Oscar Wilde was right about hypocrisy

From Mrs Bridget Harrington SIR – Mary Kenny (Comment, August 6) is quite right in asserting that “if no man or woman may ever exalt a virtue in which he himself has failed then the aspiration to virtue itself is impossible”. It further compounds the original offence by the implicit denial of any wrongdoing. Oscar Wilde summarised this so aptly: “Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.” Yours faithfully, BRIDGET HARRINGTON Sidcup, Kent