Aphorisms Galore!

Vice and Virtue

161 aphorisms  ·  5 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/v7xs8s9o  ·  submitted 1997

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Voltaire, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/wpd94fsg  ·  submitted 1997

The superfluous is very necessary.

Voltaire, 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

tiny.ag/ca72ttqk  ·  submitted 1997

It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when it is thrust into the affairs of another, from which some physiologists have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.

Ambrose Bierce, in Vice and Virtue

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/psiwplgd  ·  submitted 1997

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

George Bernard Shaw, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/mnliphwg  ·  submitted 1997

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well dance with it.

George Bernard Shaw, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/7hdzmwue  ·  submitted 1997

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

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

tiny.ag/tsfy8mui  ·  submitted 1997

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

George Bernard Shaw, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/fm3etwy0  ·  submitted 1997

They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts.

Philip Sidney, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/qed4rpux  ·  submitted 1997

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Socrates, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/xo2lhomi  ·  submitted 1998 by A. Heyn

To forget is human, to forgive divine.

Marc Spierings, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/ckjtcepm  ·  submitted 1998

If only bad habits could be broken as easily as hearts!

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

tiny.ag/zllwc8ka  ·  submitted 1998

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

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

tiny.ag/ytxzhxw1  ·  submitted 1997

Everything in moderation -- including moderation.

Harvey Steiman, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/ahgswdqq  ·  submitted 1999

Alas, fortune does not change men; it unmasks them.

Stephen T. Steve, in Vice and Virtue and Wealth and Poverty

tiny.ag/uj7gzt1i  ·  submitted 1997

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

Jonathan Swift, in Vice and Virtue