Book detail: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book compiles the aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney, offering insights into his philosophical and literary thoughts. It includes remarks that provide context and interpretation of his work, offering readers a deeper understanding of Sidney's ideas and the historical context in which they were formed.
The quotes below use the same card format as the rest of the site, including topics, source notes, copy actions, image creation, and sharing controls.
Read more
“Malice, in its false witness, promotes its tale with so cunning a confusion, so mingles truths with falsehoods, surmises with certainties, causes of no moment with matters capital, that the accused can absolutely neither grant nor deny, plead innocen.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“It many times falls out that we deem ourselves much deceived in others because we first deceived ourselves.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Often extraordinary excellence, not being rightly conceived, does rather offend than please.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Fear is the underminer of all determinations; and necessity, the victorious rebel of all laws.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“There is little hope of equity where rebellion reigns.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“What is mine, even to my life, is hers I love; but the secret of my friend is not mine!”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“In victory, the hero seeks the glory, not the prey.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“People do not always understand the motives of sublime conduct, and when they are astonished they are very apt to think they ought to be alarmed The truth is none are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“What is birth to a man if it shall be a stain to his dead ancestors to have left such an offspring?”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“It depends on education--that holder of the keys which the Almighty hath put into our hands--to open the gates which lead to virtue or to vice, to happiness or misery.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Laws are not made like lime-twigs or nets, to catch everything that toucheth them; but rather like sea-marks, to guide from shipwreck the ignorant passenger.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“A fair woman shall not only command without authority but persuade without speaking.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“We all know that a lie needs no other grounds, than the invention of the liar; and to take for granted as truth, all that is alleged against the fame of others, is a species of credulity, that men would blush at on any other subject.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The pure in heart are slow to credit calumnies, because they hardly comprehend what motives can be inducements to the alleged crimes.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Where there is any good disposition, confidence begets faithfulness; but distrust, if it do not produce treachery; never fails to destroy every inclination to evince fidelity. Most people disdain to clear themselves from the accusations of mere suspicion.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Life is a warfare; and he who easily desponds deserts a double duty--he betrays the noblest property of man, which is dauntless resolution; and he rejects the providence of that All-Gracious Being who guides and rules the universe.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Virtue, without the graces, is like a rich diamond unpolished--it hardly looks better than a common pebble; but when the hand of the master rubs off the roughness, and forms the sides into a thousand brilliant surfaces, it is then that we acknowledge its worth, admire its beauty, and long to wear it in our bosoms.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“That grief is the most durable which flows inward, and buries its streams with its fountain, in the depths of the heart.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“There is nothing so clear-sighted and sensible as a noble mind in a low estate.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Magnanimity is above circumstance; and any virtue which depends on that is more of constitution than of principle.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“National antipathy is the basest, because the most illiberal and illiterate of all prejudices.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Beauty of form affects the mind, but then it must be understood that it is not the mere shell that we admire; we are attracted by the idea that this shell is only a beautiful case adjusted to the shape and value of a still more beautiful pearl within. The perfection of outward loveliness is the soul shining through its crystalline covering.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“We value the devotedness of friendship rather as an oblation to vanity than as a free interchange of hearts; an endearing contract of sympathy, mutual forbearance, and respect!”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Compulsion hardly restores right; love yields all things.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The platform or the altar of love may be analyzed and explained; it is constructed of virtue, beauty, and affection. Such is the pyre, such is the offering; but the ethereal spark must come from heaven, that lights the sacrifice.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“How different is the ready hand, tearful eye, and soothing voice, from the ostentatious appearance which is called pity.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“A sincere acquaintance with ourselves teaches us humility; and from humility springs that benevolence which compassionates the transgressors we condemn, and prevents the punishments we inflict from themselves partaking of crime, in being rather the wreakings of revenge than the chastisements of virtue.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“When Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not, man's empire over himself.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Self-love leads men of narrow minds to measure all mankind by their own capacity.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Any base heart can devise means of vileness, and affix the ugly shapings of its own fancy to the actions of those around him; but it requires loftiness of mind, and the heaven-born spirit of virtue, to imagine greatness where it is not, and to deck the sordid objects of nature in the beautiful robes of loveliness and light.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“It has been wisely said, "that well may thy guardian angel suffer thee to lose thy locks, when thou darest wilfully to lay thy head in the lap of temptation!" Was it not easier for the hero of Judaea to avoid the touch of the fair Philistine, than to elude her power when held in her arms?”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“True virtue, when she errs, needs not the eyes of men to excite her blushes; she is confounded at her own presence, and covered with confusion of face.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be surrendered at her voice. The law may seem hard, but it is the guardian of what it commands; and is the only sure defence of happiness.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“none are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“When the cup of any sensual pleasure is drained to the bottom, there is always poison in the dregs.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“A churlish courtesy rarely comes but either for gain or falsehood.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“There is nothing sooner overthrows a weak head than opinion by authority, like too strong a liquor for a frail glass.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“As in labor, the more one doth exercise, the more one is enabled to do, strength growing upon work; so with the use of suffering, men's minds get the habit of suffering, and all fears and terrors are not to them but as a summons to battle, whereof they know beforehand they shall come off victorious.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Who will ever give counsel, if the counsel be judged by the event, and if it be not found wise, shall therefore be thought wicked?”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Every base occupation makes one sharp in its practice, and dull in every other.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“As well the soldier dieth who standeth still as he that gives the bravest onset.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“A noble cause doth ease much a grievous case.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“There needs not strength to be added to inviolate chastity; the excellency of the mind makes the body impregnable.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The general goodness, which is nourished in noble hearts makes every one think that strength of virtue to be in another whereof they find assured foundation in themselves.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“It is against womanhood to be forward in their own wishes.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“There is a certain delicacy which in yielding conquers; and with a pitiful look makes one find cause to crave help one's self.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“Unlawful desires are punished after the effect of enjoying; but impossible desires are punished in the desire itself.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks