There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

The greatest offence against virtue is to speak ill of it.

So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.

Virtue practiced to be seen is not real virtue; vice which fears to be seen is real vice

Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.