you absolutely cannot get a virus without running it. a virus cannot activate itself.
This is absolutely NOT true. Many viruses propagate themselves over networks (aka worms), in addition, many viruses are obtained through drive-by-downloads (essentially pages with exploitive JavaScript, VBScript or even malformed images, one of the common forms being a malformed GIF being used as a cursor).
While many cases of drive-by-downloads can be curbed by using a browser that doesn't have so many vulnerabilities (like the most excellent Opera), it's not possible to prevent all of them. And of course, a large number of potential worms can be prevented simply by blocking the ports they ("they" being common, well-known worms that are known to be in the "wild") propagate with (if they don't use ports that you absolutely need open that is).
But still, your statement is false. It's ENTIRELY possible to get viruses without actually executing them yourself. If you're stupid enough to be using MSIE however, you deserve to be overrun with all manner of viruses for being so absolutely fucking asinine to begin with.