Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;
But shall the dignity of vice be lost?

Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;
But shall the dignity of vice be lost?

Vice is its own reward

Vice is its own reward

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have read more

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.

Vice gets more in this vicious world
Than piety.

Vice gets more in this vicious world
Than piety.

Nurse one vice in your bosom. Give it the attention it deserves and let your virtues spring p modestly around read more

Nurse one vice in your bosom. Give it the attention it deserves and let your virtues spring p modestly around it. Then you'll have the miser who's no liar; and the drunkard who's the benefactor of the whole city.

If individuals have no vices, their virtues may be of use to us.

If individuals have no vices, their virtues may be of use to us.

I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores

I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores

We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those
same vices underfoot.
[Lat., De read more

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.]

Every vice makes its guilt the more conspicuous in proportion to
the rank of the offender.
[Lat., Omne read more

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.]