Inspirational Quotes by George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (British Nobleman)

There sometimes wants only a stroke of fortune to discover numberless latent good or bad qualities, which would otherwise have been eternally concealed; as words written with a certain liquor appear only when applied to the fire.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Fortune, Opportunity

True delicacy, as true generosity, is more wounded by an act of offence from itself, than to itself.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick

Vanity is the poison of agreeableness; yet as poison, when properly applied, has a salutary effect in medicine, so has vanity in the commerce and society of the world.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Vanity

A good ear for music, and a taste for music are two very different things which are often confounded; and so is comprehending and enjoying every object of sense and sentiment.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Music

Penetration seems a kind of inspiration; it gives me an idea of prophecy.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Perception

Pride, like ambition, is sometimes virtuous and sometimes vicious, according to the character in which it is found, and the object to which it is directed. As a principle, it is the parent of almost every virtue and every vice—everything that pleases and displeases in mankind; and as the effects are so very different, nothing is more easy than to discover, even to ourselves, whether the pride that produces them is virtuous or vicious: the first object of virtuous pride is rectitude, and the next independence.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Pride

May not taste be compared to that exquisite sense of the bee, which instantly discovers and extracts the quintessence of every flower, and disregards all the rest of it?
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Taste

Some prejudices are to the mind what the atmosphere is to the body; we cannot feel without the one, nor breathe without the other.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Prejudice

I have often thought that the nature of women was inferior to that of men in general, but superior in particular.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Woman

Men and statues that are admired in an elevated situation, have a very different effect on us when we approach them; the first appear less than we imagined them, the last bigger.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Men

Good humor will sometimes conquer ill humor, but ill humor will conquer it oftener; and for this plain reason, good humor must operate on generosity; ill humor on meanness.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick

We should do by our cunning as we do by our courage,—always have it ready to defend ourselves, never to offend others.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Cunning

There is in some men a dispassionate neutrality of mind, which, though it generally passes for good temper, can neither gratify nor warm us; it must indeed be granted that these men can only negatively offend; but then it should also be remembered that they cannot positively please.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick

I hardly know so true a mark of a little mind as the servile imitation of others.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Imitation

You may fail to shine in the opinion of others, both in your conversation and actions, from being superior, as well as inferior, to them.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Appreciation

One great reason why men practise generosity so little in the world is, their finding so little there: generosity is catching; and if so many men escape it, it is in a great degree from the same reason that countrymen escape the smallpox,—because they meet with no one to give it them.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Generosity

It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Little Things, Things, Adversity, Difficulties, Misery

Most men have more courage than even they themselves think they have.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Courage, Bravery

Unbecoming forwardness oftener proceeds from ignorance than impudence.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Manners

Human knowledge is the parent of doubt.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Doubt

A generous man places the benefits he confers beneath his feet; those he receives, nearest his heart.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Generosity

The great see the world at one end by flattery, the little at the other end by neglect; the meanness which both discover is the same; but how different, alas! are the mediums through which it is seen?
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: World

The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. There is therefore, something in true beauty that corresponds with right reason, and is not the mere creation of fancy.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick

When real nobleness accompanies the imaginary one of birth, the imaginary mixes with the real and becomes real too.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Birth, Ancestry

No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Conceit, Deception, Deceit

To divest one’s self of some prejudices, would be like taking off the skin to feel the better.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Prejudice

Hardly a man, whatever his circumstances and situation, but if you get his confidence, will tell you that he is not happy. It is however certain that all men are not unhappy in the same degree, though by these accounts we might almost be tempted to think so. Is not this to be accounted for, by supposing that all men measure the happiness they possess by the happiness they desire, or think they deserve?
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Unhappiness

Despair gives the shocking ease to the mind that mortification gives to the body.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Despair

Those who are commended by everybody must be very extraordinary men, or, which is more probable, very inconsiderable men.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Popularity

What an argument in favor of social connections is the observation that by communicating our grief we have less, and by communicating our pleasure we have more.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Friendship, Society

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