Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
virtues heart thankful virtue parent
ability glory education virtue natural
Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.
moderation mind nature reason habit virtue
Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.
virtue
Two distinctive traits especially identify beyond a doubt a strong and dominant character. One trait is contempt for external circumstances, when one is convinced that men ought to respect, to desire, and to pursue only what is moral and right, that men should be subject to nothing, not to another man, not to some disturbing passion, not to Fortune. The second trait, when your character has the disposition I outlined just now, is to perform the kind of services that are significant and most beneficial; but they should also be services that are a severe challenge, that are filled with ordeals, and that endanger not only your life but also the many comforts that make life attractive. Of these two traits, all the glory, magnificence, and the advantage, too, let us not forget, are in the second, while the drive and the discipline that make men great are in the former.
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