Instance Quotes - Page 37

• The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and as the example of Lord Bacon may show that the highest intellect cannot safely neglect it, a thousand instances every day prove that the humblest may practise it with success.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hands, Mind, Example

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• My plan to put Social Security in an ironclad lockbox has gotten a lot of attention recently, and I'm glad about that. But I'm afraid that it's overshadowing some vitally important proposals. For instance, I'll put Medicaid in a walk-in closet. I'll put the Community Reinvestment Act in a secured gym locker. I'll put NASA funding in a hermetically sealed Ziploc bag.

  Al Gore

  Community, Important, Bags

  "Campaign 2000's Joke-Off". www.slate.com. October 20, 2000.

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• No single character is ever so great that a nation can afford to form itself upon it. Imitation belittles. This appears in the instance of the Chinese. The Chinese are so many Confucii; in miniature. And so with the Jews. Moses, the lawgiver, is poorly represented by Moses, the old clothesman ; or even by Dives, the hanker.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Character, Chinese, Imitation

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• Perhaps the most important use of money - It saves time. Life is so short, and there's so much to do, one can't afford to waste a minute; and just think how much you waste, for instance, in walking from place to place instead of going by bus and in going by bus instead of by taxi.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Money, Thinking, Important

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• Nothing is so great an instance of ill-manners as flattery.

  Jonathan Swift

  Flattery, Manners, Ill

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.625

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• And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.
  [Lat., Itidemque ut saepe jam in multis locis,
  Plus insciens quis fecit quam prodens boni.]

  Plautus

  Jam, Done, Goodness

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• It has been shrewdly said, that when, men abuse us we should suspect ourselves, and when they praise us, them. It is a rare instance of virtue to despise which censure which we do not deserve; and still more rare to despise praise which we do.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Abuse, Praise

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.125

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• Heroism, self-denial, and magnanimity, in all instances where they do not spring from a principle of religion, are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Spring, Sacrifice, Self

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.171

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• A careful observation of Nature will disclose pleasantries of superb irony. She has for instance placed toads close to flowers.

  Honore de Balzac

  Nature, Flower, Toads

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• Several sorts of memory exist in us; body and mind each possesses one peculiar to itself. Nostalgia, for instance, is a malady of the physical memory.

  Honore de Balzac

  Memories, Mind, Peculiar

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• There are truths which some men despise because they have not examined, and which they will not examine because they despise. There is one signal instance on record where this kind of prejudice was overcome by a miracle; but the age of miracles is past, while that of prejudice remains.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Past, Men, Miracle

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.63

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• Scarcely have I ever heard or read the introductory phrase, "I may say without vanity," but some striking and characteristic instance of vanity has immediately followed.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Vanity, May, Phrases

  Benjamin Franklin (1815). “Life of Doctor Benjamin Franklin”, p.10

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• We've learned that women can and should do 'men's jobs,' for instance, and we've won the principle (if not the fact) of getting equal pay. But we haven't yet established the principle (much less the fact) that men can and should do 'women's jobs': that homemaking and child-rearing are as much a man's responsibility, too, and that those jobs in which women are concentrated outside the home would probably be better paid if more men became secretaries, file clerks, and nurses, too.

  Gloria Steinem

  Jobs, Children, Home

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• You cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time contriving not to have tedious hours.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Giving, Hours

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order: A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished”, p.176

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• Fashion is a great restraint upon your persons of taste and fancy; who would otherwise in the most trifling instances be able to distinguish themselves from the vulgar.

  William Shenstone

  Fashion, Fancy, Able

  William Shenstone (1765). “The works in verse and prose, of William Shenstone, esq: in two volumes”, p.196

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• Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected Him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such.

  William Cowper

  Forgiveness, Blessing, Enemy

  William Cowper (1835). “The Works of William Cowper: The life of William Cowper. Letters, 1765-1783”

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• I have heard a good story of Charles Fox. When his house was on fire, he found all efforts to save it useless, and, being a good draughtsman, he went up to the next hill to make a drawing of the fire,--the best instance of philosophy I ever heard of.

  Robert Southey

  Philosophy, Drawing, Fire

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• A broken heart is a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined, and would have a fair title to a place in the bills of mortality, did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases, namely, that no physicians can cure it.

  Henry Fielding

  Heart, Broken, Despair

  Henry Fielding (1882). “The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq: Henry Fielding, by Leslie Stephen. The history of Tom Jones, a foundling”

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• Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him-search him; the reason may be found in his pocket.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Self, Pockets, May

  William Jennings Bryan (1922). “In His Image: By William Jennings Bryan”

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• Persons not habituated to reason often argue absurdly, because, from particular instances, they deduce general conclusions, and extend the result of their limited experience of individuals indiscriminately to whole classes.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Class, Arguing, Reason

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1822). “Works”, p.33

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• The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.

  Plutarch

  Heart, Hearing, Consideration

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• I have so great a contempt and detestation for meanness, that I could sooner make a friend of one who had committed murder, than of a person who could be capable, in any instance, of the former vice. Under meanness, I comprehend dishonesty; under dishonesty, ingratitude; under ingratitude, irreligion; and under this latter, every species of vice and immorality in human nature.

  Laurence Sterne

  Vices, Dishonesty, Murder

  Laurence Sterne (1805). “The Works of Laurence Sterne, A. M.: A sentimental journey through France and Italy. The Koran: or, The life, character and sentiments of Tria Juncta in Uno. A political romance”, p.331

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• It seems to me there are no rules, only instances; but perhaps that is because I learned no rules, and am only an instance myself.

  Eleanor Farjeon

  Seems

  Eleanor Farjeon (1960). “A nursery in the nineties”

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• To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise ... from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp.

  Francesco Guicciardini

  Future, Evil, May

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• Private property is held sacred in all good governments, and particularly in our own. Yet shall the fear of invading it prevent a general from marching his army over a cornfield or burning a house which protects the enemy? A thousand other instances might be cited to show that laws must sometimes be silent when necessity speaks.

  Andrew Jackson

  Army, Government, Law

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