Vice is nourished by being concealed.
Meaning: Secrecy allows wrongdoing to grow unchecked, while exposure and accountability naturally constrain immoral behavior.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Wisdom
- The sweetest wine makes the sharpest vinegar. — Excellence corrupted becomes more destructive than mediocrity ever could.
- The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it. — Deprivation reveals true value; we recognize importance only through loss or scarcity.
- For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost. — Small negligences compound catastrophically; ignoring minor problems cascades into comple…
- He that is warm thinks all are so. — The comfortable forget others suffer deprivation and misjudge universal experience by the…
- He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun. — Those with fragile vulnerabilities should avoid situations that expose or exploit their w…
- Let the weakest go to the wall. — The vulnerable are sacrificed first when resources or power become scarce or contested.
From our tongue twisters
- 隣の客はよく柿食う客だ (Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da) — A tricky spiral on ka/ki/ku that accelerates as you try to keep the syllables distinct.
- Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. — A bouncy 'co' drill — the word order and meaning flip with each repetition.
- Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico. ¿Con qué pico pica papas Pepe Pecas? — A bouncy 'p' cluster that accelerates with the question at the end.