The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hypocrisy involves pretending to uphold virtues while actually failing to do so.
This quote expresses the idea that hypocrisy, or the act of presenting oneself as virtuous while acting in vice, is a way that vice acknowledges the existence of virtue. It suggests that those who engage in hypocritical behavior recognize the value of virtue, even if they do not embody it themselves, indicating a complex relationship between morality and human behavior.
Themes
HypocrisyVirtueViceMoralityDeception
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about ethics in politics, this quote can highlight the contradiction in politicians who claim to uphold values but act otherwise.
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The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
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To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
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