"Capitalism is being attacked not because it is inefficient or misgoverned but because it is cynical. And indeed a society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure, no matter how impeccable its logic, no matter how great its benefits."
Vices quotes
Vices
1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Vices
Browse quotes that often appear alongside vices — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Vices quotes (page 14 of 53)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men."
"Like Daniel she enteres the lions' den, but lacking Daniel's pure and unblemished soul, Ada is spiced with the flavors of vice that make for a tasty meal. Pure and unblemished souls must taste very bland, with an aftertaste of bitterness."
"My experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has damned few virtues."
"If I have one vice and I can call it nothing else it is not able to say 'no'."
"Fortune is an evil chain to the body, and vice to the soul."
"Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompence the pangs of vice."
"God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter."
"Ah, Miss Harriet, it would do us no harm to remember oftener than we do, that vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!"
"Envy ... is one form of a vice, partly moral, partly intellectual, which consists in seeing things never in themselves but only in their relations."
"Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others, and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk."
"There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches."
"I am not interested in being vice president of the United States. I've let the candidate know. If the candidate asks me to be vice president, the answer is I got to say yes. But he's not going to ask me."
"World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa."
"Craving for power is not a vice of the body, consequently it knows none of the limitations imposed by a tired or satiated physiology upon gluttony, intemperance and lust"
"Vice incapacitates a man from all public duty; it withers the powers of his under- standing, and makes his mind paralytic."
"Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause."
"For there's no motion That tends to vice in man, but I affirm It is the woman's part."
"Life is art's rival and vice versa."
"We must never fear robbers or murderers. They are dangers from outside, small dangers. It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, vice the real murderer. Why should we be troubled by a threat to our person or our pocket? What we have to beware of is the threat to our souls'."