Virtue (Latin: virtus, Greek: ἀρετή "arete") is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. The opposite of virtue is vice.

Noun

virtue (countable and uncountable; plural virtues)

1. (uncountable) excellence in morals
2. (countable) A good habit
3. (countable) a good model quality
4. (uncountable) chastity and faithfulness
5. (countable) an exemplary quality
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.

6. (Christian angelology, biblical tradition) the second level of angels, ranked above angels and below archangels
7. (obsolete) Strength; energy; force.

• (excellence in morals): vice
• foible

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain in respect to ourselves, to our fellow men, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.
  • James Waddel Alexander, p. 611.

• We cannot have right virtue without right conditions.
  • Henry Ward Beecher, p. 611.

• The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.
  • Sir Walter Scott, p. 612.

• Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night when we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth slowly and tenderly, needing much pains to cultivate it, much care to guard it, much time to mature it, in our untoward soil, in this world's unkindly weather.
  • Isaac Barrow, p. 612.

• No state of virtue is complete, however total the virtue, save as it is won by a conflict with evil, and fortified by the struggles of a resolute and even bitter experience.
  • Horace Bushnell, p. 612.

• What the world calls virtue is a name and a dream without Christ. The foundation of all human excellence must be laid deep in the blood of the Redeemer's cross, and in the power of His resurrection.
  • Frederick William Robertson, p. 612.

• A virtuous youth and frugal manhood always create a Pisgah for the veteran in righteousness, from which he may calmly survey the stars, and read his " title clear to mansions in the skies," while yet in the flesh he can soar on the wings of meditation above the clouds, and catch glimpses of the heavenly world that lies in the placid and everlasting orient before him.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, p. 612.