Edward Young Quotes

Virtue is the truest nobility.

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

Virtue is reason which has become energy.

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.

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

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.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

What is character? It is that quality of man which is going to make a man, in an hour of strain, do the just and, if possible, the generous thing.

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.

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.

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.

The just man walks in his integrity

They err … who think that virtue consists of words .. good actions are the glory of virtue.

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above is character.

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.

Virtue is an inner strength. It expands your nature.

The true measure of a man is what he would do if he knew he would never be caught.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.

A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

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