Virtue is its own reward

Virtue has need of limits

The only reward of virtue is virtue

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues

The problem in this case was you just can't be a middle-aged virgin in America without something be wrong with you. People can't conceive of a virtue in someone else that they can't conceive in themselves. Instead of believing you're stronger, it's so much easier to imagine you're weaker. You're addicted to self-abuse. You’re a liar. People are always ready to believe the opposite of what you tell them

Only a fraction of a man's virtues should be enumerated in his presence

Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much

What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself

It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one's disaster

Even virtue is more fair when it appears in a beautiful person