Virtue Comparison Quotes

Many a thief is a better man than many a clergyman, and miles nearer to the gate of the kingdom.

Hope should no more be a virtue than fear; we fear and we hope, according to what is promised or threatened us.

Man is, beyond dispute, the most excellent of created beings, and the vilest animal is a dog; but the sages agree that a grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man.

Though in the order of nature angels rank above men, yet, by scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad angels.

Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.

I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the next place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then, sir, young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect.

Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

… as a rule capitalists and entrepreneurs are not saints excelling in the virtue of self-denial. But neither are their critics saintly.

Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degre s. Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

Around the child bend all the threeSweet Graces: Faith, Hope, Charity.Around the man bend other faces;Pride, Envy, Malice, are his Graces.

Our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants.