The Master said: ‘Artful speech and an ingratiating demeanour rarely accompany virtue.

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Virtue is not always amiable. Integrity is sometimes ruined by prejudices and by passions.

polite conversation is rarely either

Il est difficile de parler de soi longtemps sans vanité.

It would scarcely be acceptable, for example, to ask in the course of an ordinary conversation what our society holds to be the purpose of work.

Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.

"La vertu n'irait pas si loin si la vanité ne lui tenait compagnie.

"Virtue would not go far if vanity did not keep it company.

Virtue refuses facility for her companion … the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.

It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity.

If you happen into company where the talk runs into party, obscemty, scandal, folly, or vice of any kind, you had better pass for morose or unsocial, among people whose good opinion is not worth having, than shock your own conscience by joining in conversation which you must disapprove of.