William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.
Things are coming to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade private life.
What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.
It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say the same.
Once is orthodox, twice is puritanical.
A doctrinaire is a fool but an honest man.
It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the love of pleasure, etc., etc., which are his own faults, than through incapacity and unfitness, which are the faults of his nature.
The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.
That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.
Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong principle.
My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
It is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools.
What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the dammed fools said would happen has come to pass.Collection: Wise
Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it.Collection: Men
Be not over solicitous about education. It may be able to do much, but it does not do as much as expected from it. It may mould and direct the character, but it rarely alters it.Collection: Character
While I cannot be regarded as a pillar, I must be regarded as a buttress of the church, because I support it from outside.Collection: Support
Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. wThis is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. wThe sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy.w Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.Collection: Time
It doesn't matter what we say , so long as we all say the same thing.Collection: Long
[F]riends praise your abilities to the skies, submit to you in argument, and seem to have the greatest deference for you; but, though they may ask it, you never find them following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own.Collection: Sky
What I like about the Order of the Garter is that there is no damned merit about it.Collection: Awards