Alas, human vices, however horrible one might imagine them to be, contain the proof (were it only in their infinite expansion) of man's longing for the infinite; but it is a longing that often takes the wrong route. It is my belief that the reason behind all culpable excesses lies in this depravation of the sense of the infinite.
~ Charles Baudelaire

There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can offer will tempt them to work; so eaten up by vice that virtue is abhorrent to them, and so inveterately dishonest that theft is to them a master passion. When a human being has reached that stage, there is only one course that can be rationally pursued. Sorrowfully, but remorselessly, it must be recognized that he has become lunatic, morally demented, incapable of self-government, and that upon him, therefore, must be passed the sentence of permanent seclusion from a world in which he is not fit to be at large.
~ William Booth

The vices we scoff at in others, laugh at us within ourselves.
~ Thomas Edward Brown

Tobacco and alcohol, delicious fathers of abiding friendships and fertile reveries.
~ Luis Bunuel

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.
~ Samuel Butler

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
~ Samuel Butler

Every day confirms my opinion on the superiority of a vicious life -- and if Virtue is not its own reward I don't know any other stipend annexed to it.
~ Lord Byron

Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.
~ Lord Chesterfield

Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue.
~ Lord Chesterfield

Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.
~ Confucius

So much of our lives is given over to the consideration of our imperfections that there is no time to improve our imaginary virtues. The truth is we only perfect our vices, and man is a worse creature when he dies than he was when he was born.
~ Edward Dahlberg

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!
~ Charles Dickens

Vice is a creature of such hideous mien... that the more you see it the better you like it.
~ Finley Peter Dunne

What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.
~ Henry Fielding

Vice knows that she is ugly, so she puts on her mask.
~ Benjamin Franklin

A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.
~ Horace

The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.
~ Horace

Most vices demand considerable self-sacrifices. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a vicious life is a life of uninterrupted pleasure. It is a life almost as wearisome and painful -- if strenuously led -- as Christian's in The Pilgrim's Progress.
~ Aldous Huxley

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The vices of some men are magnificent.
~ Charles Lamb