When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves.
There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?
Now virtue may not always be its own reward, but in any case it is not usually bought and paid for at market rates.
Remember that if the opportunities for great deeds should never come, the opportunities for good deeds are renewed day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.
The vicious count their years; virtuous, their acts.
To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.
For even in dreams a good deed is not lost.
For if you change from inhumanity to alms giving, you have stretched fourth the hand that was withered. If you withdraw from theaters and go to church, you have cured the lame foot. If you draw back your eyes from a harlot ... you have opened them when they were blind ... These are the greatest miracles.
Yet the age was not so utterly destitute of virtues but that it produced some good examples. [Lat., Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit.]
Your actions in passing, pass not away, for every good work is a grain of seed for eternal life.
Every fresh act of benevolence is the herald of deeper satisfaction; every charitable act a stepping-stone towards heaven.
Blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds, and though a late, a sure reward succeeds.
When the venerable pontiff's hour has come, a Roman of good age shall be elected, of whom it will be said that he dishonored his throne though he held it long, with virtuous acts.
The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.
Spirit, Patience, Gentleness, All that can adorn and bless Art thou let deeds, not words, express Thine exceeding loveliness.
Every virtuous act has some Dark secret in its heart; every risk we take contains a mystery that can’t be solved.
The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed is the nourishment the soul requires.
