John Dryden Quotes

Virtue is its own reward.

Virtue is indeed its own reward.

Virtue is its own reward. There's a pleasure in doing good which sufficiently pays itself.

Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means.

A good moral character is the first essential. It is highly important not only to be learned but to be virtuous.

Virtue is not a thing you can have by halves; it is or it is not.

Who sows virtue ought to reap honour.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

Virtue cannot be followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose, she presently pulls it away again.

The superior man... does not set his mind either for or against anything, he will pursue whatever is right. The superior man thinks of virtue, the common man of comfort.

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.

When you can't have anything else, you can have virtue.

For he who is honest is noble, Whatever his fortunes or birth.

Love, like virtue, is its own reward.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.

You don't luck into integrity. You work at it.

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.

If virtue goes to sleep, it will be more vigorous when it awakes.

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.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

Virtue is not always amiable.

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

It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrees.