Aphorisms Galore!

Vice and Virtue

161 aphorisms  ·  5 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

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/bungm82p  ·  submitted 1997

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

Henry David Thoreau, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/iufy8ewr  ·  submitted 1999

I should not talk so much about myself were there anybody else whom I knew as well.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/xuteqz61  ·  submitted 1997

Always do right -- this will gratify some and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/mltkwzme  ·  submitted 1997

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/2p8s4z0u  ·  submitted 1997

Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/krxruwjx  ·  submitted 1999

Following the Equator (paperback)

Be good and you will be lonesome.

Mark Twain, Following the Equator, in Happiness and Misery and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/17uoj5hx  ·  submitted 1997

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/qnvx9otp  ·  submitted 1997

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/mbwozhf6  ·  submitted 1997

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/q2py4esl  ·  submitted 1997

Let us so live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.

Mark Twain, in Life and Death and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/kfcphxpx  ·  submitted 1997

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

Saint Augustine, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/mqycsaej  ·  submitted 1999

The greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.

Jonas Salk, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/8qrwy5es  ·  submitted 1997

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.

William Saroyan, in Success and Failure and Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/bvnk86xs  ·  submitted 1997

No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.

Charles Schulz, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/nf5uvtlk  ·  submitted 1997

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

Albert Schweitzer, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/raz2xodz  ·  submitted 1997

He who is sorry for having sinned is almost innocent.

Seneca, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/iudoprdc  ·  submitted 1997

He that is proud eats up himself; pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.

William Shakespeare, in Vice and Virtue

tiny.ag/ixldmygb  ·  submitted 1997

A reasonable man adapts himself to suit his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

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