V.—Virtues and Vices
Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue.
Our vices are commonly disguised virtues.
Virtue would not go far if vanity did not go with her.
Prosperity is a stronger test of virtue than misfortune is.
Men blame vice and praise virtue only through self-interest.
Great souls are not those which have less passions and more virtues than common souls, but those which have larger ambitions.
Of all our virtues one might say what an Italian poet has said of the honesty of women, "that it is often nothing but an art of pretending to be honest."
Virtues are lost in self-interest, as rivers are in the sea.
To the honour of virtue it must be acknowledged that the greatest misfortunes befall men from their vices.