“The next thing to having wisdom ourselves, is to profit by that of others.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“The wise man has his follies, no less than the fool; but it has been said that herein lies the difference--the follies of the fool are known to the world, but hidden from himself; the follies of the wise are known to himself, but hidden from the world.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“The plainest man who pays attention to women, will sometimes succeed as well as the handsomest man who does not.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Pleasure is to a woman what the sun is to the flower: if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates, and destroys. But the duties of domestic life, exercised as they must be in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female, are perhaps as necessary to the full development of her charms, as the shade and the shower are to the rose, confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“A high degree of intellectual refinement in the female is the surest pledge society can have for the improvement of the male.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Power. like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation. To acquire it, appears not more difficult than to be dispossessed of it when acquired, since it enables the holder to shift his own errors on dependents, and to take their merits to himself. But the miracle of losing it vanishes, when we reflect that we are as liable to fall as to rise, by the treachery of others; and that to say "I am" is language that has been appropriated exclusively to God!”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“An honest man will continue to be so though surrounded on all sides by rogues.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
