Augustus William Hare Quotes

75 Sourced Quotes

It is said that Windham, when he came to the end of a speech, often found himself so perplexed by his own subtlety that he hardly knew which way he was going to give his vote. This is a good illustration of the fallaciousness of reasoning, and of the uncertainties which attend its practical application.

Augustus William Hare
What do our clergy lose by reading their sermons? They lose preaching, the preaching of the voice in many cases, the preaching of the eye almost always.

Augustus William Hare
They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon.

Augustus William Hare
One saves oneself much pain, by taking pains; much trouble, by taking trouble.

Augustus William Hare
People cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them.

Augustus William Hare
Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the generation they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it.

Augustus William Hare
Life may be defined to be the power of self-augmentation or assimilation, not of self-nurture; for then a steam-engine over a coal-pit might be made to live.

Augustus William Hare
True modesty does not consist in an ignorance of our merits, but in a due estimate of them.

Augustus William Hare
The mind is like a trunk: if well-packed, it holds almost every thing; if ill-packed, next to nothing.

Augustus William Hare
When a man says he sees nothing in a book, he very often means that he does not see himself in it: which, if it is not a comedy or a satire, is likely enough.

Augustus William Hare
I could hardly feel much confidence in a man who had never been imposed upon.

Augustus William Hare
Practical life teaches us that people may differ and that both may be wrong: it also teaches us that people may differ and both be right. Anchor yourself fast in the latter faith, or the former will sweep your heart away.

Augustus William Hare
Who is fit to govern others? He who governs himself. You might as well have said: nobody.

Augustus William Hare
The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be.

Augustus William Hare
In the moment of our creation we receive the stamp of our individuality; and much of life is spent in rubbing off or defacing the impression.

Augustus William Hare
If you wish a general to be beaten, send him a ream full of instructions; if you wish him to succeed, give him a destination, and bid him conquer.

Augustus William Hare
Just, harmonious, temperate as is the spirit of liberty, there is in the name and mere notion of it a vagueness so opposite to the definite clearness of the moral law....

Augustus William Hare
Many a man's vices have at first been nothing worse than good qualities run wild.

Augustus William Hare
Few are aware that they want any thing, except pounds schillings and pence.

Augustus William Hare
The feeling is often the deeper truth, the opinion the more superficial one.

Augustus William Hare
I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker; for it was not on the door of heaven.

Augustus William Hare
There are men whom you will never dislodge from an opinion, except by taking possession of it yourself.

Augustus William Hare
I bid you conquer in your warfare against your four great enemies, the world, the devil, the flesh, and above all, that obstinate and perverse self-will, unaided by which the other three would be comparatively powerless.

Augustus William Hare
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.

Augustus William Hare
I like the smell of a dunged field, and the tumult of a popular election.

Augustus William Hare
Friendship is Love with jewels on, but without either flowers or veil.

Augustus William Hare
We like slipping, but not falling; our real anxiety is to be tempted enough.

Augustus William Hare
Excessive indulgence to others, especially to children is in fact only self-indulgence under an alias.

Augustus William Hare
How few are our real wants! and how easy is it to satisfy them! Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable.

Augustus William Hare
Temporary madness may be necessary in some cases, to cleanse and renovate the mind; just as a fit of illness is to carry off the humours of the body.

Augustus William Hare