Lord Shaftesbury Quotations

When men are easy in themselves, they let others remain so.

It is necessary a writing critic should understand how to write. And though every writer is not bound to show himself in the capacity of critic, every writing critic is bound to show himself capable of being a writer; for if he be apparently impotent in this latter kind, he is to be denied all title or character in the other.

True features make the beauty of a face, and true proportions the beauty of architecture.

Nothing is more ridiculous than ridicule.

Pedantry and bigotry are millstones, able to sink the best book which carries the least part of their dead weight. The temper of the pedagogue suits not with the age; and the world, however it may be taught, will not be tutored.

It is the saying of an ancient sage that humor was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor.

The heart is never neutral.

It is the hardest thing in the world to be a good thinker without being a good self examiner.

True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free.

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concern thinks certainly he knows that which he has least studied, and of which he is most profoundly ignorant.