We can know nothing of humankind without knowing something of ourselves. Self-knowledge is the property of those people whose passions have their full play, but who ponder over their results.
The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.
I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar.
Accent and emphasis are the pith of reading; punctuation is but secondary.
Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.
Man is created for a purpose; the object of his existence is to perfect himself. Man is imperfect by nature, because if nature had made him perfect he would have had no wants; and it is only by supplying his wants that utility can be developed. The development of utility is therefore the object of our being, and the attainment of this great end the cause of our existence.
The poor are very well off, at least the agricultural poor, very well off indeed. Their incomes are certain, that is a great point, and they have no cares, no anxieties; they always have a resource, they always have the House. People without cares do not require as much food as those whose life entails anxieties. See how long they live!
England is governed not by logic but by parliament.
I cannot pay attention unless I am attracted,” said Egremont.
Generally speaking, all the great events have been distorted, most of the important causes concealed, some of the principal characters never appear, and all who figure are so misunderstood and misrepresented, that the result is a complete mystification, and the perusal of the narrative about as profitable as reading the Republic of Plato or the Utopia if More.
Man must ever be the slave of routine: but in old days it was a routine of great thoughts, and now it is a routine of little ones.
Nothing can resist a human will that will stake its existence on a purpose.
I believe that nothing in newspapers is ever true,” said Madame Phoebus. “And that is why they are so popular,” added Euphrosyne; “the tast of the age being so decidedly for fiction.
Never apologize, never explain.
Political institutions, founded on abstract rights and principles, are mere nullities.
In all things we trace the irresistible influence of the individual.
If you wish to win a man”s heart, allow him to confute you.
There are exceptions to all rules, but it seldom answers to follow the advice of an opponent.
We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous.
The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.
I have sometimes half believed, although the suspicion is mortifying, that there is only one step between his state who deeply indulges in imaginative meditation, and insanity.