“Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.”

—  Samuel Johnson

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with v…" by Samuel Johnson?
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

Denis Diderot photo

“We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

As quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1942) by Edmund Fuller

George Bernard Shaw photo

“Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

#89
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Mateo Alemán photo

“Even as there is no virtue which is wanting to the busy man, so there is no vice which does not bear the idle company.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Pt. I, Lib. II, Ch. VI.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

Johannes Kepler photo

“Wherever there are qualities there are likewise quantities, but not always vice versa.”

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer

Vol. VIII, p. 47ff.
Joannis Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia, ed. Christian Frisch (1858)

Thomas Paine photo

“Moderation in temper, is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1790s, Letter to the Addressers (1792)
Context: A thing, moderately good, is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper, is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice.

Gordon R. Dickson photo

“Why should there be some sort of virtue always attributed to a frank admission of vice?”

Gordon R. Dickson book Dorsai!

“Protector II” (section 19, p. 490)
Dorsai! (1960)

Sydney Smith photo

“Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love, and respect.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Sermon XII, Sermons (1809)

“Philosophers who have supposed that actual action was required if 'good' were to be used in a sincere evaluation have got into difficulties over weakness of will, and they should surely agree that enough has been done if we can show that any man has reason to aim at virtue and avoid vice. But is this impossibly difficult if we consider the kinds of things that count as virtue and vice? Consider, for instance, the cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance, courage and justice. Obviously any man needs prudence, but does he not also need to resist the temptation of pleasure when there is harm involved? And how could it be argued that he would never need to face what was fearful for the sake of some good? It is not obvious what someone would mean if he said that temperance or courage were not good qualities, and this not because of the 'praising' sense of these words, but because of the things that courage and temperance are.”

Philippa Foot (1920–2010) British philosopher

"Moral Beliefs"

Plutarch photo

“The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Life of Alexander
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Aristotle photo

“The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.”

Aristotle book Nicomachean Ethics

Book II, 1107a.4
Nicomachean Ethics
Variant: Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.

Related topics