Aphorisms Galore!

Vice and Virtue

161 aphorisms  ·  5 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/a05b6vef  ·  submitted 1997

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Charles Caleb Colton, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/pcf4akr5  ·  submitted 1999

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

tiny.ag/4uvnidhy  ·  submitted 1997

Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Blaise Pascal, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/eccda2wq  ·  submitted 1997

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/jq7rxlqz  ·  submitted 1997

I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.

Jules Renard, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/dyq1q946  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/umrsfwb2  ·  submitted 1997

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

La Rochefoucauld, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/g42cvkx0  ·  submitted 1997

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

John D. Rockefeller, in Vice and Virtue and Wealth and Poverty

tiny.ag/9te2rxr1  ·  submitted 1997

A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent

William Blake, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/9uv5rp2p  ·  submitted 1997

He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.

William Blake, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/e2igybvl  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

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

tiny.ag/ubsgpw2q  ·  submitted 1997

There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.

James Branch Cabell, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/l4pyn7j8  ·  submitted 1997

I will answer anything I can with honor, but not about others.

John Brown, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/6qdfb14w  ·  submitted 1997

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/iqolobqc  ·  submitted 1997

In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat.

Robert Byrne, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/k4hosucr  ·  submitted 1997

Don't wait for the last judgment; it takes place every day.

Albert Camus, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/gpt56czo  ·  submitted 1997

That woman speaks eight languages and can't say "no" in any of them.

Dorothy Parker, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/riquczeo  ·  submitted 1997

Foundation (paperback)

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

Isaac Asimov, Foundation, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/xjufzea6  ·  submitted 1997

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

Francis Bacon, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/zl0ikbnv  ·  submitted 1997

Coward: one who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.

Ambrose Bierce, in Vice and Virtue and War and Peace