Society and the World

Sometimes Virtue starves, while Vice is fed.

There are amiable vices and obnoxious virtues.

I prefer an accommodating vice to an obstinate virtue.

There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

Some, either from being glued to vice by a natural attachment, or from long habit, no longer recognize its ugliness.

Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices.

Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices.

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we leave them.

Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her Mask.

So in the wicked there’s no vice Of which the saints have not a spice.

and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.

It is only in some corner of the brain which we leave empty that Vice can obtain a lodging.

Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth.

Truth emerges more readily from error than confusion.

Who speaks the truth stabs Falsehood to the heart.

There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art.

Half the trouble in life is caused by pretending there isn’t any.

Borrow trouble for yourself, if that’s your nature, but don’t lend it to your neighbors.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.

To lose your prejudices you must travel.