“A town, before it can be plundered and, deserted, must first be taken; and in this particular Venus has borrowed a law from her consort Mars. A woman that wishes to retain her suitor must keep him in the trenches; for this is a siege which the besieger never raises for want of supplies, since a feast is more fatal to love than a fast, and a surfeit than a starvation. Inanition may cause it to die a slow death, but repletion always destroys it by a sudden one.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“I have a different starting premise from those 100 academics who are so heavily invested in the regime of low expectations and narrow horizons which they have created.”
“The reign of terror to which France submitted has been more justly termed "the reign of cowardice." One knows not which most to execrate,--the nation that could submit to suffer such atrocities, or that low and bloodthirsty demagogue that could inflict them. France, in succumbing to such a wretch as Robespierre, exhibited, not her patience, but her pusillanimity.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“In all places, and in all times, those religionists who have believed too much have been more inclined to violence and persecution than those who have believed too little.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity, to those mysterious powers assumed by others; and in those regions of darkness and ignorance where man cannot effect even those things that are within the power of man, there we shall ever find that a blind belief in feats that are far beyond those powers has taken the deepest root in the minds of the deceived, and produced the richest harvest to the knavery of the deceiver.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“It may be observed of good writing, as of good blood, that it is much easier to say what it is composed of than to compose it.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Criticism is like champagne, nothing more execrable if bad, nothing more excellent if good; if meagre, muddy, vapid and sour, both are fit only to engender colic and wind; but if rich, generous and sparkling, they communicate a genial glow to the spirits, improve the taste, and expand the heart.”
Source: Lacon: or, Many things in few words
“Taking things not as they ought to be, but as they are, I fear it must be allowed that Macchiavelli will always have more disciples than Jesus.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
