Every human on the planet is descended from both slaves and slave owners. What makes Britain unusual is not that we engaged in the disgusting trade, but that we eliminated it. Our political institutions led us, earlier than many, to the conclusion that freedom was the highest virtue.
A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.
Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
Patriotism must be founded on great principals and supported by great virtue.
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.
I'm an entertainer. I don't go round saying I'm a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest.
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.
Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.
Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.
A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.
Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.
The love of economy is the root of all virtue.
To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.
All societies wrestle with the scourge of prejudice, but validating that prejudice in statute makes a virtue of oppression.
Man cannot be uplifted; he must be seduced into virtue.
Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.
The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.
For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.
