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Essays by
Of the battle of Dreux
The aim and design, not of a captain only, but of every private soldier, ought to regard the victory in general, and that no particular occurrences, how nearly soever they may concern his own interest, should divert him from that pursuit.
The ceremony of the interview of princes
There is no subject so frivolous that does not merit a place in this rhapsody.
Of constancy
The business of constancy chiefly is, bravely to stand to, and stoutly to suffer those inconveniences which are not possibly to be avoided.
Of the custom of wearing clothes
It is not to be imagined that we only are brought into the world in a defective and indigent condition, and in such a state as cannot subsist without external aid.
Of the education of children
We often take very great pains, and consume a good part of our time in training up children to things, for which, by their natural constitution, they are totally unfit
Of the force of imagination
My conscience does not falsify one tittle; what my ignorance may do, I cannot say.
That the hour of parley is dangerous
Those who run a race ought to employ all the force they have in what they are about, and run as fast as they can; but it is by no means fair in them to lay any hand upon their adversary to stop him, nor to set a leg before him to throw him down.
Of idleness
I fancied I could not more oblige my mind than to suffer it at full leisure to entertain and divert itself.
Of liars
Experience daily shows us that a strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment.
Of not communicating one’s honour
We lend our goods and stake our lives for the necessity and service of our friends; but to communicate a man’s honour, and to robe another with a man’s own glory, is very rarely seen.
Of one defect in our government
[Keeping a journal is] an ancient custom, which I think it would not be amiss for every one to revive in his own house; and I find I did very foolishly in neglecting it.
Of the parsimony of the ancients
‘Tis said that Homer had never more than one [servant], Plato three, and Zeno, founder of the sect of Stoics, none at all.
Of pedantry
These pedants of ours… are, of all men, they who most pretend to be useful to mankind, and who alone, of all men, not only do not better and improve that which is committed to them, as a carpenter or a mason would do, but make them much worse, and make us pay them for making them worse, to boot.
Of prayers
But though [God] is pleased to honour us with this sweet paternal alliance, He is, notwithstanding, as just as He is good and mighty; and more often exercises His justice than His power, and favours us according to that, and not according to our petitions.
Of the punishment of cowardice
‘Tis reason that a man should make a great difference betwixt faults that merely proceed from infirmity, and those that are visibly the effects of treachery and malice.
Of quick or slow speech
He who remains totally silent, for want of leisure to prepare himself to speak well, and he also whom leisure does noways benefit to better speaking, are equally unhappy.
Of a saying of Caesar
In examining our own abilities we should soon perceive of how infirm and decaying material this fabric of ours is composed.
Of sleep
Could virtue itself put on flesh and blood, I believe the pulse would beat faster going on to assault than in going to dinner.
Of smells
To smell, though well, is to stink.
Of sumptuary laws
In all things, saving only in those that are evil, a change is to be feared; even the change of seasons, winds, viands, and humours.
That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances
We are to content ourselves with the light it pleases the sun to communicate to us, by virtue of his rays; and who will lift up his eyes to take in a greater, let him not think it strange, if for the reward of his presumption, he there lose his sight.
That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended
Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues, which, once transgressed, the next step is into the territories of vice.
That men by various ways arrive at the same end
Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment.
That men should not judge of our happiness till after our death
The very felicity of life itself, which depends upon the tranquillity and contentment of a well-descended spirit, and the resolution and assurance of a well-ordered soul, ought never to be attributed to any man till he has first been seen to play the last, and, doubtless, the hardest act of his part.
That the intention is judge of our actions
I shall take care, if I can, that my death discover nothing that my life has not first and openly declared.
That the profit of one man is the damage of another
Let every one but dive into his own bosom, and he will find his private wishes spring and his secret hopes grow up at another’s expense.
That the soul expends its passions upon false objects, where the true are wanting
So it seems that the soul, being transported and discomposed, turns its violence upon itself, if not supplied with something to oppose it, and therefore always requires an object at which to aim, and whereon to act.
That to study philosophy is to learn to die
Let us disarm him of his novelty and strangeness, let us converse and be familiar with him, and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as death.
That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of life
I had long ago observed most of the opinions of the ancients to concur in this, that it is high time to die when there is more ill than good in living.
That we laugh and cry for the same thing
If we would make one continued thing of all this succession of passions, we deceive ourselves
Of the vanity of words
To hear men talk of metonomies, metaphors, and allegories, and other grammar words, would not one think they signified some rare and exotic form of speaking? And yet they are phrases that come near to the babble of my chambermaid.