Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Five things are requisite to a good officer — ability, clean hands, despatch, patience, and impartiality.
Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgement.
They that Marry for Money cannot have the true Satisfaction of Marriage; the requisite Means being wanting.
Death is only a horizon, and a horizon is only the limit of your sight. Open your eyes to see more clearly.
We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.
Content not thyself that thou art virtuous in the general; for one link being wanting, the chain is defective.
For though Death be a dark passage, it leads to immortality, and that is recompence enough for suffering of it.
Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.
Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked ones.
Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.
Nor must we always be neutral where our neighbors are concerned: for tho' meddling is a fault, helping is a duty.
It is a cruel folly to offer up to ostentation so many lives of creatures, as to make up the state of our treats.
True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.
Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.
It is the difference betwixt lust and love that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment.
Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men do once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us.
Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.
A private Life is to be preferrd; the Honour and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it.
If thou wouldst be happy, bring thy mind to thy condition, and have an indifferency for more than what is sufficient.
For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation.
Nothing shows our weakness more than to be so sharp-sighted at spying other men's faults, and so purblind about our own.
It is the amends of a short and troublesome life, that doing good and suffering ill entitles man to a longer and better.
He who gives to the poor, lends to the Lord. But it may be said, not improperly, the Lord lends to us to give to the poor.
For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart, or pierces the conscience but what comes from a living conscience
Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.
If we would mend the World, we should mend Ourselves; and teach our Children to be, not what we are, but what they should be.
Love labor: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physic. It is wholesome for thy body and good for thy mind.
True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.
What man in his right mind would conspire his own hurt? Men are beside themselves when they transgress against their convictions.
Where thou art Obliged to speak, be sure speak the Truth: For Equivocation is half way to Lying, as Lying, the whole way to Hell.
Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.
A vain man is a nauseous creature: he is so full of himself that he has no room for anything else, be it never so good or deserving.
He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.
Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense.
The Country is both the Philosopher's Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God.
Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast. Yet it must be confessed that wit given an edge to sense, and recommends it extremely.
It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.
It is profitable wisdom to know when we have done enough: Much time and pains are spared in not flattering ourselves against probabilities.
Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.
There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.
And he that is taught to live upon little, owes more to his father's wisdom, than he that has a great deal left him, does to his father's care.
Not to be provok'd is best: But if mov'd, never correct till the fume is spent; for every stroke our fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.
Nor yet be overeager in pursuit of any thing; for the mercurial too often happen to leave judgment behind them, and sometimes make work for repentance.
It is admirable to consider how many millions of people come into, and go out of the world, ignorant of themselves and of the world they have lived in.
A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.
Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.
That plenty should produce either covetousness or prodigality is a perversion of providence; and yet the generality of men are the worse for their riches.
For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.
This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present, because Immortal