Thomas Secker Quotes

...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.

A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothing.

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

It is much more intelligent, more practical, to be good rather than evil.

It's better to die doing good than to live doing evil.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

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.

We know that the exercise of virtue should be its own reward, and it seems to follow that the enduring of it on the part of the patient should be its own punishment.

It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.

Sensibility appears to me to be neither good nor evil in itself, but in its application. Under the influence of Christian principle, it makes saints and martyrs; ill-directed, or uncontrolled, it is a snare, and the source of every temptation; besides, as people cannot get it if it is not given them, to descant on it seems to me as idle as to recommend people to have black eyes or fair complexions.

You can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.

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

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

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

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

It's Not sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away, it's just evil.

Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.

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.

He, who practices right, but in the hope of acquiring great renown, is very near to vice.

It is impossible to be just if one is not generous.

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

But he who never sins can little boast Compared to him who goes and sins no more!

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