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About this quote

What does it mean?
When other things are unavailable, virtue remains something you can still possess.
In plain terms
If you have nothing else, be good.
What can you take from it?
Virtue is something you can keep when you have nothing else.

Where it applies

  • adversity
  • ethical struggle
  • loss

Putting it to work

  • focus on character
  • maintain ethics

Questions to consider

  • Is virtue valuable without power?
  • What do you keep when you lose everything?

Another view

Virtue without resources may have little practical impact.

More from Don Marquis

  1. When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

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  2. We pay for the mistakes of our ancestors, and it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to pay with.

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  3. There is nothing so habit-forming as money.

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