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Virtue isn't virtue unless it slams up against vice. So consequently, your virtue's not real virtue. Until it's been tested... tempted.
— Det. Frank Pembleton · Homicide: Life on the Street
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
An argument that goodness only counts once it has faced its opposite. Virtue that has never bumped up against vice is untested, so the speaker says it isn't real yet. It reads as a challenge: prove it by holding firm under temptation.
Context reviewed