Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quote

I am grown old, and have possibly lost a great deal of that fire, which formerly made me love fire in others at any rate, and however attended with smoke: but now I must have all sense, and cannot, for the sake of five righteous lines, forgive a thousand absurd ones.

Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son (ed. 1827)