Louisa May Alcott Quotes

Virtue is a positive quality developed by taking a firm stand for the right in temptation, or by the suffering endured in consequence of wrongdoing.

God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.

Blessed is he who has never been tempted; for he knows not the frailty of his rectitude.

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.

The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

The severest test of character is not so much the ability to keep a secret as it is, when the secret is finally out, to refrain from disclosing that you knew it all along.

He who cannot resist temptation is not a man. Whoever yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement from which he can never arise.

Reflect upon the defects of your character: thoroughly realize their evils and the transient pleasures they give you, and firmly will that you shall try your best not to yield to them the next time.

And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the emerald were always saying this: "Whatever any one does or says, I must still be emerald, and keep my color.

We can all be good when we have no temptation or provocation to the contrary.

A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.

No cowardice, no sin, no crime, no weakness - the rest will come of itself. . .

There is no point in praying for victory over temptation if we are not willing to make a commitment to say no to it.

Character is greater than talent, genius, fame, money, friends - there is nothing to compare with it. A man may have all these and yet remain comparatively useless - be unhappy - and die a bankrupt in soul.

We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.

Virtue is an inner strength. It expands your nature.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.