We may have an excellent ear for music, without being able to perform in any kind; we may judge well of poetry, without being poets, or possessing the least of a poetic vein; but we can have no tolerable notion… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share Image
It is necessary a writing critic should understand how to write. And though every writer is not bound to show himself in the capacity… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Pedantry and bigotry are millstones, able to sink the best book which carries the least part of their dead weight. The temper of the… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Remember that there is nothing in God but what is godlike; and that He is either not at all, or truly and perfectly good. — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Wit is its own remedy. Liberty and commerce bring it to its true standard. The only danger is the laying an embargo. The same… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
A right mind and generous affection hath more beauty and charms than all other symmetries in the world besides; and a grain of honesty… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Men of sense are really all of one religion. But men of sense never tell what it is. — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
If we are told a man is religious we still ask what are his morals? But if we hear at first that he has… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
They who are great talkers in company have never been any talkers by themselves, nor used to private discussions of our home regimen. — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Never did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love or gratitude or… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
When men are easy in themselves, they let others remain so. — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
To love the public, to study universal good, and to promote the interest of the whole world, as far as lies within our power,… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature; such as the beauty of sentiments, the grace… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
It is not wit merely, but temper, which must form the well-bred man. In the same manner it is not a head merely, but… — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
As many as are the difficulties which Virtue has to encounter in this world, her force is yet superior. — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury Copy Share
