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Is the following correct German, or could it be improved?
"Tugend hat er vielleicht, aber doch keine Klugheit."
(It's a pun on the name of a British politician. The intended meaning is "He may be virtuous, but he is not wise." I'm not sure if doch is being used correctly in this context.)
Yes, it is correct German.
In writing, either "aber" or "doch" would be sufficient, both meaning "but"; combined they enhance each other.
The combination is more common when spoken, because intonation and stress can modify how the speaker wants the listener to think about the character so described.
The only variant that would not be idiomatic is "doch aber keine Klugheit"
Btw, "Weisheit" is also usable here, as closer related to "Tugend"
As Bobby J has said either "aber" or "doch" would suffice to cover the meaning of "but". But in combination it's not just "he's A, but not B" (neutral). But rather "He's A but he's definitely not B what were you even thinking to suggest that". So while it gets the message across, it might have more punch to it, then you'd expect if you'd just assume it means "but".
"doch aber" isn't 100% impossible, but would sound really old-fashioned.
In solchen Fällen greift man (nicht ausschließlich) zu jedoch:
Tugend hat er vielleicht, jedoch keine Klugheit.
Ob Weisheit besser passt ist eine andere Frage. Auch ich würde den Satz mit aber doch als um die 100 Jahre alt einschätzen.
Reading your sentence, I expected it to be from some book around 1900, because of the antiquated “doch”. If you want to pretend the sentence is quite old, it’s fine, but today you wouldn’t write it like that.
