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" The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. "

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" Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success. "

" The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards. "

" A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it. "

" The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything. "

" A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault. "

" An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. "

" Life is a school of probability. "

" The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. "

" The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it. "

" Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison. "

" A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment. "

" An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own. "

" No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist. "

" You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor. "

" So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable. "

" One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. "

" What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind. "

" Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits. "

" Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind. "

" The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen. "

" No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation. "

" A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself. "

" An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft. "

" Woman absent is woman dead. "

" The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be. "

" So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong. "

" It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations. "

" The real essence of work is concentrated energy. "

" An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle. "

" Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world. "