George Savile (1633 – 1695)
English statesman, writer, and politician.
Nothing is less forgiven than setting Patterns Men have no mind to follow.
Popularity is a Crime from the Moment it is sought ; it is only a Virtue where Men have it whether they will or no.
The first mistake belonging to business is the going into it.
It is not a reproach but a compliment to learning, to say, that 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.
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.
It is a general Mistake to think the Men we like are good for every thing, and those we do not, good for nothing.
No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave ; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.
Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.
A Husband without Faults is a dangerous Observer.
The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory.
In your Clothes avoid too much Gaudy ; do not value your self upon an Imbroidered Gown ; and remember, that a reasonable Word, or an obliging Look, will gain you more respect, than all your fine Trappings.
Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.
There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business ; but the Reason is because they despised it.
A wise man will keep his Suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.
Our nature hardly allows us to have enough of anything without having too much.
A Man is to go about his own Business as if he had not a Friend in the World to help him in it.
If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers in the first Place.
It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.
The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached on that subject.
Modesty is oftner mistaken than any other Virtue.