139 quotes
There is a natural tendency in sects to narrow the mind.
The Round Table (1815)
For my own part, as I once said, I like a friend the better for having faults that one can talk about.
The Plain Speaker (1826)
It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one — they shew one another off to the best advantage.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
We grow tired of every thing but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.
The Plain Speaker (1826)
The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
The Spirit of the Age (1825)
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
To a superior race of beings the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem equally ridiculous.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
But there is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them.
The Plain Speaker (1826)
The most learned are often the most narrow-minded men.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
We are all of us more or less the slaves of opinion.
Political Essays (1819)
No really great man ever thought himself so.
The Plain Speaker (1826)
As is our confidence, so is our capacity.
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
They are the only honest hypocrites. Their life is a voluntary dream; a studied madness.
The Round Table (1815)
Conceit is the most contemptible and one of the most odious qualities in the world. It is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.