Virtues

"Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues."

"Be moderate, be moderate. Why tell you me of moderation? The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And violenteth in a sense as weak As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?"

"Virtue ... is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. Hence in respect of its substance and the definition which states its essence virtue is a mean, with regard to what is best and right an extreme."

"Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. What are the two? There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable. Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata? ... It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration."

"A formative experience of my life was a lesson that one can have too much of a good thing. I used to love rose- and violet-petal chocolate creams, and once bought a big bag of them to eat in the theater. I finished them before the curtain went up and sat through the play — Ibsen, I think it was — in a state of nausea. I expect that if I read too much Agatha Christie in succession, I should experience the literary equivalent of that sensation. Not too much of a good thing: there must be worse mottos for life."

"Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man."

"My valor is certainly going!—it is sneaking off!—I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palms of my hands."

"Exigui numero, sed bello vivida virtus."

"In vain doth valour bleed, While Avarice and Rapine share the land."

"A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t' his other virtues, They're all unseason'd without it."

"Stimulos dedit æmula virtus."

"Valor consists in the power of self-recovery."

"'Tis much he dares; And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour To act in safety."

"He's truly valiant that can suffer wisely The worst that man can breathe and make his wrongs His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart. To bring it into danger."

"You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valor plucks dead lions by the beard."

"All doubt is cowardice — all trust is brave."

"...what really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out - not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time."

"When valour preys on reason, It eats the sword it fights with."

"There is always safety in valor."

"What valour were it, when a cur doth grin, For one to thrust his hand between his teeth, When he might spurn him with his foot, away?"

"It is a brave act of valour to contemne death, but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valour to dare to live."

"Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that a man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be out-generalled, but put him where you will, he stands."

"True emotions and sincere words never perish. The great heart of humanity gladly receives and embalms every true utterance of the humblest of its offspring."

"Try how much of the word of God you can understand, and what is more, try how much you can practice. A sincere wish and purpose to do the will of God, will be your best way to know the mind of God."

"Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou wilt judge others with the judgment of charity."

"Sincerity and truth form the basis of every virtue. Be what thou seemest; live thy creed; Hold up to earth the torch divine; Be what thou prayest to be made; Let the great Master's steps be thine."

"There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination."

"Let every man examine his own sincerity, for every man must bear his own burden — the burden of his own sin —unless he has transferred it to the appointed Saviour."

"The surest, as the shortest way, to make yourself beloved and honored, is to be, indeed, the very man you wish to appear."

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing."

"Of all the evil spirits abroad at this hour in the world, insincerity is the most dangerous."

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

"Men should be what they seem; Or those that be not, would they might seem none!"

"Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary."

"Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character."

"[Rousseau], [t]he man who would be sincere is unconsciously insincere. This confirms the supposition I began with: that a contradiction exists between self-consciousness and sincerity. To be conscious of a self, vis-a-vis other selves, is already to expose that self to corruption."

"All art is artifice, and therefore no work of art is sincere. Once we become conscious of a feeling and attempt to make a corresponding form, we are engaged in an ac? tivity which, far from being sincere, is prepared (as any artist if he is "sincere" will tell you) to moderate the feeling to fit the form. The artist's feeling for form is stronger than a formless feeling. Art is the definition, the delimitation, of feeling. To quote a powerful image of Stravinsky's (in The Poetics of Music) the lava is already cold by the time it has assumed a form. When we recognize feeling in a work of art, it is not the artist's feeling: it is our own feeling transferred to a ready form. A work of art is a feeling in-formed."

"I cannot find in Scripture that any one ever got to heaven merely by sincerity, or was accepted with God if he was only earnest in maintaining his own views.… Sincerity cannot put away sin."

"One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household."

"I am playful in words but sincere in action."

"Sentir mon Cœur is a privilege only granted to the exceptional man—the one who has the ability to find words that exactly (or, to himself, convincingly) express his feelings.… The value of words help to define the feeling itself.… The common failure is to allow habitual words and phrases, flowing spontaneously from the memory, to determine and deform the feelings."

"If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?"

"How can a man know himself? He is a thing dark and veiled; and if the hare has seven skins, man can slough off seventy times seven and still not be able to say: “this is really you, this is no longer outer shell.”"

"The temper I am of requires me to keep away from court. Heaven, when it sent me into the world, did not give me a soul suited to the air of courts. I do not find in myself the virtues necessary to succeed, and make my fortune there. My chief talent is to be frank and sincere."

"You seem to be going in for sincerity today. It isn't becoming to you, really — except as an obvious pose. Be as artificial as you are, I advise. There's a sort of sincerity in that, you know. And, after all, you must confess you like that better."

"I am taking my sweater off, so now you know it's serious."

"To seek sincerity above all things is perhaps, at bottom, not to want to be transformed; it is to cling to yourself, to have a morbid love of yourself, just as you are, that is to say, false. It is to refuse release."

"Bashful sincerity and comely love."

"Frank sincerity is a quality much extolled among men and pleasing to every one, while simulation, on the contrary, is detested and condemned. Yet for a man's self, simulation is of the two by far the more useful; sincerity tending rather to the interest of others. But since it cannot be denied that it is not a fine thing to deceive, I would commend him whose conduct is as a rule open and straightforward, and who uses simulation only in matters of the gravest importance and such as very seldom occur; for in this way he will gain a name for honesty and sincerity, and with it the advantages attaching to these qualities. At the same time, when, in any extreme emergency, he resorts to simulation, he will draw all the greater advantage from it, because from his reputation for plain dealing his artifice will blind men more."