George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax PC FRS (November 11, 1633 – April 5, 1695) was an English statesman, writer, and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660, and in the House of Lords after he was raised to the peerage in 1668. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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A husband without faults is a dangerous observer.
A little learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the understanding.
A man may dwell so long upon a thought, that it may take him prisoner.
A man that should call every thing by its right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knock'd down as a common enemy.
A man who is master of patience, is master of everything else.
A very great memory often forgetteth how much time is lost by repeating things of no use.
Anger is never without an argument, but seldom with a good one.
He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.
Hope is generally a wrong guide, though it is very good company by the way. it brusheth through hedge and ditch till it cometh to a great leap, and there it is apt to fall and break its bones.
If men considered how many things there are that riches cannot buy, they would not be so fond of them.
If men would think how often their own words are thrown at their heads, they would less often let them go out of their mouths.
If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers in the first place.
It is a general mistake to think the men we like are good for every thing, and those we do not, good for nothing.
It is ill-manners to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on.
It is not a reproach but a compliment to learning, to say, that great scholars are less fit for business; since the truth is, business is so much a lower thing than learning, that a man used to the last cannot easily bring his stomach down to the first.
Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.
Men make it such a point of honour to be fit for business that they forget to examine whether business is fit for a man.
Men take more pains to hide than to mend themselves.
Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts. they are beggars by nature, and can therefore never get a stock to grow rich upon.
Mispending a man's time is a kind of self-homicide, it is making life to be of no use.
Most men make little other use of their speech than to give evidence against their own understanding.
Most mens' anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady they neither of them care for.
Nothing hath an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not of our side.
Nothing is less forgiven than setting patterns men have no mind to follow.
Nothing would more contribute to make a man wise, than to have always an enemy in his view.
Our nature hardly allows us to have enough of anything without having too much.
Popularity is a crime from the moment it is sought; it is only a virtue where men have it whether they will or no.
Some mens memory is like a box, where a man should mingle his jewels with his old shoes.
Suspicion seldom wanteth food to keep it up in health and vigour. it feedeth upon every thing it seeth, and is not curious in its diet.
The best qualification of a prophet is to have a good memory.
The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.
The first mistake belonging to business is the going into it.
The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached on that subject.
The vanity of teaching doth oft tempt a man to forget that he is a blockhead.
They who are of opinion that money will do every thing, may very well be suspected to do every thing for money.
When the people contend for their liberty, they seldom get any thing by their victory but new masters.
Categories: George Savile, Quotes of the day
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