Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect change is the way to perfect them. It gets the name of wilfulness when it will not admit of a lawful change to the better. Therefore constancy without knowledge cannot be always good. In things ill it is not virtue, but an absolute vice.
Owen FelthamVirtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.
Owen FelthamHe that, when he should not, spends too much, shall, when he would not, have too little to spend.
Owen FelthamA sentence well couched takes both the sense and understanding. I love not those cart-rope speeches that are longer than the memory of man can fathom.
Owen FelthamRiches, though they may reward virtues, yet they cannot cause them; he is much more noble who deserves a benefit than he who bestows one.
Owen FelthamSome are so uncharitable as to think all women bad, and others are so credulous as to believe they are all good. All will grant her corporeal frame more wonderful and more beautiful than man's. And can we think God would put a worse soul into a better body?
Owen FelthamIrresolution is a worse vice than rashness. He that shoots best may sometimes miss the mark; but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution loosens all the joints of a state; like an ague, it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man is lifted from one place to another; so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.
Owen Feltham