Rene Descartes - Henry Fielding - Samuel Butler - Horace Walpole - R S Surtees - Rebecca West - William Shakespeare - Marquis de Sade - Elizabeth Taylor - R Buckminster Fuller - Maximilien Robespierre - St Augustine of Hippo - Cicero - Winston Churchill - Daniel Defoe - William Hazlitt - Moliere - David Hume - Adam Smith - Marie Dressler - Tallulah Bankhead - Oscar Wilde - John Steinbeck - Mary Shelley - Quentin Crisp - Aesop - Francois de la Rochefoucauld - Horace - Franz Kafka - Henry Ward Beecher - Red Riding Trilogy: Nineteen Eighty-Three TV - Henry St John/Lord Bolingbroke - William Congreve -
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues. Rene Descartes
Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality. Henry Fielding, 1707-54
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence. Samuel Butler
Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice. Horace Walpole
More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice. R S Surtees
It is always one’s virtues and not one’s vices that precipitate one into disaster. Rebecca West, There is No Conversation, 1935
Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied,
And vice sometimes by action dignified. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet II ii 21-22, Nurse to Peter
For in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg. William Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv 153
I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night III iv 346-349
… and do but see his vice.
’Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
The one as long as th’other. William Shakespeare, Othello II iii 115-117
For vice repeated, like the wand’ring wind,
Blows dust in others’ eyes to spread itself. William Shakespeare, Pericles I l139-140, Pericles
In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice. Marquis de Sade
Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization. Marquis de Sade
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. Elizabeth Taylor
Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices. R Buckminster Fuller
France must be purged of all vice. Maximilien Robespierre
We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot. St Augustine of Hippo
It is a great thing to know our vices. Cicero
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. Winston Churchill
Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination. Daniel Defoe, 1660-1731, Moll Flanders
The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy. William Hazlitt
The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. George Washington
The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental. Julian Baggini
I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue. Moliere
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. David Hume
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. Adam Smith
No vice is so bad as advice. Marie Dressler
Here’s a rule I recommend: Never practice two vices at once. Tallulah Bankhead
He hadn’t a single redeeming vice. Oscar Wilde
The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity. Oscar Wilde
Patriotism is the vice of nations. Oscar Wilde
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted shortcuts to love. John Steinbeck
Nearly everyone in the world has appetites and impulses, trigger emotions, islands of selfishness, lusts just beneath the surface. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Vice is its own reward. Quentin Crisp
Vices are their own punishment. Aesop
Our virtues are most often but our vices disguised. François de la Rochefoucauld
The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice. Horace
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues. Franz Kafka
Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without in himself. Henry Ward Beecher
Controlled vice: off the streets, out of the shop windows and into our pockets. The whole of the north of England: the girls, shops, the mags, the whole bloody lot. Red Riding Trilogy: Nineteen Eighty-Three (2002) starring Tamsin Mitchell & Andrew Cryer & James Ainsworth & Ian Mercer & Gerard Kearns & Cara Seymour & Sean Bean & Jim Carter & Robert Sheehan et al, director Anand Tucker, head rozzer
The greatest art of a politician is to render vice serviceable to the cause of virtue. Henry St John, Lord Bolingbroke
It is the business of the comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind. William Congreve 1670-1729, The Double Dealer