
[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 17, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue
Die Worte des Glaubens (The Word of the Faithful), st. 3 (1797)
[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 17, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
Context: The virtue of prosperity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Source: The Seven Steps of the Ladder of Spiritual Love, p. 148
“The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience.”
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) p. 1.
Misattributed
"Canon Law: Ecclesiastical Ministry" (1771)
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Context: Virtue supposes liberty, as the carrying of a burden supposes active force. Under coercion there is no virtue, and without virtue there is no religion. Make a slave of me, and I shall be no better for it. Even the sovereign has no right to use coercion to lead men to religion, which by its nature supposes choice and liberty. My thought is no more subject to authority than is sickness or health.
“Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things.”
(6 August 1796)
1750s, Diaries (1750s-1790s)
Context: Omnium rerum domina, virtus. Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things. Therefore a nation that should never do wrong must necessarily govern the world. The might of virtue, the power of virtue, is not a very common topic, not so common as it should be.
“There is no valid virtue without piety, and there is no authentic piety without virtue.”
[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 70, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Spiritual path, Virtue