Virtue Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.

— Henry David Thoreau

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

— Henry David Thoreau

The virtue which we appreciate, we to some extent appropriate.

— Henry David Thoreau

Its virtues, not its sins, are as scarlet

— Henry David Thoreau

In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue.

— Henry David Thoreau

We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.

— Henry David Thoreau

There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.

— Henry David Thoreau

A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them…

— Henry David Thoreau

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

— Henry David Thoreau

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

— Henry David Thoreau

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

— Henry David Thoreau

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

— Henry David Thoreau

“Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that…

— Henry David Thoreau

The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

— Henry David Thoreau

The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker.

— Henry David Thoreau

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman…

— Henry David Thoreau

There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says,…

— Henry David Thoreau

Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we…

— Henry David Thoreau

If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative.…

— Henry David Thoreau

A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of…

— Henry David Thoreau

How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty virtues, which any work would make impertinent? As if one…

— Henry David Thoreau

To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may…

— Henry David Thoreau

Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should…

— Henry David Thoreau

All men are partially buried inthe grave of custom, and of some we see only the crown of the head above ground.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear…

— Henry David Thoreau

They who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time accumulating…

— Henry David Thoreau

My friend is one who takes me for what I am. A stranger takes me for something else than what I am.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The true reformer does not want time, nor money, nor coöperation, nor advice. What is time but the stuff delay is made…

— Henry David Thoreau

A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and…

— Henry David Thoreau

It is comparatively a faint and reflected beauty that is admired, not an essential and intrinsic one. It is because the old…

— Henry David Thoreau

A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of…

— Henry David Thoreau

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.

— Henry David Thoreau

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to…

— Henry David Thoreau

What is chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know it. We have heard of this…

— Henry David Thoreau

To the virtuous man, the universe is the only sanctum sanctorum, and the penetralia of the temple are the broad noon of…

— Henry David Thoreau

The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass,…

— Henry David Thoreau

Our vices always lie in the direction of our virtues, and in their best estate are but plausible imitations of the latter.

— Henry David Thoreau

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.

— Henry David Thoreau

The virtue of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before does not begin to be superhuman.

— Henry David Thoreau

Sincerity is a great but rare virtue, and we pardon to it much complaining, and the betrayal of many weaknesses.

— Henry David Thoreau