Vice
AND
VIRTUE
The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
THE GREATEST ART OF A POLITICIAN IS TO RENDER VICE SERVICEABLE TO THE CAUSE OF VIRTUE.
I was horrified to find the other week that my second son is taking drugs. My very best ones too.
FOR GOD’S SAKE, IF YOU SIN, TAKE PLEASURE IN IT, AND DO IT FOR THE PLEASURE.
How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them.
GOOD TASTE IS THE WORST VICE EVER INVENTED.
Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual vice.
IF THERE WERE NO BAD PEOPLE, THERE WOULD BE NO GOOD LAWYERS.
I always admired virtue — but I could never imitate it.
IF YOU PRETEND TO BE GOOD, THE WORLD TAKES YOU VERY SERIOUSLY. IF YOU PRETEND TO BE BAD, IT DOESN’T. SUCH IS THE ASTOUNDING STUPIDITY OF OPTIMISM.
All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.
GOOD AND BAD MEN ARE EACH LESS SO THAN THEY SEEM.
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.
IF YOU RESOLVE TO GIVE UP SMOKING, DRINKING AND LOVING, YOU DON’T ACTUALLY LIVE LONGER — IT JUST SEEMS LONGER.
Oh, blameless people are always the most exasperating!
I HAVE OFTEN WISHED I HAD TIME TO CULTIVATE MODESTY. BUT I AM TOO BUSY THINKING ABOUT MYSELF.
As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.
ON THE WHOLE, HUMAN BEINGS WANT TO BE GOOD, BUT NOT TOO GOOD, AND NOT QUITE ALL THE TIME.
What after all is a halo? It’s only one more thing to keep clean.
VICES AND VIRTUES ARE OF A STRANGE NATURE, FOR THE MORE WE HAVE, THE FEWER WE THINK WE HAVE.
Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.
Goodness is
BEAUTY IN ITS
BEST ESTATE.
IN ENGLAND THE ONLY HOMAGE WHICH THEY PAY TO VIRTUE — IS HYPOCRISY.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
THE MOST INFLUENTIAL OF ALL THE VIRTUES ARE THOSE WHICH ARE THE MOST IN REQUEST FOR DAILY USE. THEY WEAR THE BEST, AND LAST THE LONGEST.