"Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue"
About this Quote
“Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue” doesn’t romanticize morality as a private glow in the soul; it treats virtue as a muscle system. Walton’s word choice is doing the heavy lifting: “sinews” implies strength, tension, and upkeep. Virtue, in this view, isn’t a solitary epiphany or a rigid code you memorize. It’s something you build through contact - with people who steady your habits and with conversation that tests your reasons.
Walton writes from a 17th-century England where social life was thick with institutions that policed belief and behavior: church, guild, household, patronage networks. “Company” isn’t just friendship; it’s a moral ecosystem. Choose it poorly and your character warps under the weight of bad incentives. Choose it well and you absorb standards, manners, and self-restraint almost by osmosis. The line carries a quiet rebuke to the lone moral hero: if you think you can stay good in isolation, you’re mistaking virtue for innocence.
“Good discourse” adds a sharper, almost civic dimension. Walton suggests that talk itself can be ethically formative when it’s more than gossip or performance. Discourse becomes a rehearsal space for conscience - where you learn to argue without cruelty, to listen without surrendering judgment, to refine the stories you tell about what matters. The subtext is practical and slightly demanding: if your circle is shallow and your conversations are thin, your virtues will be too. Walton isn’t selling purity; he’s prescribing a social regimen.
Walton writes from a 17th-century England where social life was thick with institutions that policed belief and behavior: church, guild, household, patronage networks. “Company” isn’t just friendship; it’s a moral ecosystem. Choose it poorly and your character warps under the weight of bad incentives. Choose it well and you absorb standards, manners, and self-restraint almost by osmosis. The line carries a quiet rebuke to the lone moral hero: if you think you can stay good in isolation, you’re mistaking virtue for innocence.
“Good discourse” adds a sharper, almost civic dimension. Walton suggests that talk itself can be ethically formative when it’s more than gossip or performance. Discourse becomes a rehearsal space for conscience - where you learn to argue without cruelty, to listen without surrendering judgment, to refine the stories you tell about what matters. The subtext is practical and slightly demanding: if your circle is shallow and your conversations are thin, your virtues will be too. Walton isn’t selling purity; he’s prescribing a social regimen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
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