Quote

A perfect life is like that of a ship of war which has its own place in the fleet and can share in its strength and discipline, but can also go forth alone in the solitude of the infinite sea. We ought to belong to society, to have our place in it, and yet be capable of a complete individual existence outside of it.

Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Age: 60 †
Born: 1834
Born: September 10
Died: 1894
Died: November 4
Art Historian
Artist
Novelist
Painter
Poet
Writer
Shaw and Crompton
Greater Manchester
Philip Hamerton
Philip Gilbert Hammerton
Philip Hammerton
Individual
Outside
Belong
War
Strength
Forth
Place
Ought
Solitude
Also
Share
Complete
Life
Existence
Sea
Fleet
Like
Alone
Infinite
Ship
Society
Discipline
Individuality
Perfect
Capable
Ships

More quotes by Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Image
The opinions of men who think are always growing and changing, like living children.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Society will be obeyed if you refuse obedience, you must take the consequences. Society has only one law, and that is custom. Even religion itself is socially powerful only just so far as it has custom on its side.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
What delights us in the spring is more a sensation than an appearance, more a hope than any visible reality. There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very sounds and odors of the sweet time, that caresses us and consoles us after the rigorous weeks of winter.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Conversation is interesting in proportion to the originality of the central ideas which serve as pivots and the fitness of the little facts and observations which are contributed by the talkers.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
People have prejudices against a nation in which they have no acquaintances.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
The only hope of preserving what is best, lies in the practice of an immense charity, a wide tolerance, a sincere respect for opinions that are not ours.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Woe unto him that is never alone, and cannot bear to be alone.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
There are natures that go to the streams of life in great cities as the hart goes to the water brooks.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
As there is no pleasure in military life for a soldier who fears death, so there is no independence in civil existence for the man who has an overpowering dread of solitude.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
You may have a cat in the room with you without anxiety about anything except eatables. The presence of a cat is positively soothing to a student.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
All that we have read and learned, all that has occupied and interested us in the thoughts and deeds of men abler or wiser than ourselves, constitutes at last a spiritual society of which we can never be deprived, for it rests in the heart and soul of the man who has acquired it.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Society is, and must be, based upon appearances, and not upon the deepest appearances, and not realities.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Never be afraid of What is good the good is always the road to what is true.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Image
The art of reading is to skip judiciously. Whole libraries may be skipped in these days, when we have the results of them in our modern culture without going over the ground again.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton