Strictly speaking, one should not even rightly compare virginity to marriage because you cannot make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil.
St. JeromeRead
Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Justice prioritizes the well-being of others over self-pleasure.
This quote by St. Jerome emphasizes the intrinsic value of justice as a virtue that serves the greater good, rather than simply fulfilling the desires of an individual. Unlike other virtues that can provide personal gratification, justice is about making sacrifices for the benefit of others, highlighting its superior ethical standing in a moral framework.
Themes
JusticeVirtueSelflessnessMoralityEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service, one might quote this to highlight the importance of contributing to society.
More from St. Jerome
All quotes →Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.
St. JeromeRead
The Church was founded upon Peter: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism.
St. JeromeRead
Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak. Why do we profess one thing and display another? The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals impurity.
St. JeromeRead
Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most.
St. JeromeRead
To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ.
St. JeromeRead
Similar quotes
Recollection is not something that I can summon up, it simply comes and I am the servant of it.
Edna O'BrienRead
This is one of their [the Christians'] rules. Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among us: but if they be unlearned, or a child, or an idiot, let him freely come. So they openly declare that none but the ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, women, and children, are fit disciples for the God they worship.
Aulus Cornelius CelsusRead
I realised that if I wished to write about the dark and not allow for hope, people would recognise it as false - because hope is the nub of what we are.
Richard FlanaganRead
Astonishment is the root of philosophy.
Paul TillichRead
Nothing is so stifling as symmetry. Symmetry is boredom, the quintessence of mourning. Despair yawns. There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering - a hell of boredom.
Victor HugoRead
We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone (We) have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead