James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Sir William Temple
In conversation, humour is more than wit, easiness more than knowledge.
Learning passes for wisdom among them who want both.
Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, because mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business, which are signs of their being weary of themselves.
Life is like wine; he who would drink it pure must not drain it to the dregs.
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
None ever was a great poet that applied himself much to anything else.
Our ravings and complaints are but like arrows shot up into the air at no mark, and so to no purpose, but only to fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves.
Sharpness cuts slight things best; solid, nothing cuts through but weight and strength; the same in the use of intellectuals.
Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace.
Sufficiency is a compound of vanity and ignorance.
The best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one’s own opinions, and value others’ that deserve it.
The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good-humour, and the fourth for mine enemies.
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humour, and the fourth wit.
Truth will be uppermost one time or another like cork, though kept down in the water.
Whoever converses much among old books will be hard to please among new.