A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.
Plutarch

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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

Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Charles Kingsley

Bodies which contain a greater proportion of water than is necessary to balance the other elements, are speedily corrupted, and lose their virtues and properties.
Marcus V. Pollio

Britain, which in the years immediately before this war was rapidly losing such democratic virtues as it possessed, is now being bombed and burned into democracy.
J. B. Priestley

But what has America to boast? What are the graces or the virtues which distinguish its inhabitants? What are their triumphs in war, or their inventions in peace?
Thomas Day

Chinese culture has a lot of virtues that are tremendously valuable to not only us as Asian-Americans, but also the world in general.
Martin Yan

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own.
George Bernard Shaw

Christian virtues unite men. Racism separates them.
Sargent Shriver

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
Walter Bagehot

Constancy is the complement of all other human virtues.
Giuseppe Mazzini

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
C. S. Lewis

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Samuel Johnson

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.
Clare Boothe Luce

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

Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.
George Farquhar

Even a pacifist should admire the military virtues.
John Keegan

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Evil borders upon good, and vices are confounded with virtues; as the report of good qualities is delightful to a well-disposed mind, so the relation of the contrary should not be offensive.
Giraldus Cambrensis