Quotes
Quotes about Vice
We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot. [Lat., De vitiis nostris scalam nobis facimus, si vitia ipsa calcamus.]
Vices of the time; vices of the man. [Lat., Vitia temporis; vitia hominis.]
Vice gets more in this vicious world Than piety.
Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down.
And last the Vice and Follies of the Age.
Ne'er blush'd, unless, in spreading vice's snares, She blunder'd on some virtue unawares.
What maintains one vice would bring up two children.
Every vice makes its guilt the more conspicuous in proportion to the rank of the offender. [Lat., Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet, quanto major qui peccat habetur.]
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we despise all those who have not a single virtue.
A vice is a failure of desire.
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame.
Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; But shall the dignity of vice be lost?
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated need but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
The heart resolves this matter in a trice, "Men only feel the smart, but not the vice."
Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of men, not of the times. [Lat., Hominum sunt ista [vitia], non temporum.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us.
There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
Who has a book of all that monarchs do, He's more secure to keep it shut than shown; For vice repeated is like the wand'ring wind, Blows dust in others' eye, to spread itself; And yet the end of all is bought thus dear, The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear To stop the air would hurt them.
O, what a mansion have those vices got Which for their habitation chose out thee, Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot And all things turns to fair that eyes can see!
The willing contemplation of vice is vice.
It is but a step from companionship to slavery when one associates with vice.
The vices we scoff at in others, laugh at us within ourselves.
Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.
One big vice in a man is apt to keep out a great many smaller ones.
