Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Vice & Virtue (20 Quotes)

A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text.

Men wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices, but not from their vices.

There is no man who is not some time indebted to his vices, as no plant that is not fed from manure

Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world as invalids pay a high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live my life is for itself, and not for spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. I ask for primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from a man to his actions.

Tart, cathartic virtue.

Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

The highest virtue is always against the law.

The only reward of virtue is virtue.

He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the plants, the waters, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments is the rich and royal man.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine.

Prudence is the virtue of the sense. It is the science of Appearances. It is the outmost action of the inward life.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.

The only reward of virtue is virtue the only way to have a friend is to be one.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue.

Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes out but what was put in. But the moment they desert the tradition for a spontaneous thought, then poetry, wit, hope, virtue, learning, anecdote, and all flock to their aid.

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.... The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.