Be good and you will be lonesome.

Be good and you will be lonesome.

If we had to seek virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, read more

If we had to seek virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, it suffices to avoid bad thoughts and to keep our souls turned toward the Lord.

He possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence; courage without ferocity; and all the virtues of man without his vices

He possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence; courage without ferocity; and all the virtues of man without his vices

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man!

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man!

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue
is at hand.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! virtue
is at hand.

If there's a power above us, (and that there is all nature cries
aloud
Through all her works) read more

If there's a power above us, (and that there is all nature cries
aloud
Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, read more

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering
pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but read more

That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering
pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and
imitation of virtue.
[Lat., Nam quae voluptate, quasi mercede aliqua, ad officium
impellitur, ea non est virtus sed fallax imitatio simulatioque
virtutis.]