“The vanity of teaching often tempteth a Man to forget he is a Blockhead.”

—  George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The vanity of teaching often tempteth a Man to forget he is a Blockhead." by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax?
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax 65
English politician 1633–1695

Related quotes

Samuel Johnson photo

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

April 5, 1776, p. 302
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

Fernando Pessoa photo

“Everyone has his vanity, and each one's vanity is his forgetting that there are others with an equal soul.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 88
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Cada um tem a sua vaidade, e a vaidade de cada um é o seu esquecimento de que há outros com alma igual.

“Too often we forget that discipline really means to teach, not to punish. A disciple is a student, not a recipient of behavioural consequences.”

Daniel J. Siegel (1957) American psychiatrist

Source: The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive

Jeremy Bentham photo

“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.”

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer
Paul Erdős photo

“The first sign of senility is that a man forgets his theorems, the second sign is that he forgets to zip up, the third sign is that he forgets to zip down.”

Paul Erdős (1913–1996) Hungarian mathematician and freelancer

Though Erdős used this remark, it is said to have originated with his friend Stanisław Ulam, as reported in The Man Who Loved Only Numbers : The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth (1998) by Paul Hoffman
Variants:
The first sign of senility is when a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is when he forgets to zip up. The third sign is when he forgets to zip down.
As quoted in Wonders of Numbers : Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning (2002) by Clifford A. Pickover, p. 64
There are three signs of senility. The first sign is that a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is that he forgets to zip up. The third sign is that he forgets to zip down.
Misattributed

Stanislaw Ulam photo

“The first sign of senility is that a man forgets his theorems, the second sign is that he forgets to zip up, the third sign is that he forgets to zip down.”

Stanislaw Ulam (1909–1984) Polish-American mathematician

Attributed in Paul Hoffman, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth (1998)
This has also been attributed, with variants, to Paul Erdős, who repeated the remark.

Arthur Machen photo

“The psycho-analyst infers the monstrous and abnormal from a trifle; it is often safe to reverse the process. If a man dreams that he has committed a sin before which the sun hid his face, it is often safe to conjecture that, in sheer forgetfulness, he wore a red tie, or brown boots with evening dress.”

Arthur Machen (1863–1947) Welsh author and mystic

"The Children of the Pool", in The Children of the Pool and Other Stories (New York: Arno Press, [1936] 1976) p. 83.

“With men, as with women, the main struggle is between vanity and comfort; but with men, comfort often wins.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Women & men

John Keats photo

“I will give you a definition of a proud man: he is a man who has neither vanity nor wisdom one filled with hatreds cannot be vain, neither can he be wise.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Related topics