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We may have an excellent Ear in Musick, without being able to perform in any kind. We may judg well of Poetry, without being Poets, or possessing the least of a Poetick Vein: But we can have no tolerable Notion of Goodness, without being tolerably good.

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

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More quotes by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

'Tis the hardest thing in the world to be a good Thinker, without being a strong Self-Examiner.

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

How comes it to pass then, that we appear such Cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the Test of Ridicule?

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)

Through certain humors or passions, and from temper merely, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward circumstances be ever so fortunate.

Day's Collacon : An Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884)

Men's first thoughts in this matter are generally better than their second; their natural notions better than those refin'd by study, or consultation with casuists.

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