Richard Whately
Richard Whately
Richard Whatelywas an English rhetorician, logician, economist, academic and theologian who also served as a reforming Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. He was a leading Broad Churchman, a prolific and combative author over a wide range of topics, a flamboyant character, and one of the first reviewers to recognise the talents of Jane Austen...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth1 February 1787
Richard Whately quotes about
women reeds tempest
Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
safe suspects self-examination
Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.
men self glasses
Do you want to know the man against whom you have most reason to guard yourself? Your looking-glass will give you a very fair likeness of his face.
men pearls fetch
It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them; but on the contrary, men have dived for them because they fetch a high price.
girl character animal
Grace is in a great measure a natural gift; elegance implies cultivation; or something of more artificial character. A rustic, uneducated girl may be graceful, but an elegant woman must be accomplished and well trained. It is the same with things as with persons; we talk of a graceful tree, but of an elegant house or other building. Animals may be graceful, but they cannot be elegant. The movements of a kitten or a young fawn are full of grace; but to call them "elegant" animals would be absurd.
friendship past tree
It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.
reality shadow substance
Christianity, contrasted with the Jewish system of emblems, is truth in the sense of reality, as substance is opposed to shadows, and, contrasted with heathen mythology, is truth as opposed to falsehood.
distance men wheat
Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.
evil necessary-evil sometimes
Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil.
sight firsts absence
Great affectation and great absence of it are at first sight very similar.
law optics judgment
In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.
wise ignorance men
One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business.
wish sides sincerely
It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.
gratitude appreciate mind
The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind...