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
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
No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Deceit, Deception, Conceit
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
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
A very small offence may be a just cause for great resentment; it is often much less the particular instance which is obnoxious to us, than the proof it carries with it of the general tenor and disposition of the mind from whence it sprung.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
The poets judged like philosophers when they feigned love to be blind.—How often do we see in a woman what our judgment and taste approve, and yet feel nothing of love toward her; how often what they both condemn, and yet feel a great deal.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Love
It is not enough that you form, and even follow the most excellent rules for conducting yourself in the world; you must, also, know when to deviate from them, and where lies the exception.
—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
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
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
True delicacy, as true generosity, is more wounded by an act of offence from itself, than to itself.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
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: Difficulties, Adversity, Misery, Little Things, Things
Penetration seems a kind of inspiration; it gives me an idea of prophecy.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Perception
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
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
Human knowledge is the parent of doubt.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Doubt
Despair gives the shocking ease to the mind that mortification gives to the body.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Despair
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
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: Society, Friendship
A proud man never shows his pride so much as when he is civil.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Pride
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
As charity covers a multitude of sins before God, so does politeness before men.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Politeness
Weak men, often, from the very principle of their weakness, derive a certain susceptibility, delicacy, and taste, which render them, in these particulars, much superior to men of stronger and more consistent minds, who laugh at them.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
There is an unfortunate disposition in man to attend much more to the faults of his companions that offend him, than to their perfections which please him.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
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
Unbecoming forwardness oftener proceeds from ignorance than impudence.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Manners
Some men put me in mind of half-bred horses, which often grow worse in proportion as you feed and exercise them for improvement.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Laughter
Most men have more courage than even they themselves think they have.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Topics: Courage, Bravery
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford English Intellectual, Politician
- Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux Scottish Jurist, Politician
- Edward Bouverie Pusey British Anglican Theologian
- Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke British Statesman
- Robert Walpole British Statesman
- William Ewart Gladstone English Liberal Statesman
- Charles Darwin British Naturalist
- George Sewell English Physician, Poet
- E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax British Politician
- George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax British Statesman, Writer
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