88 quotes found
"All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections towards all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave it shall see fit to take away."
"Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new."
"Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed."
"When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over."
"No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than [England's] declaration of war against Holland in 1672."
"When these children are four years old, they shall be sent to the country workhouse and there taught to read two hours a day and kept fully employed the rest of their time in any of the manufactures of the house which best suits their age, strength and capacity. If it be objected that at these early years, they cannot be made useful, I reply that at four years of age there are sturdy employments in which children can earn their living; but besides, there is considerable use in their being, somehow or other, constantly employed at least twelve hours in a day, whether they earn a living or not; for by these means, we hope that the rising generation will be so habituated to constant employment that it would at length prove agreeable and entertaining to them..."
"From these famous Indians, it seems most probable that Pythagoras learned, and transported into Greece and Italy, the greatest part of his natural and moral philosophy, rather than from the Aegyptians ... Nor does it seem unlikely that the Aegyptians themselves might have drawn much of their learning from the Indians ..long before .. Lycurgus, who likewise traveled to India, brought from thence also the chief principles of his laws."
"The idle story of the Pretender's having been introduced in a warming-pan, into the Queen's bed, though as destitute of all probability as of all foundation, has been much more prejudicial to the cause of Jacobitism, than all that Mr. Locke and others have written, to show the unreasonableness and absurdity of the doctrines of indefeasible hereditary right, and unlimited passive obedience."
"I foresee, that before the end of this century, the trade of both King and Priest will not be half so good a one as it has been."
"The chapter of knowledge is a very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one."
"I assisted at the birth of that most significant word "flirtation," which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world."
"Unlike my subject will I frame my song, It shall be witty, and it shan't be long."
"At twelve you may walk, for at this time o' the year, The sun like your wit, is as mild, as 'tis clear: But mark in the meadows the ruin of Time; Take the hint, and let life be improv'd in its prime."
"Cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay, And calm with your joys gently glide thro' the day. The dews of the evening most carefully shun — Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun."
"Then in chat, or at play, with a dance, or a song, Let the night, like the day, pass with pleasure along. All cares, but of love, banish far from your mind; And those you may end, when you please to be kind."
"I see that you are in fears again from your White Boys, and have destroyed a good many of them; but I believe, that if the military force had killed half as many landlords, it would have contributed more effectually to restore quiet. The poor people in Ireland are used worse than negroes by their Lords and Masters, and their Deputies of Deputies of Deputies. For there is a sentiment in every human breast that asserts man's natural right to liberty and good usage, and that will, and ought to rebel when oppressed and provoked to a certain degree."
"Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company."
"Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known."
"Marriage is the cure of love, and friendship the cure of marriage."
"The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom."
"He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence."
"Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so."
"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."
"The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet."
"An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult."
"There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time."
"I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later."
"Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in."
"The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it."
"Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing."
"Take the tone of the company you are in."
"I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used to say, "Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves.""
"The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; “they will both fall into the ditch.”"
"I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves."
"Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar."
"Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least."
"Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry."
"Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one."
"Sacrifice to the Graces."
"In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter."
"I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh."
"The characteristic of a well-bred man is, to converse with his inferiors without insolence, and with his superiors with respect and with ease."
"Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value."
"Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces; for every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome."
"Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latter deserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious."
"A strong mind sees things in their true proportions; a weak one views them through a magnifying medium, which, like the microscope, makes an elephant of a flea: magnifies all little objects, but cannot receive great ones."
"The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are."
"Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all."
"I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual."
"Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds."
"Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity."
"Style is the dress of thoughts."
"Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics."
"We must not draw general conclusions from certain particular principles, though, in the main, true ones. We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will therefore always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in the pursuit of it. No. We are complicated machines: and though we have one main-spring, that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometimes stop that motion."
"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day."
"Dispatch is the soul of business."
"I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you."
"Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh."
"Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote."
"The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so."
"You had better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily. Manner is all, in everything: it is by manner only that you can please, and consequently rise. All your Greek will never advance you from secretary to envoy, or from envoy to ambassador; but your address, your manner, your air, if good, very probably may."
"It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth."
"Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing."
"Every woman is infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery, and every man by one sort or other."
"It is a great advantage for any man to be able to talk or hear, neither ignorantly nor absurdly, upon any subject; for I have known people, who have not said one word, hear ignorantly and absurdly; it has appeared by their inattentive and unmeaning faces."
"A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones."
"There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest; but there is seldom one in which a man should tell all. Great skill is necessary to know how far to go, and where to stop."
"The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man’s general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. A man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown, would be reckoned generous; so that the difference of those two opposite characters, turns upon one shilling."
"People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt."
"Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct—never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike."
"Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance."
"In short, let it be your maxim through life, to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the informations of others."
"It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therefore one seldom does it at all."
"You foolish man, you do not understand your own foolish business."
"[On sex] The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, the expense damnable."
"It wasn't until I grew up and read Lord Chesterfield that I began my education. He became my tutor and the public library my university."
"For my part, I like more straight-forward work."
"They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master."
"To my great surprise they seem really written from the heart, not for the honour of his head, and in truth do no great honour to the last, nor show much feeling in the first, except in wishing for his son's fine gentleman-hood."
"I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her army has had a Glorious Victory."
"What gave to this country the advantage in the war of the Spanish Succession was the genius and the overwhelming personal ascendency of Marlborough. ... It is due to him that England became one of the great Powers of the world, and next to France, the first of Powers."
"Marlborough's talents had no flaw. As a strategist he saw clearly and simply the great issues – the relationship of war and policy, the interdependence between one theatre and another, the inter-relation between sea-power and land war. He constantly outwitted his enemies, one success paving the way for the next. As an organizer, he made a nonsensical military system work. His care for his troops, his understanding of them, led to his nickname of ‘Corporal John’. On the battlefield his grasp of confused tactical situations was uncannily clear and accurate; he kept cool and thought fast. To all these qualities he added unflexing will and resolution, and unflagging energy."
"I take with pleasure this opportunity of doing justice to that great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired; and whose memory, as the greatest general and as the greatest minister that our country or perhaps any other has produced, I honor."
"He completed William's work in converting Britain from a peripheral and quasi-isolationist kingdom of little influence into a great power. He defeated the French bid to establish hegemony. ... [I]t can be claimed that he and his achievement lived on in the career of Winston Churchill...by studying his career and the reasons for his success Winston Churchill equipped himself for the supreme tests which he was to have to endure after 10 May 1940."
"[I]n the ten campaigns he made against [the French]; during all which time it cannot be said that he ever slipped an opportunity of fighting, when there was any probability of coming at his enemy: and upon all occasions he concerted matters with so much judgement and forecast, that he never fought a battle which he did not gain, nor laid siege to a town which he did not take."
"If he had been suffered to end the war which he so gloriously carried on, we should not have had the wars we have had since."
"His splendid military genius was united with an almost unparalleled evenness of temper, and a regard for, and sympathy with, his troops, which earned for him a devotion scarcely less than that which the Tenth Legion felt for Caesar, or the Old Guard for Napoleon. From a moralist's point of view, Marlborough's character was not faultless, but as a General he had few equals and no superior. He never fought a battle which he did not win, never besieged a city which he did not take, and, in spite of obstructive allies and jealous continental rivals, he curbed the aggression of France, and restored the balance of power in Europe."
"The Duke of Marlborough talking over some Point of English History once with Bishop Burnet, and advancing some Anachronisms and strange Matters of Fact, his Lordship, in a great Astonishment at this new History, enquired of His Grace where He had met with it. The Duke, equally surprised on His side to be ask’d That Question by so knowing a Man in History as the Bishop, replied, Why dont you remember? It is in the only English History of those Times that ever I red, in Shakespear's Plays."