Marquis of George Savile Halifax

“ Conviction indeed is not a proper word but where a Man is convinced by Reason; but in the common acceptation, it is applied to those who cannot tell why they are so: If Men can be at least as positive in a Mistake as when they are in the right; they may be as clearly convinced when they do not know why, as when they do.
I must presume that no Man of the King’s Age, and his Methods of Life, could possibly give a good reason for changing the Religion in which he was born, let it be what it will. But our Passions are much oftener convinced than our Reason. ”

“ The hardest thing in the World is to give the Thoughts due Liberty, and yet retain them in due Discipline.
They are Libertines that are apt to abuse Freedom, and do not well know how to bear Restraint.
A Man that excels in any one thing has a kind of arbitrary Power over all that hear him upon that Subject, and no Man’s Life is too short to know any one thing perfectly. ”

“ Early Suspicion is often an Injury, and late Suspicion is always a Folly.
A wise Man will keep his Suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.
There can no Rules be given to Suspicion, no more than to Love. ”

“ The Parliaments are so altered from their original Constitution, that between the Court and the Country, the House, instead of being united, is like Troops of a contrary Party facing one another, and watching their Advantage.
Even the well-meaning Men who have good Sense too, have their Difficulties in an Assembly; what they offer honestly for a good End, will be skilfully improved for an ill one. ”

“ So proud of the Character of being able Men, that they do not care to have their Dexterity confined.
In this Age, when it is said of a Man, He knows how to live, it may be imply’d he is not very honest.
An honest Man must lose so many Occasions of Getting, that the World will hardly allow him the Character of an Able one.
There is however more Wit requisite to be an honest Man, than there is to be a Knave.
The most necessary thing in the World, and yet the least usual, is to reflect that those we deal with, may know how to be as arrant Knaves as ourselves. ”

“ Most Men enter into a Party rashly, and retreat from it as shamefully. As they encourage one another at first, so they betray one another at last: And because every Qualification is capable of being corrupted by the Excess, they fall upon the extream, to fix mutual Reproaches upon one another.
Party is little less than an Inquisition, where Men are under such a Discipline in carrying on the common Cause, as leaves no Liberty of private Opinion.
It is hard to produce an Instance where a Party did ever succeed against a Government, except they had a good handle given them. ”

“ Men make it such a Point of Honour to be fit for Business, that they forget to examine whether Business is fit for a Man of Sense.
There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business; but the Reason is because they despised it.
It is not a Reproach but a Compliment to Learning, to say, that [Pg 120] Great Scholars are less fit for Business; since the truth is, Business is so much a lower thing than Learning, that a Man used to the last cannot easily bring his Stomach down to the first. ”

“ Wise Men gain, and poor Men live, by the Superfluities of Fools.
[Pg 132] Till Follies become ruinous, the World is better with than it would be without them.
A Fool is angry that he is the Food of a Knave, forgetting that it is the End of his Creation.
Of Hope.
Hope is a kind Cheat; in the Minute of our Disappointment we are angry, but upon the whole matter there is no Pleasure without it.
It is so much a pleasanter thing than Truth to the greatest Part of the World, that it hath all their Kindness, the other only hath their Respect. ”

“ The Uncertainty of what is to come, is suck a dark Cloud, that neither Reason nor Religion can quite break through it; and the Condition of Mankind is to be weary of what we do know, and afraid of what we do not. ”

“ To say a Power is Supream, and not Arbitrary, is not Sense. It is acknowledg’d Supream, and therefore, &c.
If the Common Law is Supream, then those are so who judge what is the Common Law; and if none but the Parliament can judge so, there is an end of the Controversy; there is no Fundamental; for the Parliament may judge as they please, that is, they have the Authority, but they may judge against Right, their Power is good, though their Act is ill; no good Man will outwardly resist the one, or inwardly approve the other. ”

“ Anger may have some Excuse for being blind, but Malice none: for Malice hath time to look before it.
[Pg 140] When Malice is overgrown, it cometh to be the highest degree of Impertinence. For that reason, it must not be fed and pampered, which is apt to make it play the fool. But where it is wise and steady, there is no Precaution, that can be quite Proof against it.
Ill-will is seldom cured on a sudden, it must go off by degrees, by insensible Transpiration.
Malice may be sometimes out of Breath, Envy never. A Man may make Peace with Hatred, but never with Envy. ”

“ It is a dangerous Task to answer Objections, because they are helped by the Malice of Mankind.
A bold Accusation doth at first draw such a general Attention, that it gets the World on its side.
To a Man who hath a mind to find a Fault, an Excuse generally giveth farther hold. ”

“ The Government of the World is a great thing; but it is a very coarse one too, compared with the Fineness of Speculative Knowledge.
The Dependance of a great Man upon a greater, is a Subjection that lower Men cannot easily comprehend.
Ambition hath no Mean, it is either upon all four or upon Tiptoes.
Nothing can be humbler than Ambition, when it is so disposed.
Popularity is a Crime from the Moment it is sought; it is only a Virtue where Men have it whether they will or no. ”

“ A Fool is naturally recommended to our Kindness by setting us off by the Comparison. Men are grateful to Fools for giving them the Pleasure of contemning them.
But Folly hath a long Tail that is not seen at first: for every single Folly hath a Root, out of which more are ready to sprout; and a Fool hath so unlimited a Power of mistaking, that a Man of Sense can never comprehend to what degree it may extend. ”

“ The modern Wit is rather to set Men out, than to make them of any Use.
Some Men have acted Courage who had it not; but no Man can act Wit, if Nature doth not teach him his Part. True Wit is always revenged upon any false Pretender that meddleth with it. [Pg 168]
Wit is the only thing that Men are willing to think they can ever have enough of.
There is a happy Pitch of Ignorance that a Man of Sense might pray for.
A Man that hath true Wit will have Honour too, not only to adorn, but to support it. ”

“ It is from the Shortness of Thought, that Men imagine there is any great Variety in the World.
Time hath thrown a Vail upon the Faults of former Ages, or else we should see the same Deformities we condemn in the present Times.
When a Man looketh upon the Rules that are made, he will think there can be no Faults in the World; and when he looketh upon the Faults, there are so many he will be tempted to think there are no Rules. ”

“ The truth is, a King is to be such a distinct Creature from a Man, that their Thoughts are to be put in quite a differing Shape, and it is such a disquieting task to reconcile them, [Pg 47] that Princes might rather expect to be lamented than to be envied, for being in a Station that exposeth them, if they do not do more to answer Mens Expectations than human Nature will allow.
That Men have the less Ease for their loving it so much, is so far from a wonder, that it is a natural Consequence, especially in the case of a Prince. ”

“ It is a general Fault that we dislike Men only for the Injuries they do to us, and not for those they do to Mankind. Yet it will be hard to give a good Reason why a Man who hath done a deliberate Injury to one, will not do it to another. ”

“ Have not Men of great Wit in all times permitted their Understandings to give way to their first Impressions? It taketh off from the Diminution when a Man doth not mind a thing; and the King had then other Business: The inferior part of the Man was then in Possession, and the Faculties of the Brain, as to serious and painful Enquiries, were laid asleep at least, tho’ not extinguished. Careless Men are most subject to Superstition. Those who do not study Reason enough to make it their Guide, have more Unevenness: As they have Neglects, so they have Starts and Frights; Dreams will serve the turn ”

“ A Prince neither sharpened by his Misfortunes whilst Abroad, nor by his Power when restored, is such a shining Character, that it [Pg 54] is a Reproach not to be so dazzled with it, as not to be able to see a Fault in its full Light. It would be a Scandal in this Case to have an exact Memory. And if all who are akin to his Vices, should mourn for him, never Prince would be better attended to his Grave. He is under the Protection of common Frailty, that must engage Men for their own sakes not to be too severe, where they themselves have so much to answer. ”

“ Where Ill-nature is not predominant, Anger will be short-breathed, it cannot hold out a long Course. Hatred can be tired and cloyed as [Pg 135] well as Love: for our Spirits, like our Limbs, are tired with being long in one Posture.
There is a Dignity in Good-sense that is offended and defaced by Anger.
Anger is never without an Argument, but seldom with a good one. ”

“ The best Party is but a kind of a Conspiracy against the rest of the Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the Jews to the Gentiles, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.
Men value themselves upon their Principles, so as to neglect Practice, Abilities, Industry, &c.
Party cutteth off one half of the World from the other, so that the mutual Improvement of Mens Understanding by conversing, &c. is lost, and Men are half undone, when they lose the advantage of knowing what their Enemies think of them. ”

“ Wise and good Men will in all Ages stick to some Fundamentals, look upon them as sacred, and preserve an inviolable Respect for them; [Pg 66] but Mankind in general make Morality a more malleable thing than it ought to be.
There is then no certain Fundamental but in Nature, and yet there are Objections too. It is a Fundamental in Nature that the Son should not kill the Father, and yet the Senate of Venice gave a Reward to a Son who brought in his Father’s Head, according to a Proclamation. ”