Villainy Quotes

• You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Stupid, Results, Malice

  "Logic of Empire" (1941).

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• The villany you teach me I shall execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

  William Shakespeare

  Venice, Shylock, Instruction

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 3, sc. 1, l. [76]

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• No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Men, Natural Talent, Done

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2016). “A Study in Scarlet”, p.32, Arthur Conan Doyle

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• The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him... [from Macbeth]

  Alan Moore

  Vendetta, Multiplying, Swarms

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• Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

  Mark Twain

  Men, Expression, Honest

  A Curious Dream (1872) "A Mysterious Visit"

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• Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Slumber, Virtue, Posts

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.226

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• Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, Of crooked counsels and dark politics.

  Alexander Pope

  Dark, Thinking, Calm

  Alexander Pope (1847). “The works of Alexander Pope, with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author [&c.] by W. Roscoe”, p.215

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• Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Giving Up, Add, Impudence

  Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world”, p.467

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• I think it's too easy often to find a villain out of the headlines and to then repeat that villainy again and again and again. You know, traditionally, America has always looked to scapegoat someone as the boogie man.

  Edward Zwick

  Men, Thinking, America

  "Featured Filmmaker: Edward Zwick" by Stax, www.ign.com. March 4, 2002.

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• I'm interested in villainy.

  Jonathan Frid

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• The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties he is at the maximum of his villainy.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Years, Fifty

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• We weren't wealthy but we definitely weren't poor. We were incredibly rich because there was a wonderful community in Shepherd's Bush, where I grew up. All my friends were into villainy and crime.

  Roger Daltrey

  Community, Shepherds, Wonderful

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• I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as this writ of assistance is.

  James Otis

  Hands, Dying, Slavery

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

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• And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

  William Shakespeare

  Play, Devil, Saint

  William Shakespeare, Janis Lull (2009). “King Richard III”, p.95, Cambridge University Press

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• A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd, Quoted, and sign'd, to do a deed of shame.

  William Shakespeare

  Hands, Deeds, Shame

  William Shakespeare (1836). “Select plays from Shakspeare; adapted for the use of schools and young persons: with notes from the best commentators. [6 plays”

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• Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.

  Washington Irving

  Virtue, Mask, Dangerous

  "Fictional character: Ichabod Crane". "Sleepy Hollow", 1999.

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• I dont play villainy. I wouldnt even know how to play it.

  Kevin Spacey

  Play, Know How, Knows

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• There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Men, Names, Scotland

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2016). “Sherlock Holmes. The best stories”, p.18, "Издательство ""Проспект"""

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• Nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears.

  William Shakespeare

  Fear

  William Shakespeare, Thomas Dolby (1832). “The Shakespearian Dictionary, Forming a General Index to All the Popular Expressions, and Most Striking Passages in the Works of Shakespeare, from a Few Words to Fifty Or More Lines ... By T. Dolby”, p.108

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• Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

  Lee Van Cleef

  Funny, Eye, Acting

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Affectation is to be always distinguished from hypocrisy as being the art of counterfeiting those qualities, which we might with innocence and safety, be known to want. Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy; affectation part of the chosen trappings of folly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Hypocrisy, Safety

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.23

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• Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

  George Lucas

  Obi Wan Kenobi, Scum, Dark Side

  Star Wars (motion picture) (1977)

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• Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Distance, Men, World

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.201

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• people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue.

  John Hancock

  Respect, Honesty, Men

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• Drink has shed more blood, hung more crepe, sold more homes, plunged more people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defiled more innocence, blinded more eyes, dethroned more reason, wrecked more manhood, dishonored more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide and dug more graves than any other evil that has cursed the world.

  Evangeline Booth

  Suicide, Children, Home

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