Mysteries are due to secrecy.
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.
Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est (Knowledge Itself Is Power)
It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.
For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure –tangible material prosperity in this world -is the safest test of virtue. Progress has ever been through the pleasures rather than through the extreme sharp virtues, and the most virtuous have leaned to excess rather than to asceticism.
A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man’s crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.
Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gongthese are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.
I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
Tis the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises.
The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
Men’s men: gentle or simple, they’re much of a muchness.
Nothing is black or white.
For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.
