virtue

What it means

1. uncountableconceptuallyThe idea of all that is good or excellent (in every sense of those terms) in a human being, collectively instantiated by a varying number of human traits known as "the virtues", the enumeration of which vary by the many virtue systems which have developed within different cultures, religions, and historical periods.
2. uncountableAccordance with moral principles; conformity of behaviour or thought with the strictures of morality; good moral conduct.First known use 13th c.

   Without virtue, there is no freedom.

   2 more examples

   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, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, 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

3. countableAn attribute of a personality (a "personality trait") which predisposes a person to behaviors resulting in human goodness; an admirable quality.

   The commission of acts by a person which he or she believes to be wrong can cause a diminishment of one or more of the virtues which subsist in the person's personality; in this way such actions may be viewed as significant life events.

   1 more example

   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

In a sentence

Without virtue, there is no freedom.

Where it comes from

1. Latinvirtus“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”
2. Anglo-Normanvertu
3. Middle Englishvertu
4. Englishvirtue

From Middle English vertu, virtue, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertu, virtu, from Latin virtus (“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”), from vir (“man”). Doublet of vertu. See virile. In this sense, displaced Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft.

First known use: 13th c.