Quotes about Virtue

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which sets bounds to the passions

Honor is due to God and to persons of great excellence as a sign of attestation of excellence already existing; not that honor makes them excellent.

Jerome says (Ep. ad Nepot. lii): "Shun, as you would the plague, a cleric who from being poor has become wealthy, or who, from being a nobody has become a celebrity.

the intention of every man acting according to virtue is to follow the rule of reason, wherefore the intention of all the virtues is directed to the same end, so that all the virtues are connected together in the right reason of things to be done, viz. prudence,

Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.

We should eliminate sin if we wish to eliminate the scourge of tyrants.

So if the ultimate felicity of man does not consist in external things which are called the goods of fortune, nor in the goods of the body, nor in the goods of the soul according to its sensitive part, nor as regards the intellective part according to the activity of the moral virtues, nor according to the intellectual virtues that are concerned with action, that is art and prudence — we are left with the conclusion that the ultimate felicity of man lies the contemplation of truth.

But there are more wicked men to be found than good; according to Eccles. 1:15: "The number of fools is infinite.

God is not offended except by our acting contrary to our own good

Hence it is predicated chiefly of the virtuous; then of the pleasant; and lastly of the useful.

Human law does not prescribe concerning all the acts of every virtue: but only in regard to those that are ordainable to the common good—either immediately, as when certain things are done directly for the common good—or mediately, as when a lawgiver prescribes certain things pertaining to good order, whereby the citizens are directed in the upholding of the common good of justice and peace.

yet so that envy is not to be taken for a passion, but for a will resisting the good of another.