The collection / 6,437 fragments

Character.

Explore passages mentioning character, virtue, honour. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Reviewed editorial meanings may also connect entries to this topic; those assignments are labelled separately from word matching.

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01c. 1716 AD

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear; Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end, Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend.

Alexander Pope / quote

02c. 1716 AD

To Berkeley every virtue under heaven.

Alexander Pope / quote

03c. 1716 AD

Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words, So known, so honour'd at the House of Lords.

Alexander Pope / quote

04c. 1716 AD

How lov'd, how honour'd once avails thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot; A heap of dust alone remains of thee: 'T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be!

Alexander Pope / quote

05c. 1716 AD

Forever honour'd, and forever mourn'd.

Alexander Pope / quote

06c. 1716 AD

To heal divisions, to relieve th' opprest; In virtue rich; in blessing others, blest.

Alexander Pope / quote

07c. 1710 AD

Give me, kind Heaven, a private station, A mind serene for contemplation: Title and profit I resign; The post of honour shall be mine.

John Gay / quote

08c. 1726 AD

Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide,— In part she is to blame that has been tried: He comes too near that comes to be denied.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu / quote

09c. 1724 AD

An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and alternate labour, useful life, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

James Thomson / quote

10c. 1724 AD

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny: You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, You cannot shut the windows of the sky Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; You cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve: Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, And I their toys to the great children leave: Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave.

James Thomson / quote

11c. 1724 AD

Whoe'er amidst the sons Of reason, valour, liberty, and virtue Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble Of Nature's own creating.

James Thomson / quote

12c. 1746 AD

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Samuel Johnson / quote

13c. 1746 AD

My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merits handsomely allowed.

Samuel Johnson / quote

14c. 1740 AD

Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction,— That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour Serves but to brighten all our future days.

John Brown / quote

15c. 1743 AD

Can storied urn, or animated bust, Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?

Thomas Gray / quote

16c. 1738 AD

Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell: 'T is virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.

William Collins / quote

17c. 1738 AD

By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung; There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there!

William Collins / quote

18c. 1751 AD

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Oliver Goldsmith / quote

19c. 1751 AD

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side.

Oliver Goldsmith / quote

20c. 1763 AD

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

Edmund Burke / quote

21c. 1763 AD

All government,—indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act,—is founded on compromise and barter.

Edmund Burke / quote

22c. 1763 AD

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in,—glittering like the morning star full of life and splendour and joy. . . . Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men,—in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded.

Edmund Burke / quote

23c. 1763 AD

That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

Edmund Burke / quote

24c. 1765 AD

Some must be great. Great offices will have Great talents. And God gives to every man The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, That lifts him into life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.

William Cowper / quote