“He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.”
IX, 2
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX
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Marcus Aurelius 400
Emperor of Ancient Rome 121–180Related quotes
“Parents should leave books lying around marked "forbidden" if they want their children to read.”
Interview with Amanda Craig, "Grand dame of letters who's not going quietly," The Times, London (23 November 2003) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14449-1132868_3,00.html
Book I, Ch. 9. Of Liars
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
"Mob Morals and the Art of Loving Art", X, Vol. 2, No. 1 (January 1961).
X magazine (1959-62)
“Yielding more wholesome food than all the messes
That now taste-curious wanton plenty dresses.”
Second Week, First Day, Part i. Compare: "Herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses", John Milton, L'Allegro, line 85.
La Seconde Semaine (1584)
“It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.”
No. 66
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
"The Irony of Liberalism"
Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922)
“A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do.”
Source: Norwegian Wood
As quoted in Genetic Studies in Joyce (1995) by David Hayman and Sam Slote. Though such remarks have often been quoted as Wellington's response on being called Irish, the earliest published sources yet found for similar comments are those about him attributed to an Irish politician:
The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell, in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials (1844), p. 93 http://books.google.com/books?id=dpKbWonMghwC&pg=PA93&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=0YVZSIWXCIiSjgG37bGIDA
No, he is not an Irishman. He was born in Ireland; but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell during a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Reports of State Trials: New Series Volume V, 1843 to 1844 (1893) "The Queen Against O'Connell and Others", p. 206 http://books.google.com/books?id=zWETAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT108&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=MohZSJ-PK4a4jgG-lLGJDA
Variants: If a man be born in a stable, that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as as an anonymous proverb in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899), p. 171
Because a man is born in a stable that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as a dubious statement perhaps made early in his career in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1992) edited by John Simpson and Jennifer Speake, p. 162.
Misattributed