“If they have entered into the spirit if these rules, and if the rules have made sufficient impression on them to become rooted and established in their minds, they will feel how much difference there is between what is said here and what a few logicians may perhaps have written by chance approximating to it in a few passages of their works.”
The Art of Persuasion
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Blaise Pascal 144
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Chri… 1623–1662Related quotes
“After having won a scepter, few are so generous
As to disdain the pleasures of ruling.”
Peu de généreux vont jusqu'à dédaigner,
Après un sceptre acquis, la douceur de régner.
Maxime, act II, scene i.
Cinna (1641)
1780s, Letter to Peter Carr (1787)
Context: He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this.
Manuscript note, quoted at The Eric Hoffer Award official site http://www.hofferaward.com/
Alas! What Boots the Long Laborious Quest?, l. 11 (1809).
Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 38, “The Taglian Territories: The Dandha Presh” (p. 502)
“Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.”
Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words. We shall, however, when occasion demands, enter into discourse sparingly, avoiding such common topics as gladiators, horse-races, athletes; and the perpetual talk about food and drink. Above all avoid speaking of persons, either in the way of praise or blame, or comparison. If you can, win over the conversation of your company to what it should be by your own. But if you should find yourself cut off without escape among strangers and aliens, be silent. (164).
Taking It All In (1983), Why Are Movies So Bad? Or, The Numbers (1980-06-23)
“Of keeping silence few have paid the cost;
Of having said too much, a countless host.”
Pochi si son del silenzio pentiti;
De l'aver troppo parlato, infmiti.
XLI, 3.
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato