Man is said to be a rational creature; but should it not rather be said, that man is a creature capable of being rational, as we say a parrot is a creature capable of speech? Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke More Quotes by Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke More Quotes From Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke O wearisome condition of humanity! Born under one law, to another bound; Vainly begot and yet forbidden vanity; Created sick, commanded to be sound. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke vanity sick law Though love and hatred are as opposites as fire and water, yet do they sometimes subsist in the breast together towards the same person; nay by their very opposition and desire to destroy each other, are they strengthened and increased. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke hate fire opposites Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at? Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke laughter creatures men Habit is the cement of society, the comfort of life, and, alas! The root of error. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke errors roots comfort It by no means follows, that because two men utter the same words, they have precisely the same idea which they mean to express: language is inadequate to the variety of ideas which are conceived by different minds, and which, could they be expressed, would produce a new variety of characteristic differences between man and man. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke differences men mean If the human mind naturally produces noisome weeds, it also produces flowers and fruit; and ... the best method to mend the soil in general, is for each of us to cultivate his own particular spot. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke weed flower mind Love will sacrifice more to others than friendship, but then it exacts more from them. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke sacrifice love You deny that man is really so prejudiced as I suppose him; talk to him then of some foreign country, ask him what religion he is of. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke prejudice men country The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke examination increase beauty How happy is it for us, that the admiration of others should depend so much more on their ignorance than our perfection! Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke admiration ignorance perfection How seldom is generosity perfect and pure! How often do men give because it throws a certain inferiority on those who receive, and superiority on themselves! Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke generosity giving men No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke assessment deceived men Fire and people do in this agree,They both good servants, both ill masters be. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke masters fire people There are sometimes beauties in a character which would never have appeared but for a defect, and defects which would never have appeared but for a beauty. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke defects sometimes character We are oftener deceived by being told some truth than no truth. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke deceived deception It has been said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they are more lasting than those of the body; but I do not remember to have heard it said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they make those of the body more lasting. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke body mind remember If they who understand the utmost refinement of any art will enjoy the perfection of it in a manner superior to other men, will they not amply pay for that advantage in feeling more than other men the imperfection of it, which in the natural course of things must so much oftener fall in their way? Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke men art fall Though beauty is, with the most apt similitude, I had almost said with the most literal truth, called a flower that fades and dies almost in the very moment of its maturity; yet there is, methinks, a kind of beauty which lives even to old age; a beauty that is not in the features, but, if I may be allowed the expression, shines through them. As it is not merely corporeal it is not the object of mere sense, nor is it to be discovered but by persons of true taste and refined sentiment. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke maturity flower beauty It would be doing cunning too much honor to call it an inferior species of true discernment. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke too-much honor would-be It is so much in the nature of men to overreach and deceive one another, that their very sports and plays are founded on that principle. Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke play sports men
