Jules Michelet Quotes

For as much as to understand and to be mighty are great qualities, the higher that they be, they are so much the less to be esteemed if goodness also abound not in the possessor.

He is not great who is not greatly good.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.

And inasmuch as the great-souled man deserves most, he must be the best of men; for the better a man is the more he deserves, and he that is best deserves most. Therefore the truly great-souled man must be a good man. Indeed greatness in each of the virtues would seem to go with greatness of soul.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

No speech can stain what is noble by nature.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.

He is good and wise who always speaks the truth, acts on the dictates of virtue, and tries to make others good and happy.

There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.

Fatal human malice is the staple of narrators, original sin the mother-fluid of historians. But it is a risky enterprise to have to write of virtue.

Noble be man, helpful and good!

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.

I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.

First class in life has nothing to do with the clothes you wear, the car you drive or the house you live in. First class is and always will be about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas and the kindness in your heart.

Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy.

Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.

Birth is nothing where virtue is not

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

Virtue is no empty echo.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage, and determination.