C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Bishop Berkeley
A ray of imagination or of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries.
Every knave is a thorough knave, and a thorough knave is a knave throughout.
For my own private satisfaction, I had rather be master of my own time than wear a diadem.
I imagine that thinking is the great desideratum of the present age; and the cause of whatever is done amiss may justly be reckoned the general neglect of education in those who need it most, the people of fashion. What can be expected where those who have the most influence have the least sense, and those who are sure to be followed set the worst examples?
Make a point never so clear, it is great odds that a man whose habits and the bent of whose mind lie a contrary way, shall be unable to comprehend it. So weak a thing is reason in competition with inclination.
Man is an animal, formidable both from his passions and his reason; his passions often urging him to great evils, and his reason furnishing means to achieve them. To train this animal, and make him amenable to order; to inure him to a sense of justice and virtue; to withhold him from ill courses by fear, and encourage him in his duty by hopes; in short, to fashion and model him for society, hath been the aim of civil and religious institutions; and, in all times, the endeavor of good and wise men. The aptest method for attaining this end hath been always judged a proper education.
The fawning courtier and the surly squire often mean the same thing,—each his own interest.
To be a good patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God’s creatures, and himself as accountable for his acting towards them.
To warm without heating, to cheer but not inebriate.
Where the people are well educated, the art of piloting a state is best learned from the writings of Plato.