Original artwork, not a still
Virtue isn't virtue unless it slams up against vice. So consequently, your virtue's not real virtue. Until it's been tested... tempted.
— Homicide: Life on the Street · 1993
Behind the line
What it means
Our 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
