Included in its pages are selections from ancient and modern sources, ranging from the Bible, Greek mythology, Aesop's Fables, William Shakespeare, and the Brothers Grimm, to later authors such as Hilaire Belloc, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, and Oscar Wilde.

Despite the publisher's initial lack of faith and advertising, concerns from industry skeptics, and mixed reviews for both its content and Bennett's own contributions, it became a New York Times Best Seller for more than 80 weeks (peaking at No.

Various outlets noted the varied quality and dated nature of the selections, the preponderance of material culled from Western civilization, and the hypocrisy stemming from the compiler's mission; the level of diversity also faced occasional criticism.

Though Bennett intended Virtues as a one-off title, audience demand and feedback encouraged him to follow it up in 1995 with The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey and two spin-offs for younger readers.

The franchise spawned various merchandise by the start of the 2000s, continued in print until 2008, and inspired an array of conservative, liberal, and Christian-focused alternatives as well as a parody; a competitor's answer to the official spin-offs was also the focus of a 1995–1997 trademark-infringement lawsuit.

[6] The chapters begin with simple texts, and escalate in complexity as they progress;[7] compiler William Bennett provides two pages of opening commentary for each virtue, and a short introductory note for the individual selections.

"[6] Public-domain material comprises an estimated 85% of Bennett's collection,[9] which also surveys three thousand years of literature;[10] one of the most recent selections, "Instant Hero", first appeared as a January 1982 Washington Post story.

You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing: for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is readily taken .... Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?Notable stories told or excerpted in this collection include: The Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus,[17]: 116  and the legends of Robin Hood and Little John,[10] William Tell,[15] and George Washington's cherry tree (as related to Mason Locke Weems)[6] also appear in the book.

MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEYSmall wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness,constant danger, safe return doubtful.Honor and recognition in case of success.Also featured are selections from the Bible,[6] Aesop's Fables,[6] African and Native American folklore,[22]: 59  and Grimms' Fairy Tales;[6] the works of Hilaire Belloc,[3] Willa Cather,[3] F. Scott Fitzgerald,[7] Rudyard Kipling,[23] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,[6] Theodore Roosevelt,[24] Babe Ruth,[4] William Shakespeare,[6] and Oscar Wilde[6] (among many others) are represented as well.

The original release contained biographies on Susan B. Anthony,[15] Rosa Parks,[25] Anne Sullivan,[23] and Harriet Tubman,[25] while the 30th anniversary edition from 2022 profiled Mother Teresa, Navy SEAL Michael P. Murphy, and honorees from the September 11 attacks of 2001.

[2] A four-tape audiobook edition, released the following September, featured readings by the compiler[34] and guest stars including Michael York and Dana Ivey;[35] in this rendition, Charlton Heston recited "The Ten Commandments" from Exodus.

[35] In early January 1994, Bennett appeared on C-SPAN's Booknotes to discuss the collection;[36] some time later, California's Republican Senate candidate Michael Huffington promoted and praised it in one of his campaign television commercials.

[27][37] Overseas, a Latin American Spanish version (El libro de las virtudes) was issued by Argentina's Javier Vergara in 1995,[38] as well as an Australian edition from Bookman Press.

[27] The Los Angeles Times declared it "one of the most unlikely in years",[4] while the Washingtonian magazine (quoted in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel) observed its outreach's transcendence over political and religious lines, and its competition with Hollywood biographies, New Age guides, and financial books.

"[6] Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it a C− grade and declared it "a textbook of Trad Value Lit [with] pursed and hectoring subtext ... [a] sobersided publication representative of a current strain of humorless conservatism in inspirational teaching.

"[59] Although otherwise favorable,[22]: 60  Nick Gillespie of Reason questioned the appropriateness of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "The Three Little Pigs" in their respective "Responsibility" and "Work" chapters, alongside the compiler's attempts to define a "common world of shared ideals" whose spirit predated modern media.

"[23] In the academic press, W. Charles Breiner of the Journal of Education recommended the book, praising its compiler for his efforts to classify the passages, and its timeliness in the wake of America's then-ongoing social and moral crisis.

"[61] Writing for Commentary magazine, James Q. Wilson felt that two speeches included in the book, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "[are not stories but rather] arguments".

[14] Michelle Ann Abate, who devoted the first chapter of her 2010 book Raising Your Kids Right to a study of Virtues, remarked that "[The] moral maxims ... are as neat and tidy as they are impractical and unrealistic ...

Henry L. Carrigan Jr. wrote in Library Journal that the quality "ranges from the great to the schmaltzy"[35] and that the "lack of attention to women's and non-Western voices encourages the view that the experience of virtue belongs primarily to Western males.

[68] Sessions Stepp expressed concern over outdated gender stereotypes and the absence of more modern perspectives: "[A]lmost nothing original from the 20th century ... without [which] the book seems to suggest that moral behavior is entirely a thing of the past.

[70] Susan Moore in the IPA Review of Melbourne, Australia, said, "Almost all the verse in The Book of Virtues is of greeting card calibre; and too many of the prose selections, penned by unknown authors, are similarly hackneyed.

Despite [a slate of] embarrassing weaknesses, however, Bennett's book is a helpful starting point for adults who share his awareness that 'children are essentially moral and spiritual beings' who deserve to experience a much richer literature than, of late, they have been given."

"[10] One of Bennett's critics, Jon Katz of Wired magazine, called him to task for making millions of dollars on the book and its follow-ups at the expense of lower-income people in their target audience.

"[43] Various outlets noted the irony and hypocrisy in Bennett's mission on at least three separate occasions: during 1995, when he accepted an offer to have his collection adapted into animation (despite criticizing certain aspects of the television medium at the time);[9][71] in 1997, when he confessed to smoking before and after his duties as "Drug Czar";[43] and again in 2003, thanks to exposés surrounding his gambling habit.

[13][75] Gillespie felt that the anthology exhibited a "gentler, kinder" side of Bennett when compared to his activity as "Drug Czar",[22]: 58  a view echoed by Dionne, Jr.[42] Its Christian[13][57][76] and conservative[10][77] undertones also received attention; Siegel, in particular, highlighted the frequency of the word "God" throughout the text.

[86] A January 1998 Washington Post article cited Bennett's resulting franchise as an example of "flooding the market", in which authors produce sequels within a short stretch of time to meet popular and merchandising demand.

[87] Subtitled A Companion to The Book of Virtues,[31] The Moral Compass consists of seven chapters, each pertaining to a different stage of life: "Home and Hearth", "Into the World", "Standing Fast", "Easing the Path", "Mothers and Fathers, Husbands and Wives", "Citizenship and Leadership", and "What We Live By".

[71] The series' main human characters, Annie Redfeather (a Native American) and Zach Nichols, were accompanied by three animal friends: woodchuck Aristotle, buffalo Plato, and bobcat Socrates.

[86] Celebrity guest voices included Ed Asner, Tim Curry, Shelley Duvall, Mark Hamill, Kathy Najimy, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Elijah Wood.