“A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.”

—  Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 22.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency." by Miguel de Cervantes?
Miguel de Cervantes photo
Miguel de Cervantes 178
Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547–1616

Related quotes

Molière photo

“To create a public scandal is what's wicked;
To sin in private is not a sin.”

Molière book Tartuffe

Le scandale du monde est ce qui fait l'offense,
Et ce n'est pas pécher que pécher en silence.
Act IV, sc. v
Tartuffe (1664)

Linus Torvalds photo

“Good job. More public indecency, less TSA, that's what I say.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

[In response to http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/07/northeast_portland_man_who_str.html]
2010s, 2012

Bill Clinton photo

“Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

Thomas Brooks photo

“In private prayer we have a far greater advantage as so the exercise of our own gifts and graces and parts that we have in public…in public duties we are more passive, but in private duties we are more active. Now, the more our gifts and parts and graces are exercised, the more they are strengthened and increased. All acts strengthen habits. The more sin is acted, the more it is strengthened. And so it is with our gifts and graces; the more they are acted, the more they are strengthened.”

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan

The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665

Philo photo

“As parents in private life teach wisdom to their children, so do [poets] in public life to their cities.”

Philo (-15–45 BC) Roman philosopher

143.
Every Good Man is Free

Machado de Assis photo

“The greatest sin, after the initial sin, is its publication.”

Machado de Assis book Quincas Borba

O maior pecado, depois do pecado, é a publicação do pecado.
Quincas Borba (1891) ch. 32; Clotilde Wilson (trans.) Philosopher or Dog? (New York: Noonday Press, 1954) p. 41.

William Penn photo

“Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

376 - 379
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I

Georg Brandes photo

“What is public opinion? It is private indolence.”

Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar

Source: An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889), p. 9

Oscar Wilde photo

“Here we allow absolute freedom to the journalist and entirely limit the artist. English public opinion, that is to say, tries to constrain and impede and warp the man who makes things that are beautiful in effect, and compels the journalist to retail things that are ugly, or disgusting, or revolting in fact, so that we have the most serious journalists in the world and the most indecent newspapers.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Source: Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org https://archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala

“I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Related topics