there are virtues which are ...

there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation.
there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation.
 Patricia Wentworth

More phrases

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Quotes from the same author

There is and always has been for me a peculiar need to write. This is very different from wanting to be a writer. To be a writer always seemed something so far removed from my talents and abilities and imaginings that it didn't afflict me at all as a notion when I was young. But I was always conscious that I wanted to write.
 Patricia Wentworth
I do not approve of children being beaten. It is always a confession of failure.
 Patricia Wentworth
Nobody likes to be accused of a virtue.
 Patricia Wentworth
A good many established writers seem to have the feeling that some day they are going to be found out, revealed as frauds.
 Patricia Wentworth