[F]riends praise your abilities to the skies, submit to you in argument, and seem to have the greatest deference for you; but, though they may ask it, you never find them following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Categorized in : Advice May Sky

Be not over solicitous about education. It may be able to do much, but it does not do as much as expected from it. It may mould and direct the character, but it rarely alters it.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

doe may character

Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

fool discovery men

My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

doctrine principles doubt

That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me whe... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

support use men

Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong pri... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong principle.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

strong principles character

It doesn't matter what we say , so long as we all say the same th... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

It doesn't matter what we say , so long as we all say the same thing.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

unity matter long

Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. wThis is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. wThe sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy.w Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

taken truth time

What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the dammed fools said would happen has come to pass.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

army military wise

It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say the... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say the same.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

agreement matter mind

I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everyt... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

self-confidence confidence wish

The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

contracts crime government

While I cannot be regarded as a pillar, I must be regarded as a buttress of the church, because I support it from outside.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

support church religion

Things are coming to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to in... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

Things are coming to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade private life.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

privacy life religion

What I like about the Order of the Garter is that there is no dam... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

What I like about the Order of the Garter is that there is no damned merit about it.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

merit awards order

A doctrinaire is a fool but an honest man.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

fool principles men

Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. This is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy. Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the love of pleasure, etc., etc., which are his own faults, than through incapacity and unfitness, which are the faults of his nature.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

If it was not absolutely necessary, it was the foolishest thing e... by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Mel...

If it was not absolutely necessary, it was the foolishest thing ever done.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

You should never assume contempt for that which it is not very manifest that you have it in your power to possess, nor does a wit ever make a more contemptible figure than when, in attempting satire, he shows that he does not understand that which he would make the subject of his ridicule.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne