Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss

Virtue - to be good and just - Every heart, when sifted well, Is a clot of warmer dust, Mix'd with cunning sparks of hell. - The Vision of Sin

“In England the only homage which they pay to Virtue – is hypocrisy.”

Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them.

“Of all fragrances, the sweetest is that of virtue.” 

“​Courage is a virtue appreciated in a male but considered a defect in our gender. Bold women are a threat to a world that is badly out of balance, in favor of men.” 

Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue—but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Prudence is the virtue of the senses. […] It is content to seek health of body by complying with physical conditions, and health of mind by the laws of the intellect.

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue. 

“Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends : have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.”

“Charity means pardoning the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.”

“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.”

“Women have a thirst for order and beauty as for something physical; there is a strange female power of hating ugliness and waste as good men can only hate sin and bad men virtue.”

“The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.” 

“Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point and does not break.” 

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

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

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.

The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.