May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.

- Bob Dylan

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.

- Cicero

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

- Cicero

The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues.

- William Ellery Channing

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

- Baruch Spinoza

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.

- Marcus Aurelius

Truth, and goodness, and beauty are but different faces of the same all.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.

- David Starr Jordan

I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.

- Cato the Elder

The Roots of Violence:
Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles.

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

- John Locke

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

- George Bernard Shaw

All of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance.

- Theodore Hesburgh

Virtues are dangerous as vices insofar as they are allowed to rule over one as authorities and not as qualities one develops oneself.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.

- Erik H. Erikson

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

- George Orwell



Any of us can achieve virtue, if by virtue we merely mean the avoidance of the vices that do not attract us.

- Robert S. Lynd



We preach the virtues of democracy abroad. We must practice its duties here at home. Voting is the first duty of democracy.

- Lyndon B. Johnson



Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld



It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue.

- Sam Adams



Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

- Confucius



Virtue is its own revenge.

- E. Y. Harburn



Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

- Clare Boothe Luce



What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

- Voltaire



Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

- Oscar Wilde



Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.

- George Bernard Shaw



In justice is all virtues found in sum.

- Aristotle



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.

- Maya Angelou



Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

- Cicero



In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast,
Their Virtue fix'd, 'tis fixed as in a frost.

- Alexander Pope



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

- Ralph Waldo Emerson



The excess of virtue is a vice.

- Aristotle



Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.

- Horace Mann



All ... religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by its high-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehood begins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against the flood-tide of your own. There is a noble and a base side to every history.

- Thomas Wentworth Higginson



In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

- Thomas Jefferson



It is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity.

- Cicero



Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.

- Baruch Spinoza



There was a time when Patience ceased to be a virtue. It was long ago.

- Charlotte Perkins Gilman



Silence is the virtue of fools.

- Francis Bacon



I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen. (960 C.E.)

- Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain



Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

- Aristotle



Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest," but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

- Sydney J. Harris



Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.

Celebrations of Life, 1981

- Rene Dubos