Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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.

Those who make virtue their profession are the ruin of virtue.

When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

I think the greatest rogues are they who talk most of their honesty.

Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.

Behavior which appears superficially correct but is intrinsically corrupt always irritates those who see below the surface.

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.

Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.

Hypocrisy is a fearful evil, and every thing which has a tendency to produce it should be avoided.

Of all things in the world that stink in the nostrils of men, hypocrisy is the worst.

Through tattered clothes, small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all.

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.

Nowadays those are rewarded who make right appear wrong.

An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.

The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.

I completely scorn the falsifying, the sanctimonious, the cheap and the shoddy.

The better day, the worse deed.

There are some acts of justice which corrupt those who perform them.

We have a Sunday code and a weekday code. We preach good and practice evil. We clothe the wolf of our actions in the sheep's clothing of our beautiful phrases.

The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.

The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether.