Quotes about flaws

Thus every Part was full of Vice,

Yet the whole Mass a Paradise;

Flatter'd in Peace, and fear'd in Wars,

They were th' Esteem of Foreigners,

And lavish of their Wealth and Lives,

The Balance of all other Hives.

Virtues are often conquered by vices, but their rout is most complete when it is inflicted by other virtues, more militant, more efficient, or more congenial.

Friends as we are, we would willingly keep your failings to ourselves — even from ourselves if we could, unless by knowing them we could deliver you from them.

Some people blame the devil to keep from owning up to their shortcomings.

Throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people we most despise.

... vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

Self-pity, he said, is the most demoralizing of all vices.

And hereby it comes to passe, that Intemperance, is naturally punished with Diseases; Rashness, with Mischance; Injustice; with Violence of Enemies; Pride, with Ruine; Cowardice, with Oppression; Negligent government of Princes, with Rebellion; and Rebellion with Slaughter.

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Just as dyed hair makes older men less attractive, it is what you do to hide your weaknesses that makes them repugnant.

Preference of vice to virtue, a manifest wrong judgment.

I have all the defects of other people yet everything they do seems to me inconceivable.