Geologists complain that when they want specimens of the common rocks of a country, they receive curious spars; just so, historians give us the extraordinary events and omit just what we want,--the every-day life of each particular time and country.
Richard WhatelyEthical 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 WhatelyIn our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.
Richard Whately