“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
“Custom is the law of one description of fools, and fashion of another; but the two parties often clash--for precedent is the legislator of the first, and novelty of the last. Custom, therefore, looks to things that are past, and fashion to things that are present.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think
“The cynic who twitted Aristippus by observing that the philosopher who could dine on herbs might despise the company of a king, was well replied to by Aristippus, when he remarked that the philosopher who could enjoy the company or a king might also despise a dinner of herbs.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“If merited, no courage can stand against its just indignation.”
“Few things are more agreeable to self-love than revenge, and yet no cause so effectually restrains us from revenge as self-love. And this paradox naturally suggests another; that the strength of the community is not unfrequently built upon the weakness of those individuals that compose it.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Revenge is fever in our own blood, to be cured only by letting the blood of another; but the remedy too often produces a relapse, which is remorse--a malady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it is incurable.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
