Absolutes Quote by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Indifference must be a crime in us, to be ranked but one degree below treachery; for deserting the commonwealth is next to betraying it.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

I have observed that in comedies the best actor plays the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the fine gentleman or hero. Thus…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

The fire of my adversity has purged the mass of my acquaintance.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

There is so much trouble in coming into the world, and so much more, as well as meanness, in going out of it, that…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Cunning pays no regard to virtue, and is but the low mimic of reason.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

No religion ever appeared in the world whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

As well as might we say that a ship is built, loaded and manned for the sake of any particular pilot, instead of acknowledging…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective. The great mistake is that of looking…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

What Anacharsis said of the vine may aptly enough be said of prosperity. She bears the three grapes of drunkenness, pleasure, and sorrow; and…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Lawyers must pry into the recesses of the human heart, and become well acquainted with the whole moral world, that they may discover the…

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke