Richard Whately Quotes

91 Sourced Quotes

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself.

Richard Whately
Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.

Richard Whately
Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword.

Richard Whately
It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

Richard Whately
In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.

Richard Whately
It is worth noticing that those who assume an imposing demeanor and seek to pass themselves off for something beyond what they are, are not unfrequently as much underrated by some as overrated by others.

Richard Whately
Falsehood, like poison, will generally be rejected when administered alone; but when blended with wholesome ingredients may be swallowed unperceived.

Richard Whately
The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind...

Richard Whately
Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. When the materials of a building are solid blocks of stone, very rude architecture will suffice; but a structure of rotten materials needs the most careful adjustment to make it stand at all.

Richard Whately
The closer two bodies act together, the more they will want oiling to prevent friction.

Richard Whately
Some persons resemble certain trees, such as the nut, which flowers in February and ripens its fruit in September; or the juniper and the arbutus; which take a whole year or more to perfect their fruit; and others, the cherry, which takes between two an three months.

Richard Whately
It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.

Richard Whately
He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.

Richard Whately
Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved.

Richard Whately
Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected.

Richard Whately
Observation digs the materials; reasoning erects the building.

Richard Whately
Mathematical reasoning is like a long flight of steps; moral, like a short clamber up a craggy rock.

Richard Whately
Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.

Richard Whately
As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally forgotten, to form the character.

Richard Whately
Anger requires that the offender should not only be made to grieve in his turn, but to grieve for that particular wrong which has been done by him.

Richard Whately
It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,--a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.

Richard Whately
Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know how the world could go on.

Richard Whately
Eloquence is relative. One can no more pronounce on the eloquence of any composition than the wholesomeness of a medicine, without knowing for whom it is intended.

Richard Whately
Trust, therefore, for the overcoming of a difficulty, not to long-continued study after you have once become bewildered, but to repeated trials at intervals.

Richard Whately
Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.

Richard Whately
If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.

Richard Whately
Persecution is not wrong because it is cruel; but it is cruel because it is wrong.

Richard Whately
Nothing can be in itself uncertain; it is we that are uncertain.

Richard Whately
A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer; but a wise man cannot ask more questions than he will find a fool ready to answer.

Richard Whately
It may be said, almost without qualification, that true wisdom consists in the ready and accurate perception of analogies. Without the former quality, knowledge of the past is unobstructive: without the latter it is deceptive.

Richard Whately