Be to her virtues very kind, Be to her faults a little blind.

These lines are commonly attributed to Matthew Prior as a couplet from his light, epigrammatic verse on love and marriage—part of the early‑18th‑century English tradition of polished “advice” poetry that mixes wit with social counsel. The sentiment circulated widely in later quotation anthologies as a maxim urging indulgence toward a beloved woman’s imperfections while actively appreciating her good qualities. Although frequently quoted as a standalone aphorism, it is typically encountered detached from its surrounding poem in modern collections, which makes precise circumstances of utterance (occasion, addressee, or publication setting) difficult to pin down from the couplet alone.

The couplet recommends a generous, tactful posture in intimate relationships: actively recognize and affirm a partner’s virtues while exercising forbearance toward faults. “Kind” and “blind” suggest that love is partly a moral discipline—choosing attentiveness to the good and restraint in criticism—rather than a purely spontaneous feeling. The advice is not necessarily to deny wrongdoing, but to avoid harsh scrutiny of small imperfections that can corrode affection. As an epigram, it captures a pragmatic ideal of harmony: admiration should be explicit, while fault-finding should be limited, especially when the faults are minor or inevitable.