J.W. Lord Quotes

Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.

The scholar without good breeding is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic.

Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he generally converses with are.

Men will not believe because they will not broaden their minds.

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

Lord Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years, but we don't choose to have it known.

It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain

The vulgar only laugh, but never smile; whereas well-bred people often smile, but seldom laugh.

In the case of scandal, as in that of robbery, the receiver is always thought as bad as the thief.

Let them show me a cottage where there are not the same vices of which they accuse the courts.

Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetites of the brute may survive.

My mind is clouded with a doubt.

'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print. A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.

Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land; Ring in the Christ that is to be.

The many fail: the one succeeds.

But while I breathe Heaven's air and Heaven looks down on me, And smiles at my best meanings, I remain Mistress of mine own self and mine own soul.

If you have wit, use it to please and not to hurt: you may shine like the sun in the temperate zones without scorching.

A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.

What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.

Ah, when shall all men's good Be each man's rule, and universal peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year?

And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer sea, But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.

He is all fault who has no fault at all.

Shall eagles not be eagles? wrens be wrens? If all the world were falcons, what of that? The wonder of the eagle were the less, But he not less the eagle.

And every dew-drop paints a bow.

As the husband is the wife is; thou art mated with a clown, As the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.

Every class is unfit to govern.

Rough Johnson, the great moralist.

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

I wind about, and in and out, - With here a blossom sailing, - And here and there a lusty trout, - And here and there a grayling.

Faith lives in honest doubt.

Arise, go forth, and conquer as of old.

The night comes on that knows not morn, When I shall cease to be all alone, To live forgotten, and love forlorn.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand.

That man's the true Conservative who lops the moldered branch away.

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new.

I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees.

The city is built To music, therefore never built at all, And therefore built forever.

There's no glory like those who save their country.

The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The set, gray life, and apathetic end.

Of love that never found his earthly close, What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts; Or all the same as if he had not been?

Nature, red in tooth and claw.

Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.

The sin That neither God nor man can well forgive.

No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.

His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.