Vice and Virtue

A reasonable man adapts himself to suit his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

 George Bernard Shaw, in  Altruism and Cynicism and  Vice and Virtue

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

 Mark Twain, in  Vice and Virtue

If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him.

 Cardinal Richelieu, in  Vice and Virtue

A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.

 Rudyard Kipling, in  Men and Women and  Vice and Virtue

They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts.

 Philip Sidney, in  Vice and Virtue

We are more apt to catch the vices of others than their virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.

 Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1.247, in  Vice and Virtue

If only I could be respected without having to be respectable.

 Unknown, in  Vice and Virtue

He that leaveth nothing to Chance will do few things ill, but he will do few things.

 Lord Halifax, in  Vice and Virtue

If I didn't have a problem with alcohol, I'd drink all the time.

 Havelock Ellis, (from biographer's notes), in  Food and Drink and  Vice and Virtue

Too much of a good thing is just that.

 Brian J. Dent, in  Vice and Virtue

The time is always right to do what is right

 Martin Luther King, Jr., in  Vice and Virtue

When you're angry, take a deep breath and count to ten. When you're really angry, swear.

 Unknown, in  Vice and Virtue

The greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.

 Jonas Salk, in  Vice and Virtue

I should not talk so much about myself were there anybody else whom I knew as well.

 Henry David Thoreau, Walden, in  Vice and Virtue

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.

 Thomas Jefferson, in  Law and Politics and  Vice and Virtue

In adultery, there is usually tenderness and self-sacrifice; in murder, courage; in profanation and blasphemy, a certain satanic splendour. Judas elected those offences unvisited by any virtues: abuse of confidence and informing.

 Jorge Luis Borges, "Three Versions of Judas", in  Vice and Virtue

The more debauched one becomes, the more one's fantasies revolve around chastity.

 Christopher Spranger, The Effort to Fall, in  Vice and Virtue

The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

 Thomas Macaulay, History of England, I, in  Vice and Virtue

Yield to temptation -- it may not pass your way again.

 Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (Lazarus Long), in  Vice and Virtue

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

 Isaac Asimov, Foundation, in  Vice and Virtue