“Most Men are Cowards, all Men should be Knaves.
The Difference lies, as far as I can see,
Not in the thing it self, but the Degree.”

ll. 169-171.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

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 "Most Men are Cowards, all Men should be Knaves. The Difference lies, as far as I can see, Not in the thing it self, b…" by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester?
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester photo
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester 34
English poet, and peer of the realm 1647–1680

Related quotes

Edward Young photo

“Titles are marks of honest men, and wise;
The fool or knave that wears a title lies.”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

Satire I, l. 145.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)

Abraham Lincoln photo

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Sometimes attributed to Lincoln since a 1950 speech of Douglas MacArthur citing him as its author, this is actually from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Misattributed

William Shakespeare photo

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

Variant: Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Source: Julius Caesar

Francis Pharcellus Church photo

“The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.”

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (1897)
Context: Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah,, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux photo

“In spite of every sage whom Greece can show,
Unerring wisdom never dwelt below;
Folly in all of every age we see,
The only difference lies in the degree.”

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) French poet and critic

N'en déplaise à ces fous nommés sages de Grèce,
En ce monde il n'est point de parfaite sagesse :
Tous les hommes sont fous, et, malgré tous leurs soins,
Ne diffèrent entre eux que du plus ou du moins.
Satire 4, l. 37
Satires (1716)

Ella Wheeler Wilcox photo

“To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.”

Protest, contained in "Poems of Problems", pp. 154–55 (1914). This quotation is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)

Tanith Lee photo
Takeda Shingen photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“That is the most stupid thing yet. I tell you that I could despair of human intelligence when I see what can exist in men’s minds.”

Source: Pebble in the Sky (1950), chapter 15 “The Odds That Vanished”, p. 136

Richard Bertrand Spencer photo

Related topics