Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs. Edwin Percy Whipple More Quotes by Edwin Percy Whipple More Quotes From Edwin Percy Whipple A nation may be in a tumult to-day for a thought which the timid Erasmus placidly penned in his study more than two centuries ago. Edwin Percy Whipple erasmusmaytwo Wit implies hatred or contempt of folly and crime, produces its effects by brisk shocks of surprise, uses the whip of scorpions and the branding-iron, stabs, stings, pinches, tortures, goads, teases, corrodes, undermines. Edwin Percy Whipple scorpionsironhatred A writer who attempts to live on the manufacture of his imagination is continually coquetting with starvation. Edwin Percy Whipple starvationauthorshipimagination The familiar writer is apt to be his own satirist. Out of his own mouth is he judged. Edwin Percy Whipple authorshipfamiliarmouths The purity of the critical ermine, like that of the judicial, is often soiled by contact with politics. Edwin Percy Whipple contactcriticismpurity Heroism is no extempore work of transient impulse--a rocket rushing fretfully up to disturb the darkness by which, after a moment's insulting radiance, it is ruthlessly swallowed up,--but a steady fire, which darts forth tongues of flame. It is no sparkling epigram of action, but a luminous epic of character. Edwin Percy Whipple rushingepiccharacter Every style formed elaborately on any model must be affected and straight-laced. Edwin Percy Whipple affectedmodelsstyle The eye observes only what the mind, the heart, and the imagination are gifted to see; and sight must be reinforced by insight before souls can be discerned as well as manners, ideas as well as objects, realities and relations as well as appearances and accidental connections. Edwin Percy Whipple eyeheartreality Nature and society are so replete with startling contrasts that wit often consists in the mere statement and comparison of facts, as when Hume says that the ancient Muscovites wedded their wives with a whip instead of a ring. Edwin Percy Whipple ancientwifefacts A politician weakly and amiably in the right is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong. You cannot, by tying an opinion, to a man's tongue, make him the representative of that opinion; and at the close of any battle for principles, his name will be found neither among the dead nor among the wounded, but among the missing. Edwin Percy Whipple missingnamesmen The strife of politics tends to unsettle the calmest understanding, and ulcerate the most benevolent heart. There are no bigotries or absurdities too gross for parties to create or adopt under the stimulus of political passions. Edwin Percy Whipple passionpartyheart Wit is an unexpected explosion of thought. Edwin Percy Whipple explosionswitunexpected The essence of the ludicrous consists in surprise,--in unexpected terms of feeling and explosions of thought,--often bringing dissimilar things together with a shock; as when some wit called Boyle, the celebrated philosopher, the father of chemistry and brother of the Earl of Cork. Edwin Percy Whipple essencebrotherfather Grit is the grain of character. It may generally be described as heroism materialized,--spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man. Edwin Percy Whipple heartcharactermen The contemplation of beauty in nature, in art, in literature, in human character, diffuses through our being a soothing and subtle joy, by which the heart's anxious and aching cares are softly smiled away. Edwin Percy Whipple beautycharacterart God, in His wrath, has not left this world to the mercy of the subtlest dialectician; and all arguments are happily transitory in their effect when they contradict the primal intuitions of conscience and the inborn sentiments of the heart. Edwin Percy Whipple intuitionwrathheart Talent jogs to conclusions to which Genius takes giant leaps. Edwin Percy Whipple talentgiantsgenius Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain. Edwin Percy Whipple fountaintalentgenius Dignity is often a veil between us and the real truth of things. Edwin Percy Whipple dignityveilsreal Lord Chatham and Napoleon were ns much actors as Garrick or Talma. Now, an imposing air should always be taken as evidence of imposition. Dignity is often a veil between us and the real truth of things. Edwin Percy Whipple takenrealair
