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It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,--a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.

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
Humor
Annoyed
Easy
Cheerful
Spirit
Guard
Nature
Spirits
Also
Selfishness
Important
Temper
Mistaking
Great
Properly
Compatible
Good
Flow
Readily

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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.
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Of all hostile feelings, envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it even to himself, but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his hostility.
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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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The heathen mythology not only was not true, but was not even supported as true it not only deserved no faith, but it demanded none. The very pretension to truth, the very demand of faith, were characteristic distinctions of Christianity.
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Even supposing there were some spiritual advantage in celibacy, it ought to be completely voluntary.
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The Eastern monarch who proclaimed a reward to him who should discover a new pleasure, would have deserved well of mankind had he stipulated that it should be blameless.
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If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.
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It is worth noticing that those who assume an imposing demeanor and seek to pass themselves off for something beyond what they are, are not unfrequently as much underrated by some as overrated by others.
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Happiness is no laughing matter.
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To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
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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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Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry gets the best of the argument.
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Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.
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Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. When the materials of a building are solid blocks of stone, very rude architecture will suffice but a structure of rotten materials needs the most careful adjustment to make it stand at all.
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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.
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The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity.
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A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.
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In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.
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He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.
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