“Reproof is a medicine like mercury or opium; if it be improperly administered it will do harm instead of good.”
The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)
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James Burgh 49
British politician 1714–1775Related quotes

“In foreign policy, as in medicine, leaders must “first do no harm.””
"Obama the Pragmatist" http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/joseph-s--nye-defends-obama-s-approach-to-foreign-policy-against-critics-calling-for-a-more-muscular-approach, Project Syndicate (June 10, 2014).

Léon Blum, quoted in Pertinax [André Géraud], The Gravediggers of France (1944), p. 374.
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“A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen.”
"Tomorrow".
In Bluebeard's Castle (1971)

Quoted in "Tony Abbott says climate change is 'probably doing good'" https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/10/tony-abbott-says-climate-change-is-probably-doing-good, The Guardian, October 10, 2017
2017
March 24, 1966, page 216.
Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council

Thomas More's Account, in a letter to his daughter Margaret Roper, of his Second Interrogation