Vices Messages
Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.
SenecaNature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.
Francois de La RochefoucauldNor is it always in the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered: but very often an action of small note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battle.
PlutarchUnless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail.
Walter LippmannHalf the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
Samuel ButlerWe do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Francois de La RochefoucauldDIGESTION, n. The conversion of victuals into virtues. When the process is imperfect, vices are evolved instead -- a circumstance from which that wicked writer, Dr. Jeremiah Blenn, infers that the ladies are the greater sufferers from dyspepsia.
Ambrose BierceEAVESDROP, v.i. Secretly to overhear a catalogue of the crimes and vices of another or yourself. A lady with one of her ears applied To an open keyhole heard, inside, Two female gossips in converse free -- The subject engaging them was she. "I think," said one, "and my husband thinks That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!" As soon as no more of it she could hear The lady, indignant, removed her ear. "I will not stay," she said, with a pout, "To hear my character lied about!" Gopete Sherany
Ambrose BierceA portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.
HoraceSome vices only lay hold of us by means of others, and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk.
Blaise PascalBe at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin FranklinSATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent. Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung In the dead language of a mummy's tongue, For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well -- Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell. Had it been such as consecrates the Bible Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel. Barney Stims
Ambrose BierceAGE, n. That period of life in which we compound for the vices that we still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer the enterprise to commit.
Ambrose BierceThe problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
Elizabeth TaylorWe make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.
Saint AugustineThe greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
Rene Descartes