Definition of "virtue"

There are a set of religious, or rather moral, writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 1, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book XV

“Virtue is an inner light that can prevail in every soul.”

2004 October 1, “Eight-and-a-Half-Tails”, in Champions of Kamigawa, Wizards of the Coast

Some men are modest, and seem to take pains to hide their virtues; and, from a natural distance and reserve in their tempers, scarce suffer their good qualities to be known […] .

1766, Laurence Sterne, Sermon, section XLIV

The divine virtues of truth and equity are the only bands of friendship, the only supports of society.

1813, John Fleetwood, The Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

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.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719

One virtue of the present coalition government's attack on access to education could be to reopen the questions raised so pertinently by Robinson in the 1960s […] .

2011, The Guardian, Letter, 14 Mar 2011

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now […] .

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey.

1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

There was a virtue in the wave;His limbs, that, stiff with toil,Dragg’d heavy, from the copious draught receiv’dLightness and supple strength.

1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […]

Here are the glasses, Meg. But I am afraid that the virtue has gone from them, and now they are only glass. Perhaps they were meant to help once and only on Camazotz.

1962, Madeleine L’Engle, “Aunt Beast”, in A Wrinkle in Time, New York, N.Y.: Ariel Books; republished New York, N.Y.: Ariel Books, 1973 printing, page 189

many Egyptians still worry that the Brotherhood, by virtue of discipline and experience, would hold an unfair advantage if elections were held too soon.

2011 February 17, “The autumn of the patriarchs”, in The Economist