
Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 130
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)
Cardanus Comforte (1574)
Context: Better it is to have the worst, than none at all. for example we see, that houses are nedefull, such as can not possese & stately pallaces of stone, do persuade themselves to dwell in houses of timber and clap, and wanting them, are contented to inhabite the simple cotage, yea rather than not to be housed at all refuse not the pore cabbon, and most beggerly cave. So necessarie is this gift of consolacion, as there livith no man, but that hathe cause to embrace it. for in these things better is it to have any than none at al.
Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 130
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)
Speech in the House of Representatives (20 June 1848)
1840s
Context: The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.
“It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church.”
“A man cannot have a better guide than himself, nor any physic better than a regular life.”
Discourses on the Sober Life
History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill at p.377 vol I
“No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.”
Il n'y a guère d'homme si accompli et si nécessaire aux siens, qu'il n'ait de quoi se faire moins regretter.
Aphorism 35
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel
Odes, XXIV.
Variant: The bull by nature hath his horns, The horse his hoofs, to daunt their foes; The light-foot hare the hunter scorns; The lion's teeth his strength disclose.The fish, by swimming, 'scapes the weel; The bird, by flight, the fowler's net; With wisdom man is arm'd as steel; Poor women none of these can get. What have they then?—fair Beauty's grace, A two-edged sword, a trusty shield; No force resists a lovely face, Both fire and sword to Beauty yield.