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The vices we scoff at in others laugh at us within ourselves.
Sep 10, 2025
Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.
What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.
It takes a vice to check a vice, and virtue is the by-product of a stalemate between opposite vices.
Vice is its own reward.
Every day confirms my opinion on the superiority of a vicious life, and if Virtue is not its own reward, I don't know any other stipend annexed to it.
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.
Vice is nice, but liquor is quicker.
Vice and virtue chiefly imply the relation of our actions to men in this world; sin and holiness rather imply their relation to God and the other world.
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.
Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.
The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.
Vices and virtues are of a strange nature, for the more we have, the fewer we think we have.
Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.
Remember, the prince is like a mirror exposed to the eyes of all his subjects who continually look to him as a pattern on which to model themselves, and who in consequence without much trouble discover his vices and virtues.
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.
It is not, perhaps, unreasonable to conclude, that a pure and perfect democracy is a thing not attainable by man, constituted as he is of contending elements of vice and virtue, and ever mainly influenced by the predominant principle of self-interest. It may, indeed, be confidently asserted, that there never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.
So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it.
Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
Vice, virtue - it's best not to be too moral. You'll cheat yourself out of too much life.
Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores.
Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as moral indignation, which permits envy or to be acted out under the guise of virtue.
It is convention and arbitrary rewards which make all the merit and demerit of what we call vice and virtue.
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.
[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable, and absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.