Century Quote by R. H. Tawney

“The dominating idea of English society was not cultivate virtue but to avoid scandal.”

— Edward Short

Obstinacy, sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is frequently the cause of great mischief. It…

— Edmund Burke

“In those days the worst vice in England was pride, I guess—the worst vice of all, because folks thought it was a virtue.”

— Carol Ryrie Brink

Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy.…

— Anonymous

Everything I had been taught to regard as a vice - and I still regard them as vices - under Thatcherism was in fact…

— Glenda Jackson

His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life.

— Orson Scott Card

That part of the Englishman's nature which has found gratification in religion is now drifting into political life.

— Beatrice Webb

The Englishman, be it noted, seldom resorts to violence; when he is sufficiently goaded he simply opens up, like the oyster, and devours his…

— Henry Miller

“Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion…

— Mary Shelley

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

— Quintilian

“Likewise, while the men and women were no more naturally attractive than their English counterparts, they dressed with an assurance and attention to detail…

— Kathleen Tessaro

...ambition without pious restraint must end in failure, often involving in its ruin that beautiful reverence which solaces common men for the obscurity and…

— Russell Kirk