#virtues

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example. ↗

— Niccolo Machiavelli

#caused #contrary #example #first #good

I courted fame but as a spur to brave and honest deeds; who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it. ↗

— David Mallet

#courted #deeds #deserve #despises #fame

Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by. ↗

— Andre Maurois

#modesty #pass #praise #these #unselfishness

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

— Saskya Pandita

#characteristics #cheered #excellent #excellent man #grieved

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection. ↗

— Jean Paul

#cannot #character #clearness #discover #easily

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

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

— Quintilian

#itself #often #parent #though #vice

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#does #her #herself #manly #possess

It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. It is in our follies that we are one. ↗

— Jerome K. Jerome

#each #failings #faults #find #follies

Nature, who for the perfect maintenance of the laws of her general equilibrium, has sometimes need of vices and sometimes of virtues, inspires now this impulse, now that one, in accordance with what she requires. ↗

— Marquis de Sade

#equilibrium #general #her #impulse #inspires