Aphorisms Galore!

Vice and Virtue

161 aphorisms  ·  5 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/ca72ttqk  ·   Fair (289 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (506 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (303 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

William Blake, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/e2igybvl  ·   Fair (1042 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (226 ratings)  ·  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/xjufzea6  ·   Fair (971 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (427 ratings)  ·  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/koyhdrgm  ·   Fair (838 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The Art of Rhetoric (paperback)

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

Aristotle, Rhetoric, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/ctd7inn0  ·   Fair (637 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right, shame on you.

Louis Armstrong, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/riquczeo  ·   Fair (902 ratings)  ·  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/54eiupku  ·   Fair (395 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better.

Laurie Anderson, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/yvbktsoi  ·   Fair (284 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

Alfred Adler, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/38uw2bmm  ·   Fair (244 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

Joseph Addison, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/5bldgyv4  ·   Fair (312 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King, Jr., in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/9yutw8at  ·   Fair (83 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

It does not take much strength to do things, but it takes great strength to know what to do.

Jess Lair, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/t2fxueny  ·   Fair (101 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences.

Midori Koto, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/pxnbu4ey  ·   Fair (820 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

Rudyard Kipling, in Men and Women and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/roibaqpn  ·   Fair (283 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr., in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/mnrh4p2b  ·   Fair (608 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Always forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

John F. Kennedy, in Altruism and Cynicism and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/1f9y6qie  ·   Fair (52 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.

Murray Kempton, in Vice and Virtue