Richard Whately Quotes (31 Quotes)

A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.

Neither human applause nor human censure is to be taken as the best of truth but either should set us upon testing ourselves.

The word knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things truth, proof, and conviction.

To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.

Honesty is the best policy, but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man

It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.

Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.

There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil.

Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed; we see the most indistinctly the objects which are close around us.

Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.

A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.

Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.

It is generally true that all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe God for any blessing is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.

It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.

Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say.

Weak arguments are often thrust before my path but although they are most insubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword.

Hard labor is not whenever you are very actively employed, But when you must be.

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

Not in books only, nor yet in oral discourse, but often also in words there are boundless stores of moral and historic truth, and no less of passion and imagination laid up, from which lessons of infinite worth may be derived

All men wish to have truth on their side; but few to be on the side of truth.

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?'

He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.

A man will never change his mind if he have no mind to change.

Happiness is no laughing matter.

Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself.