Mischief Quotes - Page 12

• I could write down twenty cases wherein I wished that God had done otherwise than he did, but which I now see, if I had had my own way, would have led to extensive mischief.

  Richard Cecil

  Prayer, Writing, Twenties

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• This is to think, that men are so foolish, that they take care to avoid what mischiefs may be done them by pole-cats, or foxes; but are content, nay, think it safety, to be devoured by lions.

  John Locke

  Cat, Men, Thinking

  John Locke (1821). “Two treatises of government”, p.267

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• Uncertain ways unsafest are, and doubt a greater mischief than despair.

  John Denham

  Doubt, Despair, Way

  Edmund Waller, Sir John Denham (1857). “The poetical works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham”, p.224

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• Our profession is good, if practiced in the spirit of it; it is damnable fraud and iniquity when its true spirit is supplied by a spirit of mischief-making and money catching.

  Daniel Webster

  Law, Spirit, Catching

  Daniel Webster, Edwin David Sanborn (1857). “The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster”, p.222, Little, Brown

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• An attitudinal sea change. I think that's the hardest one to fix. Presidential directives, bills, provisions can all be rescinded, repealed, amended, but attitudes linger. The hardest thing is going to be to try to reverse an attitude, a bunker mentality that equates secrecy with either security or heightened efficiency and that regards transparency as an invitation to mischief and trespass. This default position of operating in the shadows is going to be somewhat appealing to whomever inherits office.

  Ted Gup

  Attitude, Thinking, Sea

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.

  William Hazlitt

  Gratitude, Punishment, Body

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1292, Delphi Classics

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• For love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion, that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds move feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire.

  Izaak Walton

  Wise, Children, Father

  John Bunyan, Izaak Walton (2010). “The Pilgrim's Progress & the Lives of Donne and Herbert”, p.330, Cosimo, Inc.

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• If the Soul sees, after death , what passes on this earth , and watches over the welfare of those it loves, then must its greatest happiness consist in seeing the current of its beneficent influences widening out from age to age, as rivulets widen into rivers, and aiding to shape the destinies of individuals, families, States, the World; and its bitterest punishment, in seeing its evil influences causing mischief and misery , and cursing and afflicting men, long after the frame it dwelt in has become dust, and when both name and memory are forgotten.

  Albert Pike

  Memories, Destiny, Men

  Albert Pike (1932). “Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry”, p.134, Lulu.com

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• Idleness, ennui, noise, mischief, riot, and a nameless train of mistaken notions of pleasure, are often classed, in a young man's mind, under the general head of liberty.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Men, Mind, Liberty

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1825). “Works”, p.198

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• A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats. You may strip off the outer ones without doing much mischief, perhaps none at all ; but you keep taking off one after another, in expectation of coming to the inner nucleus, including the whole value of the matter. It proves, however, that there is no such nucleus, and that chastity is diffused through the whole series of coats, is lessened with the removal of each, and vanishes with the final one which you supposed would introduce you to the hidden pearl.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Expectations, Finals, Onions

  Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.476, e-artnow

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• In works of labour or of skillI would be busy too:For Satan finds some mischief stillFor idle hands to do.

  Isaac Watts

  Hands, Would Be, Satan

  'Against Idleness and Mischief' from 'Divine Songs for Children' (1715)

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• I don't remember ever being see-saw, when I'd made my mind up that a thing was wrong. It takes the taste out o' my mouth for things, when I know I should have a heavy conscience after 'em. I've seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do what's wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see. It's like a bit o' bad workmanship--you never see th' end o' the mischief it'll do. And it's a poor look-out to come into the world to make your fellow creatures worse off instead o' better.

  George Eliot

  Should Have, Mind, Looks

  George Eliot (1900). “Works”

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• The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Government, Anarchy, Has Beens

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• A learned woman is thought to be a comet that bodes mischief whenever it appears.

  Bathsua Makin

  Gender, Comets

  1673 An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen In Religion, Manners, Art and Tongues,With An Answer to the Objections against this Way of Education.

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• A half-truth does more mischief than a whole lie.

  Ivan Panin

  Lying, Doe, Half

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• Whence it is evident that the remedy must be adapted to the particular cause of the mischief; consequently, the cause must be ascertained, before the remedy is devised.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Causes, Remedy, Particular

  Jean Baptiste Say, Charles Robert Prinsep (1857). “A Treatise on Political Economy; Or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth”, p.336

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• When church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued.

  Isaac Backus

  Church, Together, Atheism

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• The time has come to knock off this religion business in American politics. There's no end to the mischief that can occur. It is like putting nitroglycerine in a Waring blender.

  Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

  Atheism, Ends, Blenders

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• Robin Goodfellow, for all his pranks and mischief, was the sweetest, most noble person I'd ever known, and I'd missed him terribly.

  Julie Kagawa

  Robins, Noble, Pranks

  Julie Kagawa (2012). “Iron's Prophecy”, p.31, Harlequin

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• Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Book, Done, World

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2015). “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.”, p.6, Booklassic

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• Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Warrior, Greatness, Earthquakes

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• Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing. The mischief of it is that when they swell, they do not swell enough to burst.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Men, Office, Giving

  Woodrow Wilson (1916). “Wit and Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson: Extracts from the Public Speeches of the Leader and Interpreter of American Democracy, with Masterpieces of Eloquence”, Best Books

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• Full many mischiefs follow cruel wrath;
  Abhorred bloodshed and tumultuous strife
  Unmanly murder and unthrifty scath,
  Bitter despite, with rancor's rusty knife;
  And fretting grief the enemy of life;
  All these and many evils more, haunt ire.

  Edmund Spenser

  Grief, Anger, Wrath

  Edmund Spenser (1965). “Books I and II of the Faerie queene: the mutability cantos, and selections from the minor poetry”

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• The essay must be artistically rendered: You must keep the reader engaged, whether with wit, conflict, mischief, and/or yes, with honesty.

  Phillip Lopate

  Honesty, Conflict, Wit

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• One of the greatest reforms that could be, in these reforming days ... would be to have women architects. The mischief with the houses built to rent is that they are all male contrivances.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  House, Males, Reform

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