The only hope of preserving what is best, lies in the practice of an immense charity, a wide tolerance, a sincere respect for opinions that are not ours.
Philip Gilbert HamertonA perfect life is like that of a ship of war which has its own place in the fleet and can share in its strength and discipline, but can also go forth alone in the solitude of the infinite sea. We ought to belong to society, to have our place in it, and yet be capable of a complete individual existence outside of it.
Philip Gilbert HamertonThackeray and Balzac will make it possible for our descendants to live over again the England and France of to-day. Seen in this light, the novelist has a higher office than merely and amuse his contemporaries.
Philip Gilbert HamertonNever be afraid of What is good; the good is always the road to what is true.
Philip Gilbert HamertonSociety is, and must be, based upon appearances, and not upon the deepest appearances, and not realities.
Philip Gilbert HamertonAll that we have read and learned, all that has occupied and interested us in the thoughts and deeds of men abler or wiser than ourselves, constitutes at last a spiritual society of which we can never be deprived, for it rests in the heart and soul of the man who has acquired it.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton