Henry Home, Lord Kames Quotes
The truly generous is the truly wise, and he who loves not others lives unblest!
Such is the power of imagination, that even a chimerical pleasure in expectation affects us more than a solid pleasure in possession.
Logic is the art of thinking well: the mind, like the body, requires to be trained before it can use its powers in the most advantageous way.
Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.
Were wisdom to be sold, she would give no price; every man is satisfied with the share he has from nature.
Luxury possibly may contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.
Men are guided less by conscience than by glory; and yet the shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.
To a zealot every one of his own sect is a saint, while the most upright of a different sect are to him children of perdition.
No man ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time he did a greater to himself.
Ridicule, which chiefly arises from pride, a selfish passion, is but at best a gross pleasure, too rough an entertainment for those who are highly polished and refined.
The mind is never more highly gratified than in contemplating a natural landscape.
Seldom do we talk of ourselves with success. If I condemn myself, more is believed than is expressed; if I praise myself, much less.
A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.
As nice as we are in love, we forgive more faults in that than in friendship.
Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.
Great wants proceed from great wealth; but they are undutiful children, for they sink wealth down to poverty.
Genius is allied to a warm and inflammable constitution; delicacy of taste, to calmness and sedateness. Hence it is common to find genius in one who is a prey to every passion.
Whoever appears to have much cunning has in reality very little; being deficient in the essential article, which is, to hide cunning.
We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.
Nothing so uncertain as general reputation. A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.
An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands.