146 Quotes by Richard Whately

It is folly to shiver over last year’s snow.

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?’

Geologists complain that when they want specimens of the common rocks of a country, they receive curious spars; just so, historians give us the extraordinary events and omit just what we want, – the every-day life of each particular time and country.

Man is naturally more desirous of a quiet and approving, than of a vigilant and tender conscience – more desirous of security than of safety.

It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor, – a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.

Some men’s reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.

Superstition is not, as has been defined, an excess of religious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it on vanities of man’s devising.

It is quite possible, and not uncommon, to read most laboriously, even so as to get by heart the words of a book, without really studying it at all, – that is, without employing the thoughts on the subject.

Every instance of a man’s suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.