Quotes about Vices

The Greeks took for granted a warrior-ethic ("aristeia," the virtues, values, culture and competence of "aristoi") not just between man and nature, and one city and another, and in the competitive contests (agones) between one person or point of view and another, but most especially between the individual mind striving for illumination and the vast surrounding obscure chaos of all that we do not know or understand or, as yet, have the resources to master. Humans from the earliest days of their lives have already planted their feet on one of two paths, one leading toward self-illumination or a determination to live life knowingly, as cognoscenti or "knowers," and one leading toward the absolute minimum of effort at illumination, a default-mentality marked by the vices of ignoranti, the countless herds of the mostly oblivious and passive who are content merely to be, to drift and be driven, not to be morally or philosophically accountable for themselves.

"Men differ in their virtues, if any, but they are alike in their vices."
--Gail Wynand, The Fountainhead.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

It is a socialist ideal that making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Winston Churchill, for his part, regarded Gandhi with not a little contempt, describing the 'Mahatma' as a dangerous charlatan: "It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice regal palace, while he is still organising and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of King-Emperor."

Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say there is no sin, but to be rich: And, being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say there is no vice, but beggary.

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice breaks; Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.

I hate ingratitude more in a man Than lying, vainness, babbling drunkenness, Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption Inhabits our frail blood.

What is public history but a register of the successes and disappointments, the vices, the follies and the quarrels of those who engage in contention for power.

Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendour, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility.

It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.

Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise.

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

Work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice and need.

"I have no more than twenty acres of ground," he replied, "the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us the three great evils - boredom, vice, and want."

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

Ownership is not a vice, not something to be ashamed of, but rather a commitment, and an instrument by which the general good can be served.

Weeds are the little vices that beset plant life, and are to be got rid of the best way we know how.

Virtues paraded hide vices; like those strong odors used to hide bad smells.

I don't need to know your secret. I don't need to know your vices I don't need to know your past All I need is to be needed.

Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the virtues of a man without his vices.

We're like a real family. Opinionated, argumentative, holding grudges, challenging each other. We challenge each other to be better than we are. That kind of thing doesn't happen at barbecues, at ball games, it happens on the job we're supposed to do. On the case. Put down the murder. The work itself is the most important thing. What we do is important. We speak for those that can no longer speak for themselves. And you're not gonna ever find anything like that anywhere. Not in vice, and not patrolling the grounds at Disneyland.

According to the ancient Greeks, when Hercules was a boy, just reaching the period of life when there was a question in his mind which path he should pursue, he went forth by himself and sat down and meditated. There came to him someone in the form of a beautiful young woman. "Hercules, I know what you want," she said "the path that I will point out to you will bring pleasure, will bring you constant place in society, will bring you the choice things of life, to eat and to drink and clothing to wear. You shall be popular in the society in which you shall move, and your whole life will be one constant round of pleasure." "What is your name?" Hercules asked. "My enemies call me Vice, but my friends call me Pleasure," she replied. Then there appeared to him another beautiful woman and she said: "Hercules, I shall not deceive you; the path I shall point out to you will be a path of labor, a path of toil, a path of self-sacrifice, a path in which you must devote a great deal of your effort and energy; you will have to forget yourself; you will have to serve your friends; you will have to serve the people of Greece; but if you will take this path and pursue it, although it may bring to you much toil and privation and many sacrifices, you shall become immortal." Hercules asked: "What is your name?" She replied: "My name is Duty."

A legend of long ago says that the devil gave a hermit the choice of three great vices, one of which was drunkenness. The hermit chose this as being the least sinful; he became drunk, and then he committed the other two.

Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes. These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.

All mystical experience is coincidence; and vice versa, of course

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation is principle is always a vice.

If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.