[They] will fearlessly commit both parties to favor mother love and the protection of the whooping crane, and to oppose the man-eating shark and the more unpopular forms of sin.

-Brinkley, David McClure
Of party platforms. Quoted in Marc Gunther The House That Roone Built (1994).

Thismiry slough, issuch a place as cannot be mended: It is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sindoth continually run, and therefore isit called the Slough of Despond.

-Bunyan,John
  The Pilgrim's Progress, pt.1.

He that lives in sin and looks for happiness hereafter is likehimthat soweth cockleand thinkstofill hisbarnwith wheat or barley.

-Bunyan,John
  The Pilgrim's Progress, pt.2.

But sweeter still than this, than these, than all, Is first and passionate loveöit stands alone, Like Adam's recollection of his fall; The tree of knowledge hath been pluck'döall's known And life yields nothing further to recall Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown, No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven Fire which Prometheus filch'd for us from heaven.

-Rochdale
^24  Don Juan, canto1, stanza127.

Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin is a pleasure.

-Rochdale
^24  Don Juan, canto1, stanza133.

An original something, fair maid you would win me To writeöbut how shall I begin? For I fear I have nothing original in meö Excepting Original Sin.

-Campbell,Thomas
  'To aYoung Lady, Who  Asked Me to Write Something Original for Her  Album'.

Tea is like the East he grows in, A great yellow Mandarin With urbanity of manner And unconsciousness of sin.

-Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
  The Flying Inn, ch.18, stanza 2. Collected as'The Song of Right and Wrong' in Wine, Water and Song (1915).

Keep up appearances; there lies the test; The world will give thee credit for the rest. Outward be fair, however foul within; Sin if thou wilt, but then in secret sin.

-Churchill, Charles
  Night, l.311^12.

It's not a sin to be rich anymoreöit's a miracle.

-Connally,John Bowden
  In Time,18  Jan.

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.

-Cowper,William
  Poems,'The Progress of Error', l.285^8.

Wilt thou forgive that sin, where I begun, Which is my sin, though it was done before? Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run And do them still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.

-Donne,John
c.1623  'Hymn to God the Father'.

It is my belief,Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

-Doyle, SirArthur Conan
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'The Copper Beeches'.

In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, Before polygamy was made a sin.

-Dryden,John
Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.1^2.

But when to sin our biased nature leans, The careful Devil is still at hand with means; And providently pimps for ill desires.

-Dryden,John
Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.79^81.

Refined himself to soul, to curb the sense And made almost a sin of abstinence.

-Dryden,John
  'The Character of a Good Parson', l.10^11.

Repentance is but want of power to sin.

-Dryden,John
  Palamon and  Arcite, bk.3, l.813.

The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Little Gidding', pt.4.

Il y a toujours un moment o  u' la curiosite¤   devient un pe¤  che¤  , et le diable s'est toujours mis du co"  te¤   des savants. There is always a moment when curiosity becomes a sin and the devil is always on the side of the learned.

-Thibault
  Le Jardin d'Epicure.

Don't tell my mother I'm living in sin, Don't let the old folks know.

-Herbert, SirA(lan) P(atrick)
  'Don't  Tell My Mother I'm Living in Sin'.

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back; Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I lacked any thing.

-Herbert, George
'Love', collected in The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (published posthumously,1633).