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I heard Christopher Hitchens say this in a debate, and he attributed it to someone I hadn't heard of. But I fixated on this quotation and thought about it for a while.

Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue.

I think my command of English is reasonably strong, but I cannot make sense of this.

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It's metaphorical; 'paying a compliment' less figuratively means that hypocrisy is saying that one is virtuous while not in fact being so. At least one who is a hypocrite recognizes that virtue is the preferred option. – Mitch Apr 6 '12 at 17:31
If you search that exact phrase in Google, you will find a lot, including attempts to explain its meaning. Say: whymustifillthisin.blogspot.com/2011/07/… – GEdgar Apr 6 '12 at 17:33
Yeah, that's about it. It means that virtue may be discussed and openly advocated, but vice must not be; that is to say, virtue is unmarked and vice is marked. This is the basis of all journalism, of course, and if this weren't the case, the word hypocrisy itself would be meaningless. Oh, and it's a quotation by Oscar Wilde. – John Lawler Apr 6 '12 at 17:36

2 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

It was La Rochefoucault. Robert Stern explains this as

In an earlier age, La Rochefoucault could still laugh at hypocrisy as "the compliment vice pays virtue", but he was only dealing with the naive hypocrisy of a Tartuffe. Moliere's hero, after all, just pretends to be more pious than other people in order to cover up his wicked schemes. Tartuffe's hypocrisy was merely one form of unctuous fraud among many others.

It's an odd construction, but based on imitation being the sincerest compliment, vice will imitate [try to look like] virtue. It's hypocritical in the case of vice because it's not sincere at all.

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up vote 18 down vote

"Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue." means that when you are being hypocritical you are in essence acknowledging that a virtue is worthy of emulating -- you want to appear virtuous, even though you aren't actually acting virtuously.

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