As many as are the difficulties which Virtue has to encounter in this world, her force is yet superior.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyGravity is of the very essence of imposture; it does not only mistake other things, but is apt perpetually almost to mistake itself.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyNothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature; such as the beauty of sentiments, the grace of actions, the turn of characters, and the proportions and features of a human mind.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyWe may have an excellent ear for music, without being able to perform in any kind; we may judge well of poetry, without being poets, or possessing the least of a poetic vein; but we can have no tolerable notion of goodness without being tolerably good.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyNever did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love or gratitude or bounty practiced but with increasing joy, which made the practicer still more in love with the fair act.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyTruth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance. The appearance of reality is necessary to make any passion agreeably represented, and to be able to move others we must be moved ourselves, or at least seem to be so, upon some probable grounds.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury