“Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.”
Thoughtful feeling
Thoughtful Quotes — page 129 of 303
“Few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have often no other task than to lay two books before them, out of which they compile a third, without any new material of their own, and with very little application of judgment to those which former authors have supplied.”
“Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding.”
“It is more reasonable to wish for reputation while it may be enjoyed, as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him for present use the wine and garlands which they propose to bestow upon his tomb.”
“Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.”
“The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.”
“Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.”
“It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions are ready to receive it.”
“One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.”
“Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others.”
“Courtesy and good-humour are often found with little real worth.”
“If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.”
“He left the name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.”
“One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.”
“Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.”
“Advice is offensive, it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ourselves.”
“Admiration must be continued by that novelty which first produces it; and how much soever is given, there must always be reason to imagine that more remains.”
“Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.”
“I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.”
“What people should do is explain to their friends, to their neighbors how they feel when they confront the word n - - and why they feel the way they feel.”