The set phrases, the vain prayer offered for other sinners, the hypocritical profession of a superior righteousness, were neither noble nor sincere. When Tom Jones (for instance) was hanged, in 1702, after a prosperous career on Hounslow Heath, his biographer declared that he behaved with more than usual `modesty and decency,' because he `delivered a pretty deal of good advice to the young men present, exhorting them to be industrious in their several callings.' Whereas his biographer should have discovered that it is not thus that your true hero bids farewell to frolic and adventure.英文原著 · 《A Book of Scoundrels》
Whether or no this spirit was produced by, it clearly works with, a creed which postulates a humanised God and a vividly personal immortality. Men must not be busy merely like a swarm, or even happy merely like a herd; for it is not a question of men, but of a man. A man's meals may be poor, but they must not be bestial; there must always be that about the meal which permits of its comparison to the sacrament. A man's bed may be hard, but it must not be abject or unclean: there must always be about the bed something of the decency of the death-bed.英文原著 · 《A Miscellany of Men》
Now the American knew quite all about these van Squibbers. He knew also that in New York, and Boston, and Philadelphia, and in many other places where existed a society with still some ragged remnants of decency and decorum left, one would not meet this highly star-spangled family "everywhere."英文原著 · 《A Straight Deal》
"Our lioness had him directly. 'Oh,' said she, 'if Dr. So-and-so prefers to say that his attendant committed that outrage on decency when in his sober senses, I am quite content.'英文原著 · 《A Woman-Hater》
The girl began to melt, and all power to ooze out of her, mind and body. She sighed deeply and said, "What can I do--I don't say with honor and credit, but with decency. What _can_ I do?"英文原著 · 《A Woman-Hater》
"Wells, cows, granary, real education--what you like" said he. "I know your mind. Begin abolishing the lower orders in the only way they can be got rid of--by raising them in comfort, cleanliness, decency, and knowledge. Then I shall not be missed. I'm going abroad."英文原著 · 《A Woman-Hater》
So I'm at a bit of a loss whether to appeal to your decency, your vanity, your avarice. or just to your fear center.美剧 · 《Billions》
Believe me, there is not a supermom out there who wouldn't trade in her cape for a chance to read a book and get a massage by a man who has the decency to leave when it's over.美剧 · 《Desperate Housewives》
And I say that simple human decency dictates that you turn off that fountain right now!美剧 · 《Desperate Housewives》