est.]
      - Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus),
        De Institutione Oratoria (XII, 2, 1)

She who is more ashamed of dishonesty than of poverty will not be easily overcome.
      - Samuel Richardson

A virtuous and well-disposed person, like a good metal, the more he is fired, the more he is fined; the more he is opposed, the more he is approved: wrongs may well try him, and touch him, but cannot imprint in him any false stamp.
      - Armand Jean du Plessis Duc de Richelieu

Woman's virtue is the music of stringed instruments, which sounds best in a room; but man's that of wind instruments, which sounds best in the open air.
      - Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (Johann Paul Richter) (used ps. Jean Paul)

No people ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue.
      - Theodore Roosevelt

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
      - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nature has placed nothing so high that virtue can not reach it.
  [Lat., Nihil tam alte natura constituit quo virtus non possit eniti.]
      - Quintus Curtius Rufus (Curtis Rufus Quintus),
        De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni
         (VII, 11, 10)

Live virtuously, my lord, and you cannot die too soon, nor live too long.
      - Rachel Russell (Lady Russell)

Virtue is in the mind, not in the appearance.
      - Moslih Eddin (Muslih-un-Din) Saadi (Sadi)

An effort made with ourselves for the good of others, with the intention of pleasing God alone.
      - Bernadin de St. Pierre

The glory of riches and of beauty is frail and transitory; virtue remains bright and eternal.
  [Lat., Divitarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis; virtus clara aeternaque habetur.]
      - Sallust (Caius Sallustius Crispus),
        Catilina (I)

It is a revenge the devil sometimes takes upon the virtuous, that he entraps them by the force of the very passion they have suppressed and think themselves superior to.
      - George Santayana

Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.
      - William Saroyan

Virtue, though clothed in a beggar's garb, commands respect.
      - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Virtue is only a conflict by which we get the mastery of our failings; that, by which every man proves his peculiar power of understanding the will and spirit of God, is only a silent working of the inner man.
      - Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher

Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic systems would produce poets, painters, and musicians.
      - Arthur Schopenhauer

The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.
      - Sir Walter Scott

It is the edge and temper of the blade that make a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard, and so it is not money or possessions that make men considerable, but virtue.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor; though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Virtue hath no virtue if it be not impugned; then appeareth how great it is, of what value and power it is, when by patience it approveth what it works.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Virtue is shut out from no one; she is open to all, accepts all, invites all, gentlemen, freedmen, slaves, kings, and exiles; she selects neither house nor fortune; she is satisfied with a human being without adjuncts.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Virtue is that perfect good, which is the complement of a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs to mortality.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Virtue with some is nothing but successful temerity.
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Virtue withers away if it has no opposition.
  [Lat., Marcet sine adversario virtus.]
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca),
        De Providentia (II)

Virtue is according to nature; vices are hostile and dangerous.
  [Lat., Virtus secundum naturam est; vitia inimica et infesta sunt.]
      - Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca), Epistles
         (L)

As many as are the difficulties which Virtue has to encounter in this world, her force is yet superior.
      - Lord Shaftesbury, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper)

I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, though nobody were to see me.
      - Lord Shaftesbury, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper)

But virtue never will be mov'd,
  Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven.
      - William Shakespeare

Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he; graces will appear, and there's an end.
      - William Shakespeare

For in the fatness of these pursy times
  Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg.
      - William Shakespeare

Her virtues, graced with external gifts,
  Do breed love's settled passions in my heart.
      - William Shakespeare

His virtues
  Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
    The deep damnation of his taking-off.
      - William Shakespeare

I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind;
  And would my father had left me no more!
    For all the rest is held at such a rate,
      As brings a thousandfold more care to keep,
        Than in possession any jot of pleasure.
      - William Shakespeare

If our virtues did not go forth of us, it were all alike as if we had them not.
      - William Shakespeare

Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.
      - William Shakespeare

To show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and presence.
      - William Shakespeare

Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,
  Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last.
      - William Shakespeare

Virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that amends is but patched with virtue.
      - William Shakespeare

Virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
      - William Shakespeare

For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now. was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Hamlet Prince of Denmark
         (Hamlet at III, ii)

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Hamlet Prince of Denmark
         (Hamlet at III, iv)

Forgive me this is my virtue.
  For in the fatness of these pursy times
    Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
      Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Hamlet Prince of Denmark
         (Hamlet at III, iv)

My heart laments that virtue cannot live
  Out of the teeth of emulation.
      - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
         (Artemidorus at II, iii)

According to his virtue let us use him,
  With all respect and rites of burial.
      - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
         (Octavius at V, v)

Virtue is choked with foul ambition
  And charity chased hence by rancor's hand;
    Foul subornation is predominant
      And equity exiled your highness' land.
      - William Shakespeare,
        King Henry the Sixth, Part II
         (Gloucester at III, i)

Besides, this Duncan
  Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
    So clear in his great office, that his virtues
      Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
        The deep damnation of his taking off;
          And pity, like a naked new-born babe
            Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
              Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
                Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
                  That tears shall drown the wind.
      - William Shakespeare, Macbeth
         (Macbeth at I, vii)

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
      - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
         (Vincentio, the Duke at III, i)

Therefore it is most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Much Ado About Nothing
         (Benedick at V, ii)

I hold it ever
  Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
    Than nobleness and riches. Careless heirs
      May the two latter darken and expend;
        But immortality attends the former,
          Making a man a god.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Pericles Prince of Tyre
         (Cerimon at III, ii)

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
  And vice sometime 's by action dignified.
      - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
         (Friar Laurence at II, iii)

Virtue is beauty.
      - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Anything that's mended is but patched; virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin, and sin that amends is but patched with virtue.
      - William Shakespeare,
        Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
         (Clown at I, v)

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?
      - George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

It is a great deal easier for a man to find a pedigree to fit his virtues than virtues to fit his pedigree.
      - Henry Wheeler Shaw (used pseudonyms Josh Billings and Uncle Esek)

It is easier to be virtuous than it is to appear so, and it pays better.
      - Henry Wheeler Shaw (used pseudonyms Josh Billings and Uncle Esek)

Virtue does not consist in the absence of the passions, but in the control of them.
      - Henry Wheeler Shaw (used pseudonyms Josh Billings and Uncle Esek)

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.
      - William Shenstone

They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.
      - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

I willingly confess that it likes me better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favored creature.
      - Sir Philip Sidney (Sydney)

In the truly great, virtue governs with the sceptre of knowledge.
      - Sir Philip Sidney (Sydney)

The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality which some temptation may not overtop, or undermine and destroy.
      - Sir Philip Sidney (Sydney)

Virtue is the beauty of the soul.
      - Socrates

Virtue is the nursing-mother of all human pleasures, who, in rendering them just, renders them also pure and permanent; in moderating them, keeps them in breath and appetite; in interdicting those which she herself refuses, whets our desires to those that she allows; and, like a kind and liberal mother, abundantly allows all that nature requires, even to satiety, if not to lassitude.
      - Socrates

Virtue is that which must tip the preacher's tongue and the ruler's sceptre with authority.
      - Bishop Robert South

It must be admitted that the conception of virtue cannot be separated from the conception of happiness-producing conduct.
      - Herbert Spencer

The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.
      - Laurence Sterne

Virtue often trips and falls on the sharp-edges rock of poverty.
      - Eugene Sue (Marie Joseph Eugene Sue)

Virtue, the greatest of all monarchies.
      - Jonathan Swift,
        Ode--To the Hon. Sir William Temple

There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.
      - Tacitus (Caius Cornelius Tacitus)

Yet the age was not so utterly destitute of virtues but that it produced some good examples.
  [Lat., Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit.]
      - Tacitus (Caius Cornelius Tacitus), Annales
         (bk. I, 2)

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
      - Elizabeth Taylor

When we pray for any virtue, we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for it; the form of your prayers should be the rule of your life; every petition to God is a precept to man. Look not, therefore, upon your prayers as a short method of duty and salvation only, but as a perpetual monition of duty; by what we require of God we see what He requires of us.
      - Jeremy Taylor

Forgive what seem'd my sin in me;
  What seem'd my worth since I began.
      - Lord Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam
         (introduction)

Ah! whither now are fled
  Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes
    Of happiness? those longings after fame?
      Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
        Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts,
          Lost between good and ill, that shared thy life?
            All now are vanished! Virtue sole survives,
              Immortal never-failing friend of man,
                His guide to happiness on high.
      - James Thomson (1)

Believe the muse, the wintry blast of death
  Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread.
    Beneath the heavenly beams of brighter suns,
      Thro' endless ages, into higher powers.
      - James Thomson (1)

O Virtue! virtue! as thy joys excel, so are thy woes transcendent; the gross world knows not the bliss or misery of either.
      - James Thomson (1)

What, what is virtue, but repose of mind,
  A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm;
    Above the reach of wild ambition's wind,
      Above those passions that this world deform
        And torture man.
      - James Thomson (1), Castle of Indolence
         (canto I, st. 16)

Be not simply good; be good for something.
      - Henry David Thoreau

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess.
      - Henry David Thoreau

Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.
      - John Tillotson

True virtue, wheresoever it moves, still carries an intrinsic worth about it.
      - Sir John Vanbrugh (Vanburgh)

Virtue is its own reward. There's a pleasure in doing good which sufficiency pays itself.
      - Sir John Vanbrugh (Vanburgh)

Virtue and vice are both prophets; the first, of certain good; the second, of pain or else of penitence.
      - Ralph Venning

Every man has his appointed day; life is brief and irrevocable; but it is the work of virtue to extend our fame by our deeds.
  [Lat., Stat sua cuique dies; breve et irreparabile tempus
    Omnibus est vitae; set famam extendere factis
      Hoc virtutis opus.]
      - Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil),
        The Aeneid (X, 467)

Heaven made virtue; man, the appearance.
      - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire)

Virtue is everywhere the same, because it comes from God, while everything else is of men.
      - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire)

But virtue too, as well as vice, is clad in flesh and blood.
      - Edmund Waller

Virtue's a stronger guard than brass.
      - Edmund Waller

Virtue's stronger guard than brass.
      - Edmund Waller,
        Epigram Upon the Golden Medal (l. 14)

Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
      - Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler
         (pt. I, ch. II)

Integrity of life is fame's best friend.
      - John Webster

It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one's disaster.
      - Rebecca West (pseudonym of Mrs. Cicely Fairfield Andrews)

It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.
      - Walt Whitman

Charity and good-nature give a sanction to the most common actions; and pride and ill-nature make our best virtues despicable.
      - William Wycherley

Virtue, our present peace, our future prize,
  Man's unprecarious, natural estate,
    Improvable at will, in virtue lies;
      Its tenure sure; its income is divine.
      - Edward Young

Whatever farce the boastful hero plays,
  Virtue alone has majesty in death.
      - Edward Young

To Virtue's humblest son let none prefer
  Vice, though descended from the conqueror.
      - Edward Young, Love of Fame
         (satire I, l. 141)

Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps;
  And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
    Each man makes his own stature, builds himself.
      Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;
        Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.
      - Edward Young, Night Thoughts

His crimes forgive; forgive his virtues too.
      - Edward Young, Night Thoughts
         (night IX, l. 2,290)

Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids:
  Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall.
      - Edward Young, Night Thoughts
         (night VI, l. 314)