Prudence Quotes - Page 6

• Lucretius was passionate, and much more in need of exhortations to prudence than Epicurus was. He committed suicide, and appears to have suffered from periodic insanity - brought on, so some averred, by the pains of love or the unintended effects of a love philtre.

  Lucretius

  Suicide, Pain, Insanity

  " A History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell, (Book I, Part III, Chapter XXVII), 1945.

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• Prudence and love cannot be mixed; you can end love, but never moderate it.

  Seneca the Younger

  And Love, Ends, Moderates

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• The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter, weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.

  Maximilien Robespierre

  Believe, Hands, Law

  "Sur la guerre". Speech to the Jacobin Club, January 02, 1792.

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• The Spaniards are perfectly right to govern these barbarians of the New World and adjacent islands; they are in prudence, ingenuity, virtue, and humanity as inferior to the Spaniards as children are to adults and women are to men, there being as much difference between them as that between wild and cruel and very merciful persons, the prodigiously intemperate and the continent and tempered, and I daresay from apes to men

  Juan Gines de Sepulveda

  Children, Men, Differences

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• He who is not a bird should not build his nest over abysses.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Bird, Nests, Should

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1977). “The Portable Nietzsche”, p.137, Penguin

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• Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Gratitude, Prayer, Memories

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1191, Delphi Classics

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• Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Evil, Decision, Choices

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.210

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• We ought at least, from prudence, never to speak of ourselves, because that is a subject on which we may be sure that other people's views are never in accordance with our own.

  Marcel Proust

  Views, People, May

  Marcel Proust (2006). “Remembrance of Things Past”, p.674, Wordsworth Editions

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• It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.

  Terence

  Trials, Arms, Prudent

  Terence, Henry Thomas Riley, Christopher Smart (1853). “The Comedies of Terence: And the Fables of Phædrus”, p.114

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• Caution is the lower story of prudence.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Stories, Caution

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• If suicide be supposed a crime, it is only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid ourselves at once of existence when it becomes a burden. It is the only way that we can then be useful to society, by setting an example which, if imitated, would preserve every one his chance for happiness in life, and would effectually free him from all danger or misery.

  David Hume

  Suicide, Example, Way

  David Hume (2006). “Essays: Moral, Political and Literary”, p.595, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Paid

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Moore (1873). “The Works of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan”, p.77

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• And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.

  James Harrington

  Art, Men, Law

  James Harrington, J. G. A. Pocock (1992). “Harrington: 'The Commonwealth of Oceana' and 'A System of Politics'”, p.9, Cambridge University Press

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• Souls were the same. They, too, had useless baggage that impeded their proper performance, these annoying, holier-than-thou bits dangling like an appendix waiting for infection. Faith and hope and love...prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude...all this useless clutter just packed too much damn morality into the heart, getting in the way of the soul's innate desire for malignancy.

  J.R. Ward

  Love, Heart, Justice

  J.R. Ward (2009). “Covet: A Novel of the Fallen Angels”, p.17, Penguin

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• The late John Jacob Astor, a personage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point to be prudence; my next, method. I do not speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion. I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the late John Jacob Astor's good opinion.

  Herman Melville

  Love, Vanity, Names

  Herman Melville (2006). “Bartleby the Scrivener: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.2, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Nevertheless, he must be cautious in believing and acting, and must not inspire fear of his own accord, and must proceed in a temperate manner with prudence and humanity, so that too much confidence does not render him incautious, and too much diffidence does not render him intolerant. From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Believe

  "The Prince". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, ch. 17, as translated by Luigi Ricci (1903), 1513.

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• There has been a most Providential Guidance which the want of prudence, vigilance, or judgement has not impeded, and it is here that we can most clearly see the designs of God.

  Catherine McAuley

  Design, Judgement, Want

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• We live in age of prudence. The leaders of the people now generally follow.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Leadership, People, Age

  Benjamin Disraeli (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)”, p.5029, Delphi Classics

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• Great good nature without prudence is a great misfortune.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Good Nature, Misfortunes

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.173, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• There are women named Faith, Hope, Joy, and Prudence. Why not Despair, Guilt, Rage, and Grief? It seems only right. 'Tom, I'd like you to meet the girl of my dreams, Tragedy.' These days, Trajedi.

  George Carlin

  Girl, Dream, Grief

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforward ness, and all other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Honesty, Pain, Humility

  Marcus Aurelius (2002). “Meditations: A New Translation”, p.48, Modern Library

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• In real friendship the judgment, the genius, the prudence of each party become the common property of both.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Friendship, Real, Party

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1824). “Works”, p.52

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• The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Greatness, Men, Details

  Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...”, p.260

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• A miscalculation is not negligence, nor prudence a crime. I am a scientist. I base my action or inaction upon probability and evidence. There is a reason we call science a discipline! Inferior minds bolt or build pyres to roast the witches in their midst!

  Rick Yancey

  Discipline, Mind, Action

  Rick Yancey (2010). “The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath”, p.203, Simon and Schuster

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• Want is a bitter and a hateful good,
  Because its virtues are not understood;
  Yet many things, impossible to thought,
  Have been by need to full perfection brought.
  The daring of the soul proceeds from thence,
  Sharpness of wit, and active diligence;
  Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives;
  And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

  John Dryden

  Taken, Giving, Perfection

  John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.504, Delphi Classics

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