Virtue, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 264

264

Virtue, (1) a knowledge that the ladder of human rank is an illusion and so one steps aside as others clamber up or fall down; this of course creates the further illusion that one proposes humility precisely where one takes pride in holding to the first rank of wisdom (2) a cause of pride that stops just shy of continuing as an effect of pride (3) the strength to wear a mask of inverted hypocrisy, where one’s pretending to a vice spares another from the crushing awareness of an unavoidable shortcoming.

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