Prudence Quotes - Page 12

• There must be in prudence also some master virtue.

  Aristotle

  Virtue, Masters

  Aristotle (1850). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle: Tr. with Notes, Original & Selected; an Analytical Introduction; and Questions for the Use of Students”, p.162

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• [Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Choices, Moral

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• Prudence in action avails more than wisdom in conception.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Action, Conception

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• Rashness is the companion of youth, prudence of old age.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Age, Youth, Companion

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• Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.

  Samuel Johnson

  School, Axioms

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of the English poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: including the series edited with prefaces, biographical and critical”, p.277

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• Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. It is the outmost action of the inward life.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inward, Action, Appearance

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.72, Graphic Arts Books

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• Spurious prudence, making the senses final, is the god of sots and cowards, and is the subject of all comedy. It is nature's joke, and therefore literature's. True prudence limits this sensualism by admitting the knowledge of an internal and real world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Coward, Finals

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.62, Courier Corporation

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• Selfish prudence is too often allowed to come between duty and human life.

  Rebecca Lee Crumpler

  Selfish, Human Life, Duty

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• But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an Imperial proselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church; and Constantine was permitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of the privileges, before he had contracted any of the obligations, of a Christian.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Discipline, History

  Edward Gibbon, François Guizot (1859). “Guizot's Gibbon: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.258

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• The emperor of the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year: and, as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite resource of feeble and timid minds; who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence.

  Edward Gibbon

  Brother, Years, History

  Edward Gibbon (2008). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.94, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Men with common minds seldom break through general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness; and they rarely go as far as as they may in any undertaking, who are determined not to go beyond it on any account.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Men, Break Through, Mind

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.1034, Delphi Classics

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• Prudence says one thing, desire says another, and I'd rather go with desire any time.

  Fay Weldon

  Desire, One Thing

  Fay Weldon (2007). “Auto da Fay: A Memoir”, p.345, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Boasting and bravado may exist in the breast even of the coward, if he is successful through a mere lucky hit; but a just contempt of an enemy can alone arise in those who feel that they are superior to their opponent by the prudence of their measures.

  Thucydides

  Successful, Enemy, Coward

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• Life is a festival only to the wise. Seen from the nook and chimneyside of prudence, it wears a ragged and dangerous front.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Wise, Festivals

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.228, Modern Library

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• Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.

  Carl Sagan

  Exercise, Technology, Wish

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.245, Ballantine Books

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• All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Mistake, Ambition, Greatness

  "The Prince". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, chapter III: Of Mixed Princedoms, 1513.

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• You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Long, Grace, Coward

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.125, A&C Black

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• The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage. Therefore, they made war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to fight them in Italy... They never went by that saying which you constantly hear from the wiseacres of our day, that time heals all things. They trusted rather their own character and prudence- knowing perfectly well that time contains the seeds of all things, good as well as bad.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Character

  "The Prince". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, ch. 3, 1513.

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• In Spain in the meantime, Aristotelian scholar Juan Gines de Sepulveda was putting the impolitic moralizing of Las Casas into proper perspective for posterity: "Compare then the blessings enjoyed by Spaniards of prudence, genius, magnanimity, temperance, humanity, and religion with those of the little men [the Indians] in whom you will scarcely find even vestiges of humanity. . . . How can we doubt that these people - so uncivilized, so barbaric, contaminated with so many impieties and obscenities - have been justly conquered?"

  Juan Gines de Sepulveda

  Blessing, Men, People

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• . . . idealism is one of the greatest forces in the world. It makes seeming impossibilities possible and succeeds where prudence fails. But unless the idealist is brave and has the courage to face the truth, his idealism creates nothing.

  Grenville Kleiser

  Courage, Truth, Bravery

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• Where destiny blunders, human prudence will not avail.

  Publilius Syrus

  Destiny, Blunders, Humans

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• Whoe'er imagines prudence all his own, Or deems that he hath powers to speak and judge Such as none other hath, when they are known, They are found shallow.

  Sophocles

  Conceited, Judging, Speak

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• Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.

  Edmund Burke

  Years, Evil, Half

  Edmund Burke, Christian ENGLISH (pseud.) (1861). “Liberation tested by Philosophy and Experience. In “Reflections on the French Revolution,” etc. [The dedication signed: Christian English.]”, p.14

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• Politics are always a struggle for power, disguised and modified by prudence, reason and moral pretext.

  William Hurrell Mallock

  Struggle, Political, Politics

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• The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living. For until we have begun to live our prudence has no material to work on. And until we have begun to fail we have no way of working out our success.

  Thomas Merton

  Life, Work Out, Analysis

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