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The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.

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
Give
Littles
Little
Giving
Happiest
Much
Occasion
Men
Occasions
Think
Concerned
Thinking
Birth

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When men have become heartily wearied of licentious anarchy, their eagerness has been proportionately great to embrace the opposite extreme of rigorous despotism.
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Honesty is the best policy but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.
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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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As the telescope is not a substitute for, but an aid to, our sight, so revelation is not designed to supersede the use of reason, but to supply its deficiencies.
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A fanatic, either, religious or political, is the subject of strong delusions.
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When a man says he wants to work, what he means is that he wants wages.
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No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar.
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Women never reason, or, if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises and they always poke the fire from the top.
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As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally forgotten, to form the character.
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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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Of metaphors, those generally conduce most to energy or vivacity of style which illustrate an intellectual by a sensible object.
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Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready-made-up in the chemists’ shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct Prescription.
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The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity.
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Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.
Richard Whately
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Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.
Richard Whately
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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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It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.
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It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.
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The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the love of commendation but, on the other hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our: good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive.
Richard Whately
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Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.
Richard Whately