Quote collection
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"Precepts are the rules by which we ought to square our lives. When they are contracted into sentences, they strike the affections; whereas admonition is only blowing of the coal."
"The expression of truth is simplicity."
"The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them."
"He who forbids not sin when he may, commands it"
"I had rather never receive a kindness than never bestow one."
"A hungry people listens not to reason, not cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers."
"If you are bent on assuming a pose and never reveal yourself to anyone frankly, in the fashion of many who live a false life that is all made up for show; for it is torturous to be constantly watching oneself and be fearful of being caught out of our usual role. And we are never free from concern if we think that every time anyone looks at us he is always taking-our measure; for many things happen that strip off our pretence against our will, and, though all this attention to self is successful, yet the life of those who live under a mask cannot be happy and without anxiety."
"...the geometrician teaches me how to work out the size of my estates rather than how to work out how much a man needs in order to have enough....You geometers can calculate the area of circles, can reduce any given shape to a square, can state the distances separating starts. Nothing's outside your scope when it comes to measurement. Well, if you're such an expert, measure a man's soul; tell me how large or how small that is. You can define a straight line; what use is that to you if you've no idea what straightness means in life?"
"We have not to talk, but to steer the vessel."
"It is well to be born either a king or a fool."
"A hated government does not long survive."
"It is sometimes pleasant even to act like a madman."
"Nothing costs so much as what is bought by prayers."
"Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing for ever."
"No one's so old that he mayn't with decency hope for one more day."
"This is the law of benefits between men; the one ought to forget at once what was given, and the other ought never to forget what he has received."
"Certain laws have not been written, but they are more fixed than all the written laws."
"It’s in the very trickery that it pleases me. But show me how the trick is done, and I have lost my interest therein."
"Happy he whoe'er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to the land."
"Just where death is expecting you is something we cannot know; so, for your part, expect him everywhere."