To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.—­Sir P. Sidney.

Virtue is everywhere the same, because it comes from God, while everything else is of men.—­Voltaire.

O let us still the secret joy partake,
To follow virtue even for virtue’s sake. 
—­Pope.

Well may your heart believe the truths I tell;
’Tis virtue makes the bliss where’er we dwell. 
—­Collins.

The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality which some temptation may not overtop, or undermine and destroy.—­Sir P. Sidney.

Virtue is not to be considered in the light of mere innocence, or abstaining from harm; but as the exertion of our faculties in doing good.—­Bishop Butler.

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue’s prize. 

          
                          —­Pope.

Live virtuously, my lord, and you cannot die too soon, nor live too long.—­Lady Rachel Russell.

If you can be well without health, you can be happy without virtue.  —­Burke.

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make happy, not gold.—­Beethoven.

I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, though nobody were to see me.  —­Shaftesbury.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know,
Virtue alone is happiness below. 
—­Pope.

An effort made with ourselves for the good of others, with the intention of pleasing God alone.—­Bernardin de st. Pierre.

Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,—­all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.—­Cowper.

Our virtues live upon our incomes; our vices consume our capital.  —­J.  Petit-Senn.

Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues.  God made a million spears of grass where he made one tree.  The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with forests, but with grasses.  Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.—­Beecher.

Want.—­How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones!—­Lavater.

We are ruined, not by what we really want, but by what we think we do; therefore never go abroad in search of your wants; if they be real wants, they will come home in search of you; for he that buys what he does not want, will soon want what he cannot buy.—­Colton.

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can command, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.—­Dr. Johnson.