"Bad men are almost without exception conceited, but they are commonly conceited of their defects."

Bad men are almost without exception conceited, but they are commonly conceited of their defects.

-Robert Browning (1903)

We scarcely ever find in Browning a defence of those obvious and easily defended publicans and sinners whose mingled virtues and vices are the stuff of romance and melodrama—the generous rake, the kindly drunkard, the strong man too great for parochial morals. He was in a yet more solitary sense the friend of the outcast. He took in the sinners whom even sinners cast out. He went with the hypocrite and had mercy on the Pharisee.

-Robert Browning (1903)