Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

It is necessary a writing critic should understand how to write. And though every writer is not bound to show himself in…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Pedantry and bigotry are millstones, able to sink the best book which carries the least part of their dead weight. The temper…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Remember that there is nothing in God but what is godlike; and that He is either not at all, or truly and…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Wit is its own remedy. Liberty and commerce bring it to its true standard. The only danger is the laying an embargo.…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

A right mind and generous affection hath more beauty and charms than all other symmetries in the world besides; and a grain…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

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

If we are told a man is religious we still ask what are his morals? But if we hear at first that…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

They who are great talkers in company have never been any talkers by themselves, nor used to private discussions of our home…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Never did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love or…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

When men are easy in themselves, they let others remain so.

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

To love the public, to study universal good, and to promote the interest of the whole world, as far as lies within…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature; such as the beauty of sentiments,…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

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

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

It is not wit merely, but temper, which must form the well-bred man. In the same manner it is not a head…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

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

True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

No one was ever the better for advice: in general, what we called giving advice was properly taking an occasion to show…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

The face of Truth is not less fair and beautiful for all the counterfeit visors which have been put upon her.

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

The one and only formative power given to man Is thought. By his thinking he not only makes character, but body and…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

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

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

The passion of fear (as a modern philosopher informs me) determines the spirits of the muscles of the knees, which are instantly…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Tis the strumpet's plague To beguile many, and be beguiled by one.

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

We may have an excellent ear for music, without being able to perform in any kind; we may judge well of poetry,…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concern thinks certainly he knows that which he…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

It is the same with understanding as with eyes; to a certain size and make, just so much light is necessary, and…

— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury