“It can fairly be said of John Smith that he had all the virtues of a Scottish presbyterian, but none of the vices.”

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

“Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him.”

“Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice…. None is a slave whose acts are free.”

“Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.”

“Not to know vice at all, and keep true state,
Is virtue, and not fate:
Next to that virtue is to know vice well,
And her black spite expel.”

“Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.”

“Idleness is the mother of all vices, but also of all virtues.”

“It was the college conservatives who had almost succeeded in electing John Smith to the Presidency of the United States during the last election. The fact that Smith had been dead for twenty years had not dampened their ardor; quite the contrary, many considered this the candidate’s best quality.”

“Self-pity, he said, is the most demoralizing of all vices.”