Kathleen Parker Quotes

Many a thief is a better man than many a clergyman, and miles nearer to the gate of the kingdom.

Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue in the eyes of bigots.

The vices we scoff at in others laugh at us within ourselves.

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

There is probably no one, however rigid his virtue, who is not liable to find himself, by the complexity of circumstances, living at close quarters with the very vice which he himself has been most outspoken in condemning -- without altogether recognizing it beneath the disguise of ambiguous behavior which it assumes in his presence.

One of the great triumphs of the nineteenth century was to limit the connotation of the word "immoral" in such a way that, for practical purposes, only those were immoral who drank too much or made too copious love. Those who indulged in any or all of the other deadly sins could look down in righteous indignation on the lascivious and the gluttonous.... In the name of all lechers and boozers I most solemnly protest against the invidious distinction made to our prejudice.

To will and not to do when there is opportunity is in reality not to will; and to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it

Fewer possess virtue, than those who wish us to believe that they possess it.

Goodness that preaches undoes itself.

Pharisaism is not a degeneration in a good man: a large portion of it is rather the condition of all being-good.

Every one may know that to will and not to do, when there is opportunity, is in reality not to will; and that to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it. Will, which stops short of action, and love, which does not do the good that is loved, is a mere thought separate from will and love, which vanishes and comes to nothing.

Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

Virtue sometimes pretends. Vice is always sincere.

Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore.

Oh, 'tis not my qualities they object to! 'Tis my lack of vice.

There'd be a lot less scandal if people didn't idealize sin and pose as sinners.

It must be a good thing to be good or ivrybody wudden't be pretendin' he was.

There's no one so self-righteous as someone policing someone else's morality.

Lack of power and opportunity passes off too often for virtue.

Old Khayyám, say you, is a debauchee;If only you were half so good as he!He sins no sins but gentle drunkenness,Great-hearted mirth, and kind adultery.But yours the cold heart, and the murderous tongue,The wintry soul that hates to hear a song,The close-shut fist, the mean and measuring eye,And all the little poisoned ways of wrong.

Hypocrisy is bad, but it's not the worst vice in the world. If I declared “murder is wrong” and then killed somebody, I would hope that the top count against me would be homicide, not hypocrisy. Liberal elites ' particularly in Hollywood ' believe that hypocrisy is the gravest sin in the world, which is why they advocate their own lifestyles for the entire world: Sleep with whomever you want, listen to your own instincts, be true to yourself, blah, blah, blah. Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony.

Men are almost always cruel in their neighbors' faults; and make others' overthrow the badge of their own ill-masked virtue.

Behind every erotic condemnation there's a burning hypocrite.

If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people.