#virtue

Good art however "immoral" is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can NOT be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise. ↗

— Ezra Pound

#bears #good #good art #however #i

Be to their virtue very kind; be to their faults a little blind. ↗

— Matthew Prior

#faults #kind #little #their #very

[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

#enlightenment #fear #mankind #philosophy #soul

Britain, which in the years immediately before this war was rapidly losing such democratic virtues as it possessed, is now being bombed and burned into democracy. ↗

— J. B. Priestley

#being #bombed #britain #burned #democracy

Too much virtue can be criminal. ↗

— Jean Racine

#much #too #too much #virtue

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail. ↗

— Francis Quarles

#beloved #desire #god #heart #humble

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue. ↗

— Quintilian

#costs #expense #laugh #much #too

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice. ↗

— Quintilian

#contemplation #exercised #matter #mind #moulded

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. ↗

— Quintilian

#itself #often #parent #though #vice

Believe me, 'tis a godlike thing to lend; to owe is a heroic virtue. ↗

— Francois Rabelais

#godlike #heroic #lend #me #owe