Pat Conroy Quotes

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

A good man will certainly also possess courage; but a brave man is not necessarily good.

Worthy of honor is he who does no injustice, and more than twofold honor, if he not only does no injustice himself, but hinders others from doing any.

If any man should conceive certain things as being really good, such as prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, he would not after having first conceived these endure to listen to anything which should not be in harmony with what is really good.

What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities.

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

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

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.

So far as regards their moral character, the Finns have as little cause for reproach as any other people.

To do nothing evil is good; to wish nothing evil is better.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

Virtue is not always amiable.

To be good and disagreeable is high treason against the royalty of virtue.

Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.

If all men were just there would be no need of valor.

I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.

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

After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

Prudence as well as Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of a man's proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of the end we aim at, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain that end.

There is no real excellence in all of this world which can be separated from right living.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.