"There is no sinner like a young saint"
About this Quote
Aphra Behn lands this line like a needle: a pious compliment that turns, mid-prick, into an accusation. "Young saint" sounds like innocence on display, the kind that invites applause in polite company. Then the trap snaps shut. If there is "no sinner like" that figure, the real target is not youthful misbehavior so much as youthful purity weaponized - the person who believes their virtue is a personality.
Behn wrote for Restoration stages that thrived on exposing the hypocrisies of manners, marriage, and moral posturing. In that world, sainthood is often performance: a costume of chastity, obedience, or righteous outrage tailored to win power in a marketplace of reputations. Calling the saint a sinner isn't just scandal for its own sake; it's a critique of how moral absolutism becomes a kind of erotic and social leverage. The young are especially dangerous in this role because they can trade on freshness and certainty: they haven't yet accumulated compromises, so their judgments come off as clean, even holy. That clarity makes them effective, and intolerable.
The line also hints at a psychological flip side. Youthful sanctimony can mask curiosity, appetite, or ambition that has nowhere honest to go, so it burrows underground and returns as cruelty, secrecy, or sudden excess. Behn's punchline is that virtue without self-knowledge isn't virtue at all - it's just untested vanity. The "young saint" sins hardest because they sin while believing they're saving everyone else.
Behn wrote for Restoration stages that thrived on exposing the hypocrisies of manners, marriage, and moral posturing. In that world, sainthood is often performance: a costume of chastity, obedience, or righteous outrage tailored to win power in a marketplace of reputations. Calling the saint a sinner isn't just scandal for its own sake; it's a critique of how moral absolutism becomes a kind of erotic and social leverage. The young are especially dangerous in this role because they can trade on freshness and certainty: they haven't yet accumulated compromises, so their judgments come off as clean, even holy. That clarity makes them effective, and intolerable.
The line also hints at a psychological flip side. Youthful sanctimony can mask curiosity, appetite, or ambition that has nowhere honest to go, so it burrows underground and returns as cruelty, secrecy, or sudden excess. Behn's punchline is that virtue without self-knowledge isn't virtue at all - it's just untested vanity. The "young saint" sins hardest because they sin while believing they're saving everyone else.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: The Rover; or, the Banish'd Cavaliers (Aphra Behn, 1677)
Evidence:
A Nun! Oh how I love thee for't! there's no Sinner like a young Saint- Nay, now there's no denying me: (Act I, Scene II; in later edited text p. 17, line 22). The quote is verifiably from Aphra Behn's play The Rover; or, the Banish'd Cavaliers, first published in 1677. In the dialogue, the line is spoken by Willmore to Hellena after she reveals she is intended for a convent. A scholarly edited text of Behn's works notes this passage at 'p. 17' of the 1677 quarto and identifies the play as first produced and published in 1677. Modern quotation sites usually shorten the line to 'There is no sinner like a young saint,' but the original wording in the primary text is 'there's no Sinner like a young Saint'. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Behn, Aphra. (2026, March 11). There is no sinner like a young saint. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-sinner-like-a-young-saint-138368/
Chicago Style
Behn, Aphra. "There is no sinner like a young saint." FixQuotes. March 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-sinner-like-a-young-saint-138368/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is no sinner like a young saint." FixQuotes, 11 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-no-sinner-like-a-young-saint-138368/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2026.
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