Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent.

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

There is no royal road or ready way to virtue.

The absence of vices adds so little to the sum of one's virtues.

The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must not be exercised at the expense of any of the virtues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can only be successful at the frequent expense of his manhood.

Great parts produce great vices as well as virtues.

Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.

Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

Virtue is not always amiable.

A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.

Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a superior man will make trouble while a small man will be a brigand.

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.

There is no virtue in curiosity. In fact, it might be the most immoral desire a man can possess.

To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

Ethics without virtue is an illusion. What is the highest purpose of ethics? It is to make a person good, that is virtuous.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

Never suppose that in any possible situation or under any circumstances that it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing however slightly so it may appear to you... Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise ... and that exercise will make them habitual.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

Excellence-moral, ethical, personal excellence-is worth whatever it costs.

A clean and sensitive conscience, a steady and scrupulous integrity in small things as well as large, is the most valuable of all possessions, to a nation as to an individual.