Joseph Butler Quotes

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

He who possess virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.

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

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

Power to do good is the true and lawful act of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground.

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.

Virtue is not always amiable.

If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

The existence of virtue depends entirely upon its use.

I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

Virtue is her own reward.

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.

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

Purpose ... is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts.

It's not enough not to be evil. We also actively try to be good.

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

It is by doing good that we become good.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

You can't be all bad all the time.

I'm not sure anything makes you an outright good person or bad person - that we're all capable of doing good or bad things. And if you want to know how much good you can do, and how much hurt you can do, just ask somebody you love.

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.