Theme

Philosophy quotes about virtue

Virtue names excellences of character—habits of perception and action oriented toward the good.

Why this theme matters

Virtue ethics asks not only which acts are right, but what kind of person one becomes. Courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom are classic Western lists; Confucian ren and yi offer related but distinct vocabularies.

In the history of philosophy

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Stoic progress, Confucian cultivation, and contemporary virtue ethics keep this theme alive across cultures.

Thinkers in this collection

Aristotle , Seneca , Marcus Aurelius , Socrates , The Great Learning , The Book of Changes , Baruch Spinoza , Confucius

Frequently asked questions

What is virtue in philosophy?

A virtue is a stable excellence of character that enables good action for the right reasons in the right circumstances.

Is virtue the same in every culture?

Lists overlap and diverge. Comparing Greek and Chinese catalogues is a way to see both shared human concerns and local ideals.

What are famous philosophy quotes about virtue?

Look especially to Aristotle, Confucius, Seneca, and Mencius in the passages below.

  1. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  2. Virtues arise in us neither by nature nor contrary to nature; we are fitted by nature to receive them, and are brought to completion by habit.
  3. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  4. There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.
  5. Begin the morning by saying to yourself: Today I shall meet the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant…
  6. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
  7. Virtue does not come from money, but from virtue come money and all other good things for human beings.
  8. The way of great learning lies in illuminating luminous virtue, in renewing the people, and in resting in the highest good.
  9. Earth's condition is receptive devotion; the gentleman accordingly thickens his virtue to bear things.
  10. So too, by doing just acts we become just, by doing temperate acts temperate, and by doing brave acts brave.
  11. It is possible to fail in many ways…but to succeed in only one.
  12. Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.
  13. The Master said: The craftsman who wishes to do his work well must first sharpen his tools.
  14. After this we should speak of friendship; for it is a kind of virtue, or involves virtue.
  15. Justice is somehow a kind of virtue.
  16. States of character arise out of like activities.
  17. Friendship cannot exist except among the good.
  18. Virtue lies in a mean.
  19. The best weapons of old age are the arts and practices of the virtues.
  20. Perfect friendship is the friendship of those who are good and alike in virtue.
  21. Anything which alters consciousness in the direction of unselfishness, objectivity and realism is to be connected with virtue.
  22. The concepts of obligation, and duty—moral obligation and moral duty, that is to say—and of what is morally right and wrong, and of the moral sense of "ought," ought to be jettisoned if this is psychologically possible.
  23. It would be a great improvement if, instead of "morally wrong," one always named a genus such as "untruthful," "unchaste," "unjust."
  24. Moral evil is a kind of natural defect.
  25. Virtues are in general beneficial characteristics, and indeed ones that a human being needs to have, for his own sake and that of his fellows.
  26. Luck can intervene between a person and the living of the good human life.
  27. The soul has health and sickness just as the body has health and sickness.
  28. The health of the soul is for its traits to be traits by which it does good, fine, and noble actions.
  29. The virtues are means between two extremes; the good character is the mean disposition.
  30. Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.