No one was ever the better for advice: in general, what we called giving advice was properly taking an occasion to show our own wisdom at another's expense; and to receive advice was little better than tamely to another the occasion of raising himself a character from our defects.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyIt is the same with understanding as with eyes; to a certain size and make, just so much light is necessary, and no more. Whatever is beyond brings darkness and confusion.
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 ShaftesburyIt is the hardest thing in the world to be a good thinker without being a good self examiner.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of ShaftesburyThe passion of fear (as a modern philosopher informs me) determines the spirits of the muscles of the knees, which are instantly ready to perform their motion, by taking up the legs with incomparable celerity, in order to remove the body out of harm's way.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury