The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we are leaving them.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.