Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), II. On Difference of Character
“Does it take the harsh light of disaster to show a person’s true nature?”
“Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.”
La raillerie est un discours en faveur de son esprit contre son bon naturel.
Pensées Diverses
Discourses on the Condition of the Great
Context: Do not imagine that it is less an accident by which you find yourself master of the wealth which you possess, than that by which this man found himself king.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Sensus Communis: An Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour (1709), Part 1, Sec. 5, incorrectly attributing it to Gorgias via Aristotle.
Misattributed
“Shadows…bring softness to every thing. An object and its shadow are softness and hardness.”
Everything Has to Do with Hardness and Softness (1969)
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting
“Crowd mentality is a kind of simultaneous psychosis which may take possession of any group.”
Source: Farewell to Revolution (1935), p. xi, Foreword
“…possessed of more self-knowledge, which is the kind of knowledge that makes people attractive.”
...sabe más de sí misma, que es el conocimiento que hace atractivas a las personas.
Source: Todas las Almas [All Souls] (1989), p. 68
“Wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.”
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham, line 15.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Vol. 1, p. 38; "Sensus Communis".
Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711)
