Literary notes about VICE (AI summary)
In literature, the word vice is used both to denote moral shortcomings and to signify a subordinate role or position. It often appears in discussions that frame vice in opposition to virtue—reflecting inherent human frailties or ethical defects, as seen when it is contrasted with virtue in moral treatises ([1], [2], [3], [4]) or depicted as the ruinous influence on character ([5], [6], [7]). At the same time, vice serves a functional purpose, referring to deputy or secondary offices, thereby linking it to hierarchical roles in political and administrative contexts ([8], [9], [10]). The term is also extended in phrases like “vice versa” to imply inversion or reciprocal relation ([11], [12]), showcasing its versatile role in both moral and pragmatic discourses.
- I doubt not, that you haue any cause to maruaile of my presumption and to attribute that to vice, which is familiar with vertue.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince’s notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all mankind.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift - Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, And vice sometime's by action dignified.
— from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - " Their wise man needs nothing, he is sufficient to himself; virtue is good, vice bad, external things indifferent.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - There he lay, not over nineteen years of age, ruined by every vice a sailor's life absorbs.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - Jealousy is ridiculous,' I said to him; 'jealousy is a vice!'...
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Can it be that she has only been able to bear it till now, because vice has begun to be less loathsome to her?
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It was a letter signed by the foremost man of this age, Mr. Roosevelt, written September 15, 1900, accepting the nomination for the Vice-Presidency.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. Blount - At certain moments the two Vice-Presidents mounted on the benches so as to be better seen from all points of the room.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - In 1689 he was chosen on the Privy Council, and in 1690 became Vice- Treasurer for Ireland.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Is the hermit crab Shint[=o], and the shell Buddhism, or vice versa ?
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis - What is easy to you may be hard to me, and ‘vice versa’.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
