Book iii. Chap 2. Of Repentance
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Few men have been admired by their own households.
Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967)
“Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted.”
Letter to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry (1779-02-03), from William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1896) vol. 1, pp. 262-263
Context: I know the case is desperate, but, sire, we must either quit the country or attack Mr. Hamilton. No time is to be lost. Was I sure of a re-enforcement I should not attempt it. Who knows what fortune will do for us? Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted. Perhaps we may be fortunate. We have this consolation that our case is just, and that our country will be grateful and not condemn our conduct, in case we fall through; if so, this country as well as Kentucky, I believe, is lost.
“Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them.”
Address to the McKinley League, New York (29 October 1896)
“Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.”
The Most of Malcolm Muggeridge http://books.google.com/books?id=vI0uAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Few+men+of+action+have+been+able+to+make+a+graceful+exit+at+the+appropriate+time%22&pg=PA239#v=onepage (1966)
that though Reason is feasted, Imagination is starved; whilst Reason is luxuriating in its proper Paradise, Imagination is wearily travelling on a dreary desert.
Letter to his brother (1791)
Letters
Vol. 1, pp. 4–5
A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day
“Amongst the sons of men how few are known
Who dare be just to merit not their own?”
Epistle to William Hogarth (July 1763)
