Bertrand Russell Quotes

Virtue is its own punishment.

Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality.

Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue-and happiness is the goal and the reward of life.

To do evil for good is human corruption; to do good for good is civil retribution; but to do good for evil is Christian perfection. Though this be not the grace of nature, it is the nature of grace.

True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength.

We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.

Is not virtue a negation of becoming?

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

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.

The whole of virtue consists in its practice.

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

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

...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.

Virtue is indeed its own reward.

If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.

People are either good or they're not. Religion doesn't make anybody good, I don't think.

Higher education is not necessarily a guarantee of higher virtue.

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

If you do not know the laws of right conduct, you cannot form your character.

The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must not be exercised at the expense of any of the virtues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can only be successful at the frequent expense of his manhood.

It is not enough merely possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practiced.

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.

Many are really virtuous who cannot explain what virtue is . . . But the powers themselves in reality perform their several operations with sufficient constancy and uniformity in persons of good health whatever their opinions be about them . . .

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.