For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property.
The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
Crimes sometimes shock us too much; vices almost always too little.
To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.
When virtue is at liberty, so to some extent is vice.
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.
Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.
The law courts must appear as a threatening gesture toward secret vice. The bank must declare: here your money is secure and well looked after by honest people.
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.
It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.