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It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

Richard Whately

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Richard Whately
Age: 76 †
Born: 1787
Born: February 1
Died: 1863
Died: October 8
Economist
Philosopher
Priest
Theologian
London
England
Expected
Expect
May
Men
Reasonably
Folly

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Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil.
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All gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at the expense of another, involves a breach of the tenth commandment.
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Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected.
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The more secure we feel against our liability to any error to which, in fact, we are liable, the greater must be our danger of falling into it.
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It is quite possible, and not uncommon, to read most laboriously, even so as to get by heart the words of a book, without really studying it at all,--that is, without employing the thoughts on the subject.
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Better too much form than too little.
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The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
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An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads.
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It is a remarkable circumstance in reference to cunning persons that they are often deficient not only in comprehensive, far-sighted wisdom, but even in prudent, cautious circumspection.
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A fanatic, either, religious or political, is the subject of strong delusions.
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The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
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Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry gets the best of the argument.
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He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.
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Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.
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One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business.
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Superstition is not, as has been defined, an excess of religious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it on vanities of man's devising.
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The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity.
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