Inconstancy Quotes - Page 2

• There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  War, Literature, Conflict

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Quixote de la Mancha (don, fict.name.) (1847). “The history of don Quixote de la Mancha. From the Span. To which is prefixed a sketch of the life and writings of the author. Select libr. ed”, p.27

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• Such an act
  That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
  Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
  From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
  And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
  As false as dicers' oaths.

  William Shakespeare

  Hypocrite, Rose, Grace

  William Shakespeare (2016). “Hamlet: Revised Edition”, p.368, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• I've always been very keen on Pascal, and what I'm most keen on in Pascal is his emphasis upon human wretchedness. He has a phrase which goes something like 'Anxiety, boredom and inconstancy, that is the human condition' and I've always been very partial to that.

  Simon Critchley

  Boredom, Anxiety, Phrases

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• The dream on the pillow,
  That flits with the day,
  The leaf of the willow
  A breath wears away;
  The dust on the blossom,
  The spray on the sea;
  Ay,--ask thine own bosom--
  Are emblems of thee.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Dream, Dust, Sea

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• Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more, men were deceivers ever

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Blithe, Sigh

  'Much Ado About Nothing' (1598-9) act 2, sc. 3, l. [65]

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• Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Love, Mistress, Littles

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• Even as one heat another heat expels, or as one nail by strength drives out another, so the remembrance of my former love is by a newer object quite forgotten.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Remembrance, Nails

  'The Two Gentlemen Of Verona' (1592-3) act 2, sc. 4, l. 194

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• Inconstancy no sin will prove If we consider that we love But the same beauty in another face, Like the same body in another place.

  Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury

  Infidelity, Body, Faces

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• May you live all the days of your life.

  Jonathan Swift

  Inspirational, Life, Birthday

  Jonathan Swift (1768). “The works of Dr. Jonathan Swift ...: With the author's life and character; notes, historical, critical, and explanatory; tables of contents, and indexes. More complete than any preceding edition ... Accurately corrected by the best editions”, p.153

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• Nothing ought in reason to mortify our self-satisfaction more that the considering that we condemn at one time what we highly approve and commend at another.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Pride, Self, Satisfaction

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• Be present, from moment to moment, right in the middle of the real stream of time. That gives you spiritual security. That is why in Buddhism we don't try to escape from impermanence; we face time itself in our daily living.

  Dainin Katagiri

  Spiritual, Time, Real

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• Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.

  Joseph Addison

  Life, Choices, Causes

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1747). “The Spectator”, p.473

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• There are hardly any truths upon which we always remain agreed, and still fewer objects of pleasure which we do not change every hour, I do not know whether there is a means of giving fixed
  rules for adapting discourse to the inconstancy of our caprices.

  Blaise Pascal

  Mean, Giving, Hours

  Blaise Pascal (2007). “Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works”, p.410, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The many-headed multitude, whom inconstancy only doth by accident guide to well-doing! Who can set confidence there, where company takes away shame, and each may lay the fault upon his fellow?

  Philip Sidney

  May, Faults, Shame

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”

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• It may be said that the power of preventing bad laws includes that of preventing good ones; and may be used to the one purpose as well as to the other. But this objection will have little weight with those who can properly estimate the mischiefs of that inconstancy and mutability in the laws, which form the greatest blemish in the character and genius of our governments.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Law, Government

  Alexander Hamilton (2014). “The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay”, p.372, Yale University Press

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• It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.

  Isaac Barrow

  Disappointment, Character, Duplicity

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• Condition de l'homme: inconstance, ennui, inquie  tude. Man's condition. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Boredom, Anxiety

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• The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Friendship, Vanity, Littles

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• The only constant in the soul of man is inconstancy; anything and everything else can pass out of fashion-even something as utilitarian as a hill stuffed full of corpses.

  Scott Lynch

  Fashion, Men, Soul

  Scott Lynch (2006). “The Lies of Locke Lamora”, p.5, Spectra

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• Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Love, Heart, Quality

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• The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Funny, Humor, Fickle

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• We have so much ill fortune as inconstancy, or so much bad purpose as folly, we are not so full of evil as we are of inanity; we are not so wretched as we are base

  Michel de Montaigne

  Evil, Purpose, Fortune

  Michel de Montaigne (1925). “The essays of Montaigne”

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• We pardon infidelities, but we do not forget them.

  Madame de La Fayette

  Infidelity, Forget, Pardon

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• And learn that the best thing is
  To change my loves while dancing
  And pay but a kiss for a kiss.

  William Butler Yeats

  Kissing, Dancing, Pay

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.112, Wordsworth Editions

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• Constancy in love ... is only inconstancy confined to one object.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Love Is, Constancy, Objects

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