Quotes by Polymaths - Page 5

Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.

No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.

But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking a Commerce with the Sex inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice, that in all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor'd with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc'd may be attended with much Inconvenience.4. Because thro' more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin'd to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding2 only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!Thus much for my Paradox. But still I advise you to marry directly; being sincerely Your affectionate Friend.

Benjamin Franklin

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Benjamin Franklin

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

Benjamin Franklin

Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.

Hildegard of Bingen

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war...This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

Benjamin Franklin

For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.

Benjamin Franklin

The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.

Leonardo da Vinci

Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be.

Benjamin Franklin

For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.

Benjamin Franklin

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Leonardo da Vinci

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

A man of words and not of deeds, Is like a garden full of weeds.

Benjamin Franklin

I am fully conscious that, not being a literary man , certain presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me; alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! do they not know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians by saying: That they, who deck themselves out in the labours of others will not allow me my own. They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words; and experience has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases.

Leonardo da Vinci

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.

Leonardo da Vinci

It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.

Leonardo da Vinci

After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.

Benjamin Franklin

The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.

Leonardo da Vinci

Games lubricate the body and mind.

Benjamin Franklin

As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.

Leonardo da Vinci

How grossly are they mistaken in imagining slavery to be disallowed by the Alcoran! Are not the two precepts, to quote no more, Masters treat your slaves with kindness: Slaves serve your masters with cheerfulness and fidelity, clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the plundering of infidels be in that sacred book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the world and all that it contains to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of right as fast as they can conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable proposition, the manumission of christian slaves, the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands and houses, and thereby depriving so many good citizens of their properties, create universal discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the endangering of government, and producing general confusion.

Benjamin Franklin

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.

Benjamin Franklin

I know not which lives more unnatural lives, obeying husbands, or commanding wives.

Benjamin Franklin

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Benjamin Franklin

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

Leonardo da Vinci

Water is the driving force in nature.

Leonardo da Vinci

Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death

Leonardo da Vinci

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

Leonardo da Vinci

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.

Benjamin Franklin

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

Leonardo da Vinci

If you would be remembered, write a book worth the reading or live a life worth the writing about.

Benjamin Franklin

If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New En

Benjamin Franklin

art is never finished, only abandoned

Leonardo da Vinci

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

Leonardo da Vinci

Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting

Leonardo da Vinci

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

Leonardo da Vinci

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils

Leonardo da Vinci

What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art

Leonardo da Vinci

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

Leonardo da Vinci

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

Leonardo da Vinci

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

Leonardo da Vinci

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

Leonardo da Vinci

If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.

Benjamin Franklin

It is the common wonder of all men, how, among so many million faces, there should be none alike.

Thomas Browne

In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience.4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!

Benjamin Franklin

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

Benjamin Franklin

The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty

Benjamin Franklin

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor S

Benjamin Franklin

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

Benjamin Franklin

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.

Leonardo da Vinci

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Benjamin Franklin

Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.

Leonardo da Vinci

... a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work....

Benjamin Franklin

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

Benjamin Franklin

The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.

Benjamin Franklin

As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise.-Leonard Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

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