Mignon McLaughlin Quotes

The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.

The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.

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

Virtue may not always make a Face handsome, but Vice will certainly make it ugly.

There has never been a man mean and at the same time virtuous.

Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.

A good man, is a good man, whether in this church, or out of it.

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.

Goodness is beauty in the best estate.

Elegance is inferior to virtue.

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

How goodness heightens beauty!

A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good.

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.

Great men are almost always bad men.

No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

Being a 'good man' is something you do, not something you are.