
“I believe Beauty is the condition of the perfect life, just as important as Virtue and Truth.”
"Credo"
Gérard de Nerval.
The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899)
“I believe Beauty is the condition of the perfect life, just as important as Virtue and Truth.”
"Credo"
“For the fame of riches and beauty is fickle and frail, while virtue is eternally excellent.”
Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur.
For the glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and perishable; that of the mind is illustrious and immortal.
Source: Bellum Catilinae (c. 44 BC), Chapter I; Variant translation:
“The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.”
Aristotle, 13.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch”
Stanza 4.
The Second Jungle Book (1895), If— (1896)
Context: If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!
“To use Virtue is perfect blessedness.”
The Sayings of the Wise (1555)
“It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.”
Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
“A minimum of comfort is necessary for the practice of virtue.”
Congo, My Country
i.e., self-control or moderation.
Source: The First Step (1892), Ch. VIII
in The Alchemist of Happiness