In the context of tragedy, all polite behavior is self-denial.

I hope I number patience among my virtues, but shilly-shallying, when nothing is to be gained by delay, is not a virtue.

ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial.

...not everyone is willing to defend a position of 'not knowing.' There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.

telling people you’re virtuous isn’t a virtue, it’s self-promotion. Virtue signalling is not virtue. Virtue signalling is, quite possibly, our commonest vice.)

Prudery is a form of selfishness, a means of self-protection made necessary by the strength of one's own desires.

The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.

Propounding peace and love without practical or institutional engagement is delusion, not virtue.

It is not virtuous to be victimized by a bully, even if that bully is oneself.

Just as nothing is more foolish than misplaced wisdom, so too, nothing is more imprudent than perverse prudence. And surely it is perverse not to adapt yourself to the prevailing circumstances, to refuse 'to do as the Romans do,' to ignore the party-goer's maxium 'take a drink or take your leave,' to insist that the play should not be a play. True prudence, on the other hand, recognizes human limitations and does not strive to leap beyond them; it is willing to run with the herd, to overlook faults tolerantly or to share them in a friendly spirit. But, they say, that is exactly what we mean by folly. (I will hardly deny it — as long as they will reciprocate by admitting that this is exactly what is means to perform the play of life.)

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.

But self-will is blind.

To expect self-denial from men, when they have a majority in their favor, and consequently power to gratify themselves, is to disbelieve all history and universal experience;

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.