Vice is its own reward

Vice is its own reward

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of
men, not of the times.
[Lat., Hominum read more

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of
men, not of the times.
[Lat., Hominum sunt ista [vitia], non temporum.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

Vice knows she's ugly, so puts on her mask

Vice knows she's ugly, so puts on her mask

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice

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.]

Ne'er blush'd, unless, in spreading vice's snares,
She blunder'd on some virtue unawares.

Ne'er blush'd, unless, in spreading vice's snares,
She blunder'd on some virtue unawares.

The heart resolves this matter in a trice,
"Men only feel the smart, but not the vice."

The heart resolves this matter in a trice,
"Men only feel the smart, but not the vice."