James Burgh - The Dignity of Human Nature (1762)

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If you happen into company where the talk runs into party, obscemty, scandal, folly, or vice of any kind, you had better pass for morose or unsocial, among people whose good opinion is not worth having, than shock your own conscience by joining in conversation which you must disapprove of.

James Burgh
Be sure of the fact before you lose time in searching for a cause.

James Burgh
Wit without humanity degenerates into bitterness. Learning without prudence into pedantry.

James Burgh
You need not tell all the truth, unless to those who have a right to know it all. But let all you tell be truth.

James Burgh
He who knows the world will not be too bashful. He who knows himself will not be impudent.

James Burgh
Deep learning will make you acceptable to the learned; but it is only an obliging and easy behaviour, and entertaining conversation, that will make you agreeable to all companies.

James Burgh
If you have seen a man misbehave once, do not from thence conclude him a fool; if you find he has been in a mistake in one particular, do not at once conclude him void of understanding : by that way of judging, you can entertain a favourable opinion of no man upon earth, nor even of yourself.

James Burgh
There is no method more likely to cure passion and rashness, than the frequent and attentive consideration of one's own weaknesses: this will work into the mind an habitual sense of the need one has of being pardoned, and will bring down the swelling pride and obstinacy of heart, which are the cause of hasty passion.

James Burgh
If you have a friend that will reprove your faults and foibles, consider you enjoy a blessing which the king upon the throne cannot have.

James Burgh
Learning is like bank-notes: prudence and good behaviour are like silver, useful upon all occasions.

James Burgh
Love your fellow creature, though vicious. Hate vice in the friend you love the most.

James Burgh