#virtue

It is an occult law moreover, that no man can rise superior to his individual failings without lifting, be it ever so little, the whole body of which he is an integral part. In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality, there is no such thing as 'separateness' and the nearest approach to that selfish state which the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive. ↗

— Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

#selfishness #sin #theosophy #virtue #life

Two distinctive traits especially identify beyond a doubt a strong and dominant character. One trait is contempt for external circumstances, when one is convinced that men ought to respect, to desire, and to pursue only what is moral and right, that men should be subject to nothing, not to another man, not to some disturbing passion, not to Fortune. The second trait, when your character has the disposition I outlined just now, is to perform the kind of services that are significant and most beneficial; but they should also be services that are a severe challenge, that are filled with ordeals, and that endanger not only your life but also the many comforts that make life attractive. Of these two traits, all the glory, magnificence, and the advantage, too, let us not forget, are in the second, while the drive and the discipline that make men great are in the former. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#virtue #life

Virtues are acquired through endeavor, which rests wholly upon yourself. ↗

— Sidney Lanier

#acquired #endeavor #rests #through #upon

It has been my fate in a long life of production to be credited chiefly with the equivocal virtue of industry, a quality so excellent in morals, so little satisfactory in art. ↗

— Margaret Oliphant

#been #chiefly #credited #excellent #fate

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly one's own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man. ↗

— Satchel Paige

#characteristics #cheered #excellent #excellent man #grieved

For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine. ↗

— Matthew Prior

#divine #form #join #paint #semblance

In debate, one randomly was assigned to one side or the other. This had at least one virtue - it made one see that there was more than one side to these complex issues. ↗

— Joseph Stiglitz

#complex #debate #had #issues #least

By virtue of some of the ways the game is played, in terms of message discipline, in terms of access for reporters, and especially in the way that sources and subjects, especially famous subjects, treat the media, almost by default there's more news that's falling into books. ↗

— Ron Suskind

#almost #books #default #discipline #especially

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#veil #vice #virtue

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it. ↗

— E. W. Howe

#men #men and women #must #pretend #valuable