Source: After Virtue (1981), p. 149.
“Pursue Virtue virtuously.”
These words also appear in Christian Morals, Part I, Section I
Letter to a Friend (circa 1656)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Pursue Virtue virtuously." by Thomas Browne?
Thomas Browne 78
English polymath 1605–1682Related quotes
Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.
E seguirovi, sì come io suoliva,
Strane aventure e battaglie amorose,
Quando virtute al bon tempo fioriva
Tra cavallieri e dame grazïose,
Facendo prove in boschi ed ogni riva,
Come Turpino al suo libro ce espose.
Ciò vo' seguire, e sol chiedo di graccia
Che con diletto lo ascoltar vi piaccia.
Bk. 3, Canto 1, st. 4
Orlando Innamorato
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
(1936–2019) Tunisian politician
On Yasser Arafat, (11 November, 2004). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4001697.stm.
Sallustius
Roman philosopher and writer
X. Concerning Virtue and Vice.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: The doctrine of virtue and vice depends on that of the soul. When the irrational soul enters into the body and immediately produces fight and desire, the rational soul, put in authority over all these, makes the soul tripartite, composed of reason, fight, and desire. Virtue in the region of reason is wisdom, in the region of fight is courage, in the region of desire is temperance; the virtue of the whole soul is righteousness. It is for reason to judge what is right, for fight in obedience to reason to despise things that appear terrible, for desire to pursue not the apparently desirable, but, that which is with reason desirable. When these things are so, we have a righteous life; for righteousness in matters of property is but a small part of virtue. And thus we shall find all four virtues in properly trained men, but among the untrained one may be brave and unjust, another temperate and stupid, another prudent and unprincipled. Indeed, these qualities should not be called virtues when they are devoid of reason and imperfect and found in irrational beings. Vice should be regarded as consisting of the opposite elements. In reason it is folly, in fight, cowardice, in desire, intemperance, in the whole soul, unrighteousness.
The virtues are produced by the right social organization and by good rearing and education, the vices by the opposite.
“With gay descriptions sprinkle here and there
Some grave instructive sentences with care,
That touch on life, some moral good pursue,
And give us virtue in a transient view;
Rules, which the future sire may make his own,
And point the golden precepts to his son.”
Saepe etiam memorandum inter ludicra memento,
Permiscere aliquid breviter, mortalia corda
Quod moveat, tangens humanae commoda vitae,
Qodque olim jubeant natos meminisse parentes.
Marco Girolamo Vida
(1485–1566) Italian bishop
Book II, line 278
De Arte Poetica (1527)
