Arthur Balfour Short Quotes

18 Sourced Quotes

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Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Arthur Balfour
Nothing matters very much and very few things matter at all.

Arthur Balfour
I thought he was a young man of promise, but it appears he is a young man of promises.
Of Winston Churchill

Arthur Balfour
The General Strike has taught the working class more in four days than years of talking could have done.

Arthur Balfour
Society, dead or alive, can have no charm without intimacy and no intimacy without an interest in trifles.

Arthur Balfour
Science preceded the theory of science, and is independent of it. Science preceded naturalism, and will survive it.

Arthur Balfour
It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.

Arthur Balfour
When asked why he did not hunt:
I do not see why I should break my neck because a dog chooses to run after a nasty smell.

Arthur Balfour
Unless appearances are to be trusted, why should we believe in Science? If Science is true, how can we trust to appearances?

Arthur Balfour
Science depends upon measurement, and things not measurable are therefore excluded, or tend to be excluded, from its attention.

Arthur Balfour
Few persons are prevented from thinking themselves right by the reflection that, if they be right, the rest of the world is wrong.

Arthur Balfour
Logic always seems to be telling us, in language quite unnecessarily technical, what we understood much better before it was explained.

Arthur Balfour
I am more or less happy when being praised, not very uncomfortable when being abused, but I have moments of uneasiness when being explained.

Arthur Balfour
... there were some things that were true, and some things that were trite; but what was true was trite, and what was not trite was not true...

Arthur Balfour
Reply to Frank Harris's remark that all the faults of his age came from Christianity and journalism:
Christianity, of course… but why journalism?

Arthur Balfour
There is always something about our feeling for beautiful things which can neither be described nor communicated, which is unshared and unshareable.

Arthur Balfour
The interdependence of theory and practice cannot be ignored without inflicting injury on both; and he is but a poor friend to either who undervalues their mutual cooperation.

Arthur Balfour
Every human soul is of infinite value, eternal, free; no human being, therefore, is so placed as not to have within his reach, in himself and others, objects adequate to infinite endeavor.

Arthur Balfour