We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.
Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect.
I'd applied to graduate school for playwriting, and I got rejected by every school. I felt that theatre was closed but that, when it came to film, the door was very slightly ajar. If I have any virtues, it's that I'm good at walking through doors that are slightly ajar.
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.
Ninety per cent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves - so how can we know anyone else?
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.
Washington's character was rock solid. He came to stand for the new nation and its republican virtues, which was why he became our first President by unanimous choice.
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.
If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.
Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.
Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.
Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.
I courted fame but as a spur to brave and honest deeds; who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it.
Kings are more prone to mistrust the good than the bad; and they are always afraid of the virtues of others.
In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.
A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.
When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.
I think as individuals, people overrate the virtues of local food. Most of the energy consumption in our food system is not caused by transportation. Sometimes local food is more energy efficient. But often it's not. The strongest case for locavorism is to eat less that's flown on planes, and not to worry about boats.
Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.
It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one into disaster.
Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.
The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral - whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love? I want to foster eulogy virtues when I'm in a yoga class or meditation session or any spiritual gathering. Especially if I'm lying in corpse pose. It just makes sense.
Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.
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.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
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.
When the norm is decency, other virtues can thrive: integrity, honesty, compassion, kindness, and trust.
No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all; and they consider liberality and hospitality amongst the first virtues.
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.
I have a deep fascination with human nature, with all its virtues and all its defects.
You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.
When you rely on incentives, you undermine virtues. Then when you discover that you actually need people who want to do the right thing, those people don't exist because you've crushed anyone's desire to do the right thing with all these incentives.
Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.
Conductors make too much fuss about conductors! Humility and hard work are virtues. We're nothing without our musicians.
Wrong people are wrong not because of their faults but because of their presumed virtues.
