A Quote by John Donne

I do not love a man, except I hate his vices, because those vices are the enemies, and the destruction of that friend whom I love.

John Donne

Quote Topics

Because Destruction Enemies Except Friend Hate His I Hate Love Man Those Vices Whom

Quote Author

John Donne
British - Poet
1572 - March 31, 1631

Our God is a God of love. He waits with open arms, and the unfolding of His merciful plan of salvation is not only therefore the mark of divine power but also the mark of God's relentless, redeeming love. It is a point well worth pondering because, among other reasons, it will help us to understand better why God, through the prophets, denounces sin and corruption in such scalding terms. He loves all of us, His spirit sons and daughters, but hates our vices. His denunciation of those vices may, if we are not careful, seem to obscure the enormous and perfect love He has for us.

Neal A. Maxwell

If a man has no vices, he is in great danger of making vices about his virtues, and there's a spectacle.

Thornton Wilder

Of all vices take heed of drunkenness; other vices are but fruits of disordered affections--this disorders, nay, banishes reason; other vices but impair the soul--this demolishes her two chief faculties, the understanding and the will; other vices make their own way--this makes way for all vices; he that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.

Francis Quarles

Amongst all other vices there is none I hate more than cruelty, both by nature and judgment, as the extremest of all vices.

Michel de Montaigne

I do not hate the man, but his vices.

Martial

We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.

Saint Augustine

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

Orson Scott Card

Of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested; it is the effect of an avidity common to all men; it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers.

Claude Adrien Helvetius

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of men, not of the times. [Lat., Hominum sunt ista [vitia], non temporum.

Seneca the Younger

Men love their vices and hate them at the same time.

Seneca the Younger

Ensor sees with his imagination, but his vision is perfectly accurate, of an almost geometric precision. He is one of the very few who can really see. Like you, he has an obsession with masks; he is a seer as you and I are. The common herd, of course thinks that he is mad.*****************You shall see what sort of man Ensor is, and what a marvellous insight he has into the invisible realm where our vices are created... those vices for which our faces make masks.

Jean Lorrain

He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.

Benjamin Harvey Hill

Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new.