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TEMPLE, Sir William Quotes
(1628-1699), English statesman
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed.—If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of conferring them on others.
I have always looked upon alchemy in natural philosophy, to be like over enthusiasm in divinity, and to have troubled the world much to the same purpose.
Oddities and singularities of behavior may attend genius, but when they do, they are its misfortunes and blemishes.—The man of true genius will be ashamed of them; at least he will never affect to distinguish himself by whimsical peculiarities.
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.
Submission is the only reasoning between a creature and its maker and contentment in his will is the best remedy we can apply to misfortunes.
It is a great blessing to possess what one wishes, said one to an ancient philosopher.—It is a greater still, was the reply, not to desire what one does not possess.
Contentment with the divine will is the best remedy we can apply to misfortunes.
It is a very poor, though common pretence to merit, to make it appear by the faults of other men; a mean wit or beauty may pass in a room where the rest of the company are allowed to have none; it is something to sparkle among diamonds; but to shine among pebbles is neither credit nor value worth the pretending.
The first ingredient in conversation is truth; the next, good sense; the third, good humor; and the fourth, wit.
In conversation, humor is more than wit, and easiness more than knowledge. Few desire to learn, or think they need it.—All desire to be pleased, or at least to be easy.
All courageous animals are carnivorous, and greater courage is to be expected in a people whose food is strong and hearty, than in the half-starved of other countries.
Oddities and singularities of behavior may attend genius, but when they do, they are its misfortunes and blemishes.—The man of true genius will be ashamed of them, or, at least, will never affect to be distinguished by them.
The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he was poor; which are esteemed the worst parts of poverty.
Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.
The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.
Learning passes for wisdom among those who want both.
Who can tell whether learning may not even weaken invention in man that has great advantages from nature and birth; whether the weight and number of so many men's thoughts and notions may not suppress his own or hinder the motion and agitation of them, from which all invention arises; as heaping on wood, or too many sticks, or too close together, suppresses, and sometimes quite extinguishes a little spark, that would otherwise have grown up to a noble flame.
Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, because the mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business, which are signs of being weary of themselves.
The greatest pleasure of life is love.
There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of doing them to others.
Some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination, as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself.
No possessions are good, but by the good use we make of them; without which wealth, power, friends, and servants, do but help to make our lives more unhappy.
Books and proverbs receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections toward all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave shall see fit to take away.
The best rules to form a young man, are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.
A man that only translates, shall never be a poet: nor a painter, that only copies; nor a swimmer, that swims always with bladders; so people that trust wholly to others' charity, and without industry of their own, will always be poor.
I have long thought, that the different abilities of men, which we call wisdom or prudence for the conduct of public affairs or private life, grow directly out of that little grain of good sense which they bring with them into the world; and that the defect of it in men comes from some want in their conception or birth.
"Sleep is so like death," says Sir Thomas Browne, "that I dare not trust myself to it without prayer." They both, when they seize the body, leave the soul at liberty; and wise is he that remembers of both, that they can be made safe and happy only by virtue.
Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, because mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business; which are signs of their being weary of themselves.
Temperance, that virtue without pride, and fortune without envy, that gives vigor of frame and tranquillity of mind; the best guardian of youth and support of old age, the precept of reason as well as religion, the physician of the soul as well as the body, the tutelar goddess of health, and universal medicine of life.
Oh, temperance, thou fortune without envy; thou universal medicine of life, that clears the head and cleanses the blood, eases the stomach, strengthens the nerves, and perfects digestion.
Valor gives awe, and promises protection to those who want heart or strength to defend themselves. This makes the authority of men among women, and that of a master buck in a numerous herd.
Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, because the mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business, which are signs of being weary of themselves.
The first glass for myself; the second for my friends; the third for good humor; and the fourth for mine enemies.
A man's wisdom is his best friend; folly his worst enemy.
The best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others' that deserve it.
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