“Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.”
Variant: Someone who is a clever speaker and maintains a 'too-smiley' face is seldom considered a humane person.
Source: The Analects, Chapter I
Original
巧言令色、鮮矣仁。
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Confucius 269
Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551–-479 BCRelated quotes
“Where men of fine feeling are concerned there is seldom misunderstanding.”
Letter from Jones to the Marquis de Lafayette, (1 May 1779)
“Machiavel says virtue and riches seldom settle on one man.”
Section 2, member 2.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II
LX. FAME
Orphic Sayings
Context: Enduring fame is ever posthumous. The orbs of virtue and genius seldom culminate during their terrestrial periods. Slow is the growth of great names, slow the procession of excellence into arts, institutions, life. Ages alone reflect their fulness of lustre. The great not only unseal, but create the organs by which they are to be seen. Neither Socrates nor Jesus is yet visible to the world.
“We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.”
As quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1942) by Edmund Fuller
Die wahre Tugend ist Genialität.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #36
June 1784, p. 526 http://books.google.com/books?id=FMoIAAAAQAAJ&q="Courage+is+a+quality+so+necessary+for+maintaining+virtue+that+it+is+always+respected+even+when+it+is+associated+with+vice"&pg=PA319#v=onepage
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV