In Praise of Virtue

[Skull]

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil feelings and intentions.

William Penn

 

[Skull]

The true lover of knowledge must, from childhood up, be most of all a striver after truth in every form.

Plato, Republic, 6, 485

 

[HaShev]

1 Enoch 20:5
Michael, one of the holy angels, who, presiding over human virtue, commands the nations. (Mediator/Judge-refiners fire)

EXODUS 23:20 "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for
**He will not pardon your transgressions**; for
*My name is in Him.*

 

[Skull]

The supreme aim of all religions is to teach men how to live; and the learning and the living are religion itself. The purification of the human heart, the building up of a blameless life, and the perfecting of the soul, these are the great underlying and enduring factors in all religions and creeds the world over. That which is vital in every religion is the striving after, and the practice of, Goodness; all things else are accretions, superfluities, illusions. Goodness — and by Goodness I mean sinlessness — is the beautiful and imperishable form of Religion, but creeds and religions are the perishable garments, woven of the threads of opinion, in which men clothe it. One after another religions come and go, but Religion, being Life itself, endures forever. Let men cease to quarrel over the garments and strive to perceive the universality and beauty of the indwelling form; thus will they become wedded to it, will become one with the supreme Goodness. Religion is Goodness; Goodness is Religion.

James Allen

 

[Skull]

What should be done by one skillful in good
So as to gain the State of Peace is this:

Let him be able, and upright and straight,
Easy to speak to, gentle, and not proud,
Contented too, supported easily,
With few tasks, and living very lightly;
His faculties serene, prudent, and modest,
Unswayed by the emotions of the relatives;
And let him never do the slightest thing
That other wise men might hold blamable.

Buddha in the Metta Sutta

 

[Skull]

All bow to virtue, and then walk away.

J. De Finod.

 

[Skull]

By virtue of the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, the Bodhi tree constantly gave forth sublime sounds speaking various truths without end.

Avatamsaka Sutra, ch. 1

 

[Skull]

Once real virtue, manhood, the courage and responsibility of free men, are extinguished in a society, presently security evaporates, too; but that is the lesser loss. There is something better than to know what it is to be guaranteed and protected and pensioned. The better state is to know what it is to be a man.

Russell Kirk

 

[Skull]

He who gave us our nature to be perfected by our virtue, willed also the necessary means of its perfection.

Edmund Burke

 

[Skull]

To be angry about trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be furious is brutish; and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils; but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.

Isaac Watts

 

[Skull]

The man down in Nature occupies himself in guarding, in feeding, in warming and multiplying his body, and, as long as he knows no more, we justify him; but presently a mystic change is wrought, a new perception opens, and he is made a citizen of the world of souls: he feels what is called duty; he is aware that he owes a higher allegiance to do and live as a good member of this universe. In the measure in which he has this sense he is a man, rises to the universal life. The high intellect is absolutely at one with moral nature

.

From Emerson, "The Sovereignty Of Ethics"

 

[Skull]

A pithy teaching of Buddha (12 verses) on blessings granting one a happy life:

Maha-mangala Sutta: Blessings

 

[Skull]

Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.

Philippians 4:8

 

[Skull]

8. The best (man) is like water.
Water is good; it benefits all things and does not
compete with them.
It dwells in (lowly) places that all disdain.
This is why it is so near to Tao.

[The best man] in his dwelling loves the earth.
In his heart, he loves what is profound.
In his associations, he loves humanity.
In his words, he loves faithfulness.
In government, he loves order.
In handling affairs, he loves competence.
In his activities, he loves timeliness.
It is because he does not compete that he is
without reproach.

Lao Tzu

 

[Skull]

Under the auspices and direction of Divine Providence,
your forefathers removed to the wilds and wilderness of
America. By their industry they made it a fruitful, and by
their virtue a happy country. And we should still have enjoyed
the blessings of peace and plenty, if we had not forgotten
the source from which those blessings flowed; and
permitted our country to be contaminated by the many
shameful vices which have prevailed among us.

John Jay

Too many vices today, as in 1770s, flow from forgetting the Source of blessings!

 

[Skull]

Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[Skull]

Self-centeredness is thus a necessity of life, but this necessity is also a sin. Self-centerednessis an intellectual error, because no living creature is in truth the center of the universe; and it is also a moral error, because no living creature has a right to act as if it were the center of the universe. It has no right to treat its fellow creatures, the universe and God or Reality as if they existed simply in order to minister to one self-centered living creature's demands.

Toynbee

 

[Skull]

And so in the days when natural instincts prevailed, men moved quietly and gazed steadily. At that time, there were no roads over mountains, nor boats, nor bridges over water. All things were produced, each for its own proper sphere. Birds and beasts multiplied; trees and shrubs grew up. The former might be led by the hand; you could climb up and peep into the raven’s nest. For then man dwelt with birds and beasts, and all creation was one. There were no distinctions of good and bad men. Being all equally without knowledge, their virtue could not go astray. Being all equally without evil desires, they were in a state of natural integrity, the perfection of human existence.

Chuang-tse (ch. IX)

 

[Skull]

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires,—and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.

Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

From As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

 

[Skull]

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.

From As A Man Thinketh by James Allen