#virtues

Knighthood. Was he even worthy? Just a little while ago, he’d have answered yes without a doubt, but now, facing the cross and his own desires, he wasn’t so sure. Courage, loyalty, obedience, faith. If even a man like Ulric could act against those virtues, then they were not something one possessed, but something to be constantly guarded and reclaimed. ↗

— Aleksandr Voinov

#virtues #william #courage

Even if it were possible to cast my horoscope in this one life, and to make an accurate prediction about my future, it would not be possible to 'show' it to me because as soon as I saw it my future would change by definition. This is why Werner Heisenberg's adaptation of the Hays Office—the so-called principle of uncertainty whereby the act of measuring something has the effect of altering the measurement—is of such importance. In my case the difference is often made by publicity. For example, and to boast of one of my few virtues, I used to derive pleasure from giving my time to bright young people who showed promise as writers and who asked for my help. Then some profile of me quoted someone who disclosed that I liked to do this. Then it became something widely said of me, whereupon it became almost impossible for me to go on doing it, because I started to receive far more requests than I could respond to, let alone satisfy. Perception modifies reality: when I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#assistance #bupropion #depression #future #happiness

When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#credit #crimes #even #everything #forgive

An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#clings #element #exaggeration #great #great virtues

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. ↗

— Maya Angelou

#any #because #consistently #important #most

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance. ↗

— Saint Augustine

#appearance #cannot #does #except #exist

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing. ↗

— Francis Bacon

#busy #character #deity #goodness #greatest

In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. ↗

— Mary Wollstonecraft

#being #call #exercise #fact #farce

The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast. ↗

— Buddha

#any #found #good #groups #like

We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates. ↗

— Denis Diderot

#catch #far #liable #more #our