Anscombe, Elizabeth

"Children learn virtue not by hearing about it, but by witnessing it in those around them."

"Modern medicine has given us the power to do many things, but not the wisdom to know which things we ought to do."

"The greatest intellectual error is to think that clarity of language can solve all philosophical problems."

"We mistake our desires for our good, and then wonder why satisfaction eludes us."

"The love of truth must precede all other loves if we are to live rightly."

"A well-lived life is not measured by what we accumulate, but by the person we become."

"The ability to recognize cause and effect is fundamental to all rational thought."

"We have been taught to value independence so highly that we have forgotten our need for community."

"An action that proceeds from a vicious intention remains vicious regardless of its external consequences."

"The study of history teaches us that human nature changes far less than we imagine."

"To live well is to live in accordance with reason; all other goods follow from this."

"The modern world confuses innovation with improvement, and novelty with goodness."

"We cannot understand virtue in the abstract; we must see it embodied in particular people and places."

"The ability to deliberate well about our own good is one of the highest achievements."

"Language is not merely a tool for expressing pre-existing thoughts; it shapes our thinking."

"The practice of virtue requires habituation; we become what we repeatedly do."

"A person who cannot be silent cannot truly speak."

"The greatest danger to intellectual life is not disagreement, but the refusal to engage with opposing views."

"We have confused having rights with having good character, and they are not the same thing."

"The natural end of human activity is not pleasure or even happiness, but the actualization of our potential."

"Patience is not passivity; it is the strength to wait for the right moment to act."

"A life devoted to avoiding suffering is a life devoted to avoiding growth."

"The greatest acts of virtue often go unrecognized and unrewarded in this world."

"We have made morality subjective and then are shocked to find that people disagree about right and wrong."

"The contemplation of truth is one of the highest pleasures available to human beings."

"To educate is to lead out what is already latent in the human soul."

"The confusion between wanting something and needing something has created a society of perpetual dissatisfaction."

"A good person is not one who never errs, but one who recognizes error and corrects it."

"The study of logic is not pedantry; it is the study of how to think rightly about anything."

"We have become so concerned with individual rights that we have forgotten our duties to one another."