Virtue is “conformity of one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles, the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, the ‘character muscle’ of the individual that leads to traits of excellence, and the habits that guide us to and through adulthood”.

Typically, philosophers categorize virtues as either moral, intellectual, or social, but throughout history other categorizations have existed, such as “The Four Cardinal Virtues”, “The Three Theological Virtues”, “The Seven Heavenly Virtues” described by St. Thomas Aquinas, and “The Twelve Virtues” Of Aristotle.

Now, let’s consider the words of history’s great thinkers on the topic of virtues! The Big List Of Quotes On Virtues is organized by the thinker’s year of birth.

1. Sun Tzu – born 6th century BCE

“The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness.”
“… to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
“… a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage.”
“To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.”
“There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: (1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction; (2) Cowardice, which leads to capture; (3) Hasty Temper, which can be provoked by insults; (4) Delicacy of Honor, which is sensitive to shame; and (5) Over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble. These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war. When an army is overthrown and its leader slain, the cause will surely be found among these five dangerous faults.”
“The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.”

2. Plato – born 428 BCE

“And can the just by justice make men unjust, or speaking generally, can the good by virtue make them bad? Assuredly not.”
“For mankind censure injustice, fearing that they may be the victims of it and not because they shrink from committing it… injustice, when on a sufficient scale, has more strength and freedom and mastery than justice… justice is the interest of the stronger, whereas injustice is a man’s own profit and interest.”
“I suppose that you would call justice virtue and injustice vice? What a charming notion! So likely too, seeing that I affirm injustice to be profitable and justice not.”
“And would you call justice vice? No, I would rather say sublime simplicity. Then would you call injustice malignity? No, I would rather say discretion.”
“Then the just is like the wise and good, and the unjust like the evil and ignorant? That was admitted.”
“A statement was made that injustice is stronger and more powerful than justice, but now justice, having been identified with wisdom and virtue, is easily shown to be stronger than injustice, if injustice is ignorance; this can no longer be questioned by anyone.”
“In which of the three classes would you place justice? In the highest class, I replied – among those goods which he who would be happy desires both for their own sake and for the sake of their results.”
“… grace and harmony are the twin sisters of goodness and virtue and bear their likeness.”
“… neither we nor our guardians, whom we have to educate, can ever become musical until we and they know the essential forms of temperance, courage, liberality, magnificence, and their kindred, as well as the contrary forms, in all their combinations, and can recognize them and their images wherever their are found…”
“And the harmonious soul is both temperate and courageous? True. And the inharmonious is cowardly and boorish? Very true.”
“Temperance, I replied, is the ordering or controlling of certain pleasures and desires.”
“justice… this is the only virtue which remains in the State when the other virtues of temperance and courage and wisdom are abstracted… this is the ultimate cause and condition of the existence of all of them, and while remaining in them is also their preservative.”
“… those who love the truth in each thing are to be called lovers of wisdom and not lovers of opinion.”
“And is there anything more akin to wisdom than truth? How can there be?”
“Those, then, who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of pure and abiding pleasure.”

3. Aristotle – born 384 BCE

“… prudence is both virtue and knowledge…”
“… wisdom is a knowledge of evils.”
“Courage is not confined to the lion… not timidity to the hare.”
“… Wisdom is a science of first principles…”
“… some excellences are intellectual and others moral, philosophic wisdom and understanding and practical wisdom being intellectual, liberality and temperance moral… Excellence, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual excellence in the main owes its birth and its growth to teaching (for which reason it requires experience and time), while moral excellence comes about as a result of habit…”
“… things that are found in the soul are of three kinds – passions, faculties, states… By passions I mean appetite, anger, fear, confidence, envy, joy, love, hatred, longing, emulation, pity, and in general the feelings that are accompanied by pleasure or pain; by faculties the things in virtue of which we are said to be capable of feelings these; by states the things in virtue of which we stand well or badly with reference to the passions…”
“… excess and defect are characteristics of vice, and the mean of excellence; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many. Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect…”
“With regard to giving and taking of money the mean is liberality, the excess and the defect prodigality and meanness… With regard to money there are also other dispositions – a mean, magnificence (for the magnificent man differs from the liberal man; the former deals with large sums, the latter with small ones)…”
“With regard to honour and dishonour the mean is proper pride, the excess is known as a sort of empty vanity, and the deficiency is undue humility…”
“Righteous indignation is a mean between envy and spite..”
“… it is not rashness, which is an excess, but cowardice, which is a deficiency, that is more opposed to courage, and not insensibility, which is a deficiency, but self-indulgence, which is an excess, that is more opposed to temperance… we ourselves tend more naturally to pleasures, and hence are more easily carried away towards self-indulgence than towards propriety.”
“…moral excellence is a mean… between two vices, the one involving excess, the other deficiency…”
“… the excellences in general… are in our power and voluntary…”
“… courage is noble…courage is a mean with respect to things that inspire confidence or fear…”
“… temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures… self-indulgence also is manifested in the same sphere… The self-indulgent man… craves for all pleasant things or those that are most pleasant, and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else… The temperate man occupies a middle position with regard to these objects…”
“… the appetitive element in a temperate man should harmonize with reason; for the noble is the mark at which both aim, aim the temperate man craves for the things he ought, as he ought, and when he ought; and this is what reason directs.”
“… the liberal man is praised… with regard to the giving and taking of wealth, and especially in respect of giving… gratitude is felt towards him who gives, not towards him who does not take…”
“… he is liberal who spends according to his substance and on the right objects; and he who exceeds is prodigal.”
“Magnificence… surpasses liberality in scale… For the magnificent man is liberal, but the liberal man is not necessarily magnificent.”
“The magnificent man is like an artist; for he can see what is fitting and spend large sums tastefully.”
“… pride implies greatness… On the other hand, he who thinks himself worthy of great things, being unworthy of them, is vain…”
“Pride… seems to be a sort of crown of excellence; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them.”
“… the proud man despises justly (since he thinks truly), but the many do so at random.”
“Vain people… are fools and ignorant of themselves…”
“We blame both the ambitious man as aiming at honour more than is right and from wrong sources, and the unambitious man as not choosing to be honoured even for noble reasons. But sometimes we praise the ambitious man as being manly and a love of what is noble, and the unambitious man as being moderate and temperate…”
“… falsehood is in itself mean and culpable, and truth noble and worthy of praise.”
“Those who carry humour to excess are thought to be vulgar buffoons, striving after humour at all costs… those who joke in a tasteful way are called ready witted… To the middle state belongs also tact; it is the mark of a tactful man to say and listen to such things as befit a good and well-bred man… Such, then, is the man who observes the mean, whether he be called tactful or ready-witted. The buffoon, on the other hand, is the slave of his sense of humour…”
“… justice is often thought to be the greatest of excellences [and], alone of the excellences, is thought to be another’s good…”
“… the equitable is just…”
“… wisdom must plainly be the most finished of the forms of knowledge… wisdom must be comprehension combined with knowledge…”
“… it is not possible to be good in the strict sense without practical wisdom…”
“The temperate man all men call continent and disposed to endurance…”
“… excellence is a habit of the soul.”
“Moral excellence is destroyed by defect and excess.”
“Magnificence is a mean between ostentation and shabbiness.”
“Dignity is in a mean between pride and complaisance…”
“Modesty is a mean between shamelessness and bashfulness…”
“Wit is a mean state between buffoonery and boorishness…”
“Truthfulness is a mean between self-depreciation and boastfulness.”
“Excellence… is that sort of condition which is produced by the best movements in the soul, and from which are produced the soul’s best works and feelings…”
“Wisdom is an excellence of the rational part capable of procuring all that tends to happiness.”
“Justice is an excellence of the soul that distributes to each according to his desert.”
“To wisdom belongs right deliberation, right judgment as to what is good and bad and all in life that is to be chosen and avoided, noble use of all the goods that belong to us, correctness in social intercourse, the grasping of the right moment, the sagacious use of word and deed, the possession of experience of all that is useful. Memory, experience, tact, good judgment, sagacity – each of these either arises from wisdom or accompanies it.”
“To temperance belongs absence of admiration for the enjoyment of bodily pleasures, absence of desire for all base sensual enjoyment, fear of ill-repute, an ordered course of life, alike in small things and in great. And temperance is accompanied by discipline, orderliness, shame, caution.”
“Liberality is accompanied by a suppleness and ductility of disposition, by kindness, by pitifulness, by love for friends, for strangers, for what is noble.”
“It belongs to magnanimity to bear nobly good and bad fortune, honour and dishonour… to have a sort of depth and greatness of soul.”
“… courage is emboldened by power, and the union of the two inspires them with the hope of an easy victory.”
“There are three things which make men good and excellent; these are nature, habit, reason.”
“We may define happiness as prosperity combined with excellence; or as independence of life; or as the secure enjoyment of the maximum of pleasure; or as a good condition of property and body, together with the power of guarding one’s property and body and making use of them. That happiness is one or more of these things, pretty well everybody agrees. From this definition of happiness it follows that its constituent parts are: good birth, plenty of friends, good friends, wealth, good children, plenty of children, a happy old age, also such bodily excellences as health, beauty, strength, large stature, athletic powers, together with fame, honour, good luck, and excellence. A man cannot fail to be completely independent if he possesses these internal and these external goods…”
“The parts of excellence are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom. If excellence is a faculty of beneficence, the highest kinds of it must be those which are most useful to others, and for this reason men honour most the just and the courageous…”
“For the body, strength, beauty, and health are expedient; for the soul, courage, wisdom, and justice.”

4. Cicero – born 106 BCE

“… it is not enough to possess virtue, as if it were an art of some sort, unless you make use of it… the existence of virtue depends entirely upon its use; and its noblest use is the government of the State…”
“… there is really no other occupation in which human virtue approaches more closely the august functions of the gods than that of founding new States or preserving those already in existence.”
“… he who posits the supreme good as having no connection with virtues… measures it not by a moral standard but by his own interests…”
“… the whole glory of virtue is in activity.”
“… justice… is the crowning glory of the virtues… close akin to justice, charity… may also be called kindness or generosity.”
“The foundation of justice… is good faith, that is, truth and fidelity to promises and agreements.”
“The great majority of people… when they fall a prey to ambition for either military or civil authority, are carried away by it so completely that they quite lose sight of the claims of justice.”
“Injustice often arises… through chicanery, that is, through an over-subtle and even fraudulent construction of the law. This it is that gave rise to the now familiar saw, ‘More law, less justice.’”
“But let us remember that we must have regard for justice even towards the humblest.”
“But of all forms of injustice, none is more flagrant than that of the hypocrite who, at the very moment when he is most false, makes it his business to appear virtuous.”
“… let us speak of kindness and generosity. Nothing appeals more to the best in human nature than this.”
“We must… take care to indulge only in such liberality as will help our friends and hurt no one.”
“… nothing is generous, if it is not at the same time just.”
“… our beneficence should not exceed our means.”
“… no duty is more imperative than that of proving one’s gratitude.”
“The Stoics… correctly define courage as ‘that virtue which champions the cause of right.’ Accordingly, no one has attained to true glory who has gained a reputation for courage by treachery and cunning; for nothing that lacks justice can be morally right.”
“… men who are courageous and high-souled shall at the same time be good and straightforward, lovers of truth, and foes of deception; for these qualities are the centre and soul of justice.”
“… it takes a brave and resolute spirit not to be disconcerted in times of difficulty… not to swerve from the path of reason… this requires great personal courage; but it calls also for great intellectual ability… These… mark a spirit strong, high, and self-reliant in its prudence and wisdom.”
“The higher we are placed, the more humbly should we walk.”
“Only let [property] in the first place, be honestly acquired, by the use of no dishonest or fraudulent means; let it, in the second place, increase by wisdom, industry, and thrift; and finally, let it be made available for the use of as many as possible (if only they are worthy) and be at the service of generosity and beneficence rather than of sensuality and excess. By observing these rules, one may live in magnificence, dignity, and independence, and yet in honour, truth and charity toward all.”
“If we follow Nature as our guide, we shall never go astray, but we shall be pursuing that which is in its nature clear-sighted and penetrating (Wisdom), that which is adapted to promote and strengthen society (Justice), and that which is strong and courageous (Fortitude). But the very essence of propriety is found in the division of virtue which is now under discussion (Temperance). For it is only when they agree with Nature’s laws that we should give our approval to the movements not only of the body, but still more of the spirit.”
“If, then, a man is unable to conduct eases at the bar or to hold the people spell-bound with his eloquence or to conduct wars, still it will be his duty to practise these other virtues, which are within his reach – justice, good faith, generosity, temperance, self-control – that his deficiencies in other respects may be less conspicuous.”
“… more precious than any inherited wealth, is a reputation for virtue and worthy deeds.”
“… all moral rectitude springs from four sources (one of which is prudence; the second, social instinct; the third, courage; the fourth, temperance), it is often necessary in deciding a question of duty that these virtues be weighed against one another.”
“… the duties prescribed by justice must be given precedence over the pursuit of knowledge and the duties imposed by it.”
“… virtue in general may be said to consist almost wholly in three properties: the first is (Wisdom) the ability to perceive what in any given circumstance is true and real, what its relations are, its consequences, and its causes; the second is (Temperance) the ability to restrain the passions and make the impulses obedient to reason; and the third is (Justice) the skill to treat with consideration and wisdom those with whom we are associated…”
“Justice is… in every way to be cultivated and maintained, both for its own sake (for otherwise it would not be justice) and for the enhancement of personal honour and glory… If, therefore, anyone wishes to win true glory, let him discharge the duties required by justice.”
“Liberality is… forestalled by liberality.”
“… justice… is the sovereign mistress and queen of all the virtues.”

5. Marcus Aurelius – born 121

“Your duty is to stand straight – not held straight.”
“… tolerance is a part of justice.”
“All things fade and quickly turn to myth; quickly too utter oblivion drowns them… But what in any case is everlasting memory? Utter emptiness. So where should a man direct his endeavor? Here only – a right mind, action for the common good, speech incapable of lies, a disposition to welcome all that happens as necessary…”
“… justice of action is the only wisdom.”
“So display those virtues which are wholly in your own power – integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity.”
“And what is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when you reflect on the sure and constant flow of our faculty for application and understanding?”
“Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason…”
“In this world there is only one thing of value, to live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”
“Take your joy in simplicity, in integrity, in indifference to all that lies between virtue and vice.”
“Man’s joy is to do man’s proper work. And work proper to man is benevolence to his own kind, disdain for the stirrings of the senses, diagnosis of the impressions he can trust, contemplation of universal nature and all things thereby entailed.”
“Accept humbly, let go easily.”
“In the constitution of the rational being I can see no virtue that counters justice: but I do see the counter to pleasure – self-control.”
“Injustice is sin… Lying, too, is a sin… the pursuit of pleasure as a good and the avoidance of pain as an evil constitutes sin… The sinner sins against himself…”
“… all arts create the lower in the interests of the higher: so this is the way of universal nature too. And indeed here is the origin of justice, from which all other virtues take their being…”
“The pride that prides itself on freedom from pride is the hardest of all to bear.”

6. Niccolò Machiavelli – born 1469

“For the ruler already in power generosity is dangerous; for the man seeking power it is essential.”
“Nothing consumes itself so much as generosity, because while you practise it you’re losing the wherewithal to go on practising it. Either you fall into poverty and are despised for it, or, to avoid poverty, you become grasping and hateful. Above all else a king must guard against being despised and hated. Generosity leads to both.”
“…a sensible leader cannot and must not keep his word if by doing so he puts himself at risk…”
“So, a leader doesn’t have to possess all the virtuous qualities… but it’s absolutely imperative that he seems to possess them… a ruler must be careful not to say anything that doesn’t appear to be inspired by the five virtues… he must seem and sound wholly compassionate, wholly loyal, wholly humane, wholly honest and wholly religious. There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.”
“Victories are never so decisive that the winner can override every principle, justice in particular.”
“Virtue against fury.”

7. Jean Bodin – born 1530

“… there is surely no more fatal enemy to virtue than worldly success…”
“The sovereign good of the commonwealth in general, and of each of its citizens in particular lies in the intellective and contemplative virtues.”
“… the wise man is the measure of justice and of truth…”
“The well-being of the active principle of the soul, which is the link between body and soul, consists in the subordination of appetite to reason, in other words, the exercise of the moral virtues. The well-being of the intellective part of the soul lies in the intellectual virtues of prudence, knowledge, and faith. By the first we distinguish good and evil, by the second truth and falsehood, and by the third piety and impiety, and what is to be sought and what avoided. These are the sum of true wisdom, which is the highest felicity attainable in this world.”
“The habit of good deeds is of the first importance, for the soul that is not illumined and purified by the moral virtues cannot enjoy the fruits of contemplation… Felicity cannot be found in that imperfect state in which there is still some good yet to be realized.”
“Simplicity without prudence is dangerous and pernicious…”
“… the gift of wisdom is vouchsafed only to the very few…”
“Justice is never pitiful. Involving as it does strict exaction of rights, it often makes enemies of friends.”
“…princes have been brought to ruin more through the vice of licentiousness than for any other cause.”
“… fear is the sole inducement to virtue.”

8. Miyamoto Musashi – born 1584

“In the practice of strategy that is the warrior’s Way, what is essential is to overcome one’s adversary no matter what, on whatever the field, whether it be in single combat or against multiple opponents, in order to achieve fame and honour for one’s lord and himself. This [alone] is virtue, in soldiery.”
“… there is… rhythm in that which is empty… rhythms of emptiness, which proceed from the rhythm of wisdom…”
“Do not allow your mind to become clouded, but make it expansive, and in this broadness you should place your wisdom. It is of utmost importance to polish both your wisdom and your mindset devotedly.”
“Honing your wisdom, you will recognize what is right and wrong in any situation, and understand the good and bad of everything… when you have achieved a condition where you cannot be tricked by anyone in the world in the tiniest way – that is the wisdom at the heart of strategy.”
“… put your hand to the sword and learn its virtues.”
“In all things, if your wisdom is powerful, you will absolutely be able to see the situation.”

9. Thomas Hobbes – born 1588

“… it is not prudence that distinguisheth man from beast… prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past…”
“Desire of good to another, [is] BENEVOLENCE, GOOD WILL, CHARITY. If to man generally, GOOD NATURE.”
“Contempt of little helps, and hindrances [is] MAGNANIMITY. Magnanimity, in danger of death, or wounds, VALOUR, FORTITUDE. Magnanimity, in the use of riches, LIBERALITY.”
“VIRTUE generally, in all sorts of subjects, is somewhat that is valued for eminence; and consisteth in comparison. For if all things were equal in all men, nothing would be prized. And by virtues INTELLECTUAL, are always understood such abilities of the mind, as men praise, value, and desire should be in themselves; and go commonly under the name of a good wit; though the same word wit, be used also, to distinguish one certain ability from the rest.”
“Good success is power: because it maketh reputation of wisdom…”
“Reputation of prudence in the conduct of peace or war, is power; because to prudent men, we commit the government of ourselves, more willingly than to others.”
“Eloquence is power: because it is seeming prudence.”
“Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdom in matters of government, are disposed to ambition.”
“The laws of nature are immutable and eternal; for injustice, ingratitude, arrogance, pride, iniquity, acception of persons, and the rest, can never be made lawful… means of peace, which are justice, gratitude, modesty, equity, mercy, and the rest… are good; that is to say; moral virtues; and their contrary vices, evil.”

10. René Descartes – born 1596

“… hardly anyone gives a thought to good sense – to universal wisdom… what makes us stray from the correct way of seeking the truth is chiefly our ignoring the general end of universal wisdom.”
“Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world: for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it that even those who are the hardest to please in everything else do not usually desire more of it than they possess.”
“… the word ‘philosophy’ means the study of wisdom, and by ‘wisdom’ is meant not only prudence in our everyday affairs but also a perfect knowledge of all things that mankind is capable of knowing, both for the conduct of life and for the preservation of health and the discovery of all manner of skills… men can be said to possess more or less wisdom depending on how much knowledge they possess of the most important truths.”
“… human beings, whose most important part is the mind, should devote their main efforts to the search for wisdom, which is the true food of the mind.”
“… the pure and genuine virtues, which proceed solely from knowledge of what is right, all have one and the same nature and are included under the single term ‘wisdom’. For whoever possesses the firm and powerful resolve always to use his reasoning powers correctly, as far as he can, and to carry out whatever he knows to be best, is truly wise, so far as his nature permits. And simply because of this, he will possess justice, courage, temperance, and all the other virtues; but they will be interlinked in such a way that no one virtue stands out among the others… Now there are two prerequisites for the kind of wisdom just described, namely the perception of the intellect and the disposition of the will.”
“Generosity prevents us from having contempt for others… the most generous people are usually also the most humble. We have humility as a virtue when, as a result of reflecting on the infirmity of our nature and on the wrongs we may previously have done, or are capable of doing (wrongs which are no less serious than those which others may do), we do not prefer ourselves to anyone else and we think that since others have free will just as much as we do, they may use it just as well as we use ours… Those who are generous in this way are naturally led to do great deeds, and at the same time not to undertake anything of which they do not feel themselves capable. And because they esteem nothing more highly than doing good to others and disregarding their own self-interest, they are always perfectly courteous, gracious and obliging to everyone. Moreover they have complete command over their passions. In particular, they have mastery over their desires, and over jealousy and envy, because everything they think sufficiently valuable to be worth pursuing is such that its acquisition depends solely on themselves; over hatred of other people, because they have esteem for everyone; over fear, because of the self-assurance which confidence in their own virtue gives them; and finally over anger, because they have very little esteem for everything that depend on others, and so they never give their enemies any advantage by acknowledging that they are injured by them.”
“It should be noted that what we commonly call ‘virtues’ are habits in the soul which dispose it to have certain thoughts…”
“… if we occupy ourselves frequently in considering the nature of free will and the many advantages which proceed from a firm resolution to make good use of it – while also considering, on the other hand, the many vain and useless cares which trouble ambitious people – we may arouse the passion of generosity in ourselves and then acquire the virtue. Since this virtue is, as it were, the key to all the other virtues and a general remedy for every disorder of the passions, it seems to me that this consideration deserves serious attention.”
“… the chief use of wisdom lies in its teaching us to be masters of our passions and to control them with such skill that the evils which they cause are quite bearable, and even become a source of joy.”

11. Blaise Pascal – born 1623

“The true nature of man, his true good, true virtue, and true religion, cannot be known separately.”
“Those who wish to know fully man’s vanity need only consider the causes and effects of love.”
“We are incapable of both truth and goodness.”
“Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself.”
“Love or hatred stands justice on its head.”
“Justice, like finery, is dictated by fashion.”
“More often than not curiosity is merely vanity.”
“Wisdom leads us back to childhood.”
“Justice without strength is powerless. Strength without justice is tyrannical.”
“Man is beyond man… truth is neither within our grasp nor is it our target.”
“Nothing apart from truth brings certainty. Nothing apart from the sincere quest for truth brings tranquility.”
“Speeches about humility are a matter of pride for those who care for reputation, and of humility for the humble.”
“Truth is so darkened nowadays, and lies so established, that unless we love the truth we will never know it.”
“We would happily be cowards if that gained us the reputation of being brave.”
“The vilest of human characteristics is his search for glory. But it is just this that is the greatest sign of human excellence.”
“… telling the truth is useful to the hearer but harmful to the teller…”

12. David Hume – born 1711

“… under the indirect passions I comprehend pride, humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity, malice, generosity, with their dependants. And under the direct passions, desire, aversion, grief, joy, hope, fear, despair and security.”
“‘Tis evident, that pride and humility, tho’ directly contrary, have yet the same object. This object is self, or that succession of related ideas and impressions, of which we have an intimate memory and consciousness.”
“The reason, why pride is so much more delicate… than joy, I take to be, as follows. In order to excite pride, there are always two objects we must contemplate, viz. the cause or that object which produces pleasure; and self, which is the real object of the passion. But joy has only one object to its production, viz. that which gives pleasure…”
“… pride and humility… VICE and VIRTUE… are the most obvious causes of these passions…”
“Nothing flatters our vanity more than the talent of pleasing by our wit, good humour, or any other accomplishment; and nothing gives us a more sensible mortification than a disappointment in any attempt of that nature.”
“…pleasure, as a related or resembling impression, when plac’d on a related object, by a natural transition, produces pride; and its contrary, humility.”
“… the mind has a much stronger propensity to pride than to humility.”
“Opposition not only enlarges the soul; but the soul, when full of courage and magnanimity, in a manner seeks opposition.”
“… were virtue discover’d by the understanding; it must be an object of one of these operations… of human understanding… the comparing of ideas [or] the inferring of matter of fact.”
“‘Tis one thing to know virtue, and another to confirm the will to it.”
“Vice and virtue… may be compar’d to sounds, colours, heat and cold, which… are not qualities in objects, but perceptions in the mind.”
“… since vice and virtue are not discoverable merely by reason, or the comparison of ideas, it must be by means of some impression or sentiment they occasion, that we are able to mark the difference betwixt them.”
“…. some virtues… produce pleasure and approbation from the circumstances and necessity of mankind. Of this kind I assert justice to be…”
“… virtuous actions derive their merit only from virtuous motives…”
“That many of the natural virtues have this tendency to the good of society, no one can doubt of. Meekness, beneficence, charity, generosity, clemency, moderation, equity bear the greatest figure among the moral qualities, and are commonly denominated the social virtues, to mark their tendency to the good of society.”
“… nothing is more useful to us in the conduct of life, than a due degree of pride, which makes us sensible of our own merit, and gives us a confidence and assurance in all our projects and enterprises.”
“Courage, intrepidity, ambition, love of glory, magnanimity, and all the other shining virtues of that kind, have plainly a strong mixture of self-esteem in them, and derive a great part of their merit from that origin.”
“Courage and ambition, when not regulated by benevolence, are fit only to make a tyrant and public robber.”
“As wisdom and good-sense are valued, because they are useful to the person possess’d of them; so wit and eloquence are valued, because they are immediately agreeable to others. On the other hand, good humour is lov’d and esteem’d, because it is immediately agreeable to the person himself. ‘Tis evident, that the conversation of a man of wit is very satisfactory; as a cheerful good-humour’d companion diffuses a joy over the whole company, from a sympathy with his gaiety. These qualities, therefore, being agreeable, they naturally beget love and esteem, and answer to all the characters of virtue.”

13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – born 1712

“… a moral being [is] a being intelligent, free, and prudent in his relations with others…”
“I do not believe I have to fear any contradiction in granting to man the only natural virtue which the most excessive detractor of human virtues has been forced to recognize. I am speaking of compassion, a disposition fitting for beings as weak and subject to as many ills as we are, a virtue all the more universal and all the more useful to man, since it precedes the use of any kind of reflection within him… Indeed, what are generosity, clemency, humanity, if not compassion, applied to the weak, to the guilty, or to the human species in general? Benevolence and even friendship are, rightly speaking, the products of constant compassion fixed upon a particular object, for, is to desire that someone not suffer anything other than to desire that he be happy?”
“… blind obedience is the only virtue left to slaves.”
“… once everything is reduced to appearances, all become artificial and deceitful… honor without virtue, reason without wisdom, and pleasure without happiness… this is not the original state of man… it is only the spirit of society and the inequality it engenders, which thus transform and corrupt all our natural inclinations.”
“It is certain that the greatest marvels of virtue have been produced by love for the homeland. Its combination of the force of self-love with all the beauty of virtue gives this sweet and lively sentiment an energy that, without disfiguring it, makes it the most heroic of all the passions. This is the passion that produced so many immortal actions whose brilliance bedazzles our feeble eyes and so many great men whose old style virtues pass for fables, now that love of one’s homeland is the object of derision.”
“… the law does not prescribe magnificence for anyone, and the proprieties are never grounds for going against right.”

14. Adam Smith – born 1723

“The over-weening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities is an ancient evil remarked by the philosophers and moralists of all ages.”
“… though the principles of common prudence do not always govern the conduct of every individual, they always influence that of the majority of every class or order.”
“Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would never be the greater.”
“The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him so much as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his inferiors.”

15. Immanuel Kant – born 1724

“Virtues and vices are not essentially different… virtues cannot exist without vices…”
“… wisdom… consists more in conduct than in knowledge…”
“… skill in the choice of means to one’s own greatest well-being can be called prudence…”
“… morality, and humanity insofar as it is capable of morality, is that which alone has dignity.”
“The maxim of self-love (prudence) merely advises; the law of morality commands.”
“…virtue [is] moral disposition in conflict…”
“The moral law is the sole determining ground of the pure will.”
“… virtue and happiness together constitute possession of the highest good in a person…”
“… pure practical reason (virtue) can in fact produce consciousness of mastery over one’s inclinations, hence of independence from them and so too from the discontent that always accompanies them…”
“… the supreme good (as the first condition of the highest good) is morality, whereas happiness constitutes its second element but in such a way that it is only the morally conditioned yet necessary result of the former.”
“… the inscrutable wisdom by which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in what it has denied us than in what it has granted us.”
“… humility is not only taught but felt by anyone when he examines himself strictly.”
“When one’s aim is not to teach virtue but only to set forth what is right, one need not and should not represent that law of right as itself the incentive to action.”
“… the capacity and considered resolved to withstand a strong but unjust opponent is fortitude and, with respect to what opposes the moral disposition within us, virtue.”
“It is only the strength of one’s resolution… that is properly called virtue… Virtue is the strength of a human being’s maxims in fulfilling his duty. – Strength of any kind can be recognized only by the obstacles it can overcome, and in the case of virtue these obstacles are natural inclinations, which can come into conflict with a human being’s moral resolution; and since it is the human being himself who puts these obstacles in the way of his maxims, virtue is not merely a self-constraint, but also a self-constraint in accordance with a principle of inner freedom…”
“… virtue [is] its own end and, despite the benefits it confers on human beings, also its own reward.”
“… the human being is under obligation to virtue (as moral strength). For while the capacity to overcome all opposing sensible impulses can and must be simply presupposed in man on account of his freedom, yet this capacity as strength is something he must acquire; and the way to acquire it is to enhance the moral incentive (the thought of the law), both by contemplating the dignity of the pure rational law in us and by practicing virtue.”
“Virtue is… the moral strength of a human being’s will in fulfilling his duty…”
“The true strength of virtue is a tranquil mind…”
“The vices contrary to… duty are lying, avarice, and false humility (servility)… The virtue that is opposed to all these vices could be called love of honor, a cast of mind far removed from ambition.”
“The greatest violation of a human being’s duty to himself regarded merely as a moral being is the contrary of truthfulness, lying… By a lie a human being throws away and… annihilates his dignity…”
“… self-esteem is a duty of the human being to himself.”
“Moral cognition of oneself, which seeks to penetrate into the depths of one’s heart which are quite difficult to fathom, is the beginning of all human wisdom.”
“Division of duties of love… They are duties of beneficence, gratitude, and sympathy… On the vices of hatred for human beings, directly opposed to love of them… They comprise the loathsome family of envy, ingratitude, and malice.
“To be beneficent, that is, to promote according to one’s means the happiness of others in need, without hoping for something in return, is everyone’s duty. For everyone who finds himself in need wishes to be helped by others.”
“Gratitude consists in honoring a person because of a benefit he has rendered us. Gratitude is a duty… the violation of which can destroy the moral incentive to beneficence in its very principle.”
“Envy is a propensity to view the well-being of others with distress, even though it does not detract from one’s own.”
“Arrogance is a kind of ambition in which we demand that others think little of themselves in comparison with us… arrogance demands from others a respect it denies them.”
“… of human beings (a necessary humbling of oneself) serves to guard against the pride that usually comes over those fortunate enough to have the means for beneficence.”
“That virtue can and must be taught already follows from its not being innate…”
“The rules for practicing virtue aim at a frame of mind that is both valiant and cheerful in fulfilling its duties. For, virtue not only has to muster all its forces to overcome the obstacles it must contend with; it also involves sacrificing many of the joys of life…”
“… happiness in exact proportion with the morality of rational beings, through which they are worthy of it, alone constitutes the highest good of a world…”

16. Alexis de Tocqueville – born 1805

“The idea of rights is nothing more than the idea of virtue introduced into the political world… There are no great men without virtue; without respect for rights, there is no great people. You can almost say that there is no society; for what is a gathering of rational and intelligent beings bound together only by force?”
“Men do not receive the truth from their enemies, and their friends hardly ever offer the truth to them…”
“Egoism parches the seed of all virtues [and is] a vice as old as the world.”
“Nothing harms democracy more than the external form of its mores. Many men would readily become accustomed to its vices, who cannot bear its manners.”
“Every revolution magnifies the ambition of men… Ambition must be given an honest, reasonable and great end, not extinguished.”

17. John Stuart Mill – born 1806

“The truth of an opinion is part of its utility.”
“Men are not more zealous for truth than they often are for error…”
“… truth… may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favourable circumstances it scapes persecution until it has made such head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress it.”
“The same strong susceptibilities which make the personal impulses vivid and powerful, are also the source from whence are generated the most passionate love of virtue, and the sternest self-control. It is through the cultivation of these, that society both does its duty and protects its interests…”

18. Émile Durkheim – born 1858

“Justice is filled with charity…”
“… altruism is destined to become not… a kind of pleasant ornament of our social life, but something that will always be its fundamental basis.”
“To act morally is to do one’s duty…”

19. Friedrich A. Hayek – born 1899

“Ambition, impatience, and hurry are often admirable in individuals; but they are pernicious if they guide the power of coercion and if improvement depends on those who, when authority is conferred on them, assume that in their authority lies superior wisdom and thus the right to impose their beliefs on others.”
“The Socratic maxim that the recognition of our ignorance is the beginning of wisdom has profound significance for our understanding of society.”
“…envy. The modern tendency to gratify this passion and to disguise it in the respectable garment of social justice is developing into a serious threat to freedom.”

20. Robert Putnam – born 1941

“Altruism of all sorts is encouraged by social and community involvement…”
“The norm of generalized reciprocity is so fundamental to civilized life that all prominent moral codes contain some equivalent of the Golden Rule.”

21. Francis Fukuyama – born 1952

“The social virtues, including honesty, reliability, cooperativeness, and a sense of duty to others, are critical for incubating the individual [virtues]…”

Final Thoughts

Looking across these centuries of wisdom, a striking pattern emerges: the greatest thinkers consistently recognize that virtue is not merely an individual achievement but fundamentally social in nature. From Aristotle’s insight that justice is “thought to be another’s good” to Fukuyama’s observation that social virtues incubate individual ones, we see that human excellence cannot be cultivated in isolation. The virtues that enable us to live well with others—justice, generosity, compassion, truthfulness—are precisely those that also perfect our own character.

Another profound theme is the relationship between wisdom and humility. Marcus Aurelius reminds us that “vanity is the greatest seducer of reason,” while Kant observes that true self-examination naturally produces humility. The Socratic recognition of our ignorance, as Hayek notes, is indeed the beginning of wisdom. This suggests that authentic virtue requires a delicate balance: confidence in our capacity for moral action coupled with honest acknowledgment of our limitations and fallibility.

Perhaps most importantly, these thinkers converge on the idea that virtue must be actively practiced rather than merely contemplated. As Cicero puts it, “the whole glory of virtue is in activity.” Whether through Aristotle’s emphasis on habit, Descartes’ focus on firm resolution, or Kant’s insistence that virtue must be taught and cultivated, the message is clear: virtue is not an abstract ideal, but a lived reality – forged through deliberate choice and sustained effort in our daily interactions with others.

Thanks for reading!