Meanings
phrase
alternative Virtue is her own reward
- a good deed is its own reward
The Wages of Sin is Death; it’s poor Wages that will not make a Man live; as Virtue is its own Reward, ſo Sin is its own Executioner.
1726, William De Britaine, Human Prudence; or, The Art by Which a Man May Raiſe Himſelf and His Fortune to Grandeur, 12th edition (Dublin: Samuel Fairbrother), § XII: “Of Virtue”, page 73
Cite this entry
APA
virtue is its own reward. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virtue%20is%20its%20own%20reward
MLA
“virtue is its own reward.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virtue%20is%20its%20own%20reward. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “virtue is its own reward,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/virtue%20is%20its%20own%20reward.
Source: virtue is its own reward on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.