Aphorisms: An Address Delivered Before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, November 11, 1887

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Macmillan, 1887 - Aphorisms and apothegms - 55 pages
 

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Page 36 - Was du ererbt von deinen Vatern hast, Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen.
Page 35 - ... whatever is in any sort terrible or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure.
Page 16 - I cannot build a house for my ideas," said he: "I have tried to do without words, and words take their revenge on me by their difficulty." "If there is a man upon earth tormented by the cursed desire to get a whole book into a page, a whole page into a phrase, and this phrase into one word, — that man is myself.
Page 42 - Persians, that the great thing is to learn to ride, to shoot with the bow, and to speak the truth.
Page 46 - What a confused chaos! What a subject of contradiction ! A professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth; the great depository and guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty; the glory and the scandal of the universe.
Page 35 - Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction, at the price of ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France.
Page 45 - Would you have men think well of you, then do not speak well of yourself." If you wish to know Pascal's theory you may find it set out in brilliant verse in the opening lines of the second book of Pope's Essay on Man. " What a chimera is Man ! " said Pascal. " What a confused chaos ! What a subject of contradiction ! A professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm...
Page 27 - It is therefore no unimportant attribute of prudence in a man to be able to set forth to advantage before others, with grace and skill, his virtues, fortunes, and merits (which may be done without arrogance or breeding disgust); and again, to cover artificially his weaknesses, defects, misfortunes, and disgraces ; dwelling upon the former and turning them to the light, sliding from the latter or explaining them away by apt interpretations, and the like. Tacitus says ! Hut.

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