Henry Home, Lord Kames Quotes - Page 2

Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.

Nothing so uncertain as general reputation. A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.

The indulgence of revenge tends to make men more savage and cruel.

Whoever appears to have much cunning has in reality very little; being deficient in the essential article, which is, to hide cunning.

False praise is always confined to the great.

Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression.

Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.

Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.

Great wants proceed from great wealth; but they are undutiful children, for they sink wealth down to poverty.

As nice as we are in love, we forgive more faults in that than in friendship.

Seldom do we talk of ourselves with success. If I condemn myself, more is believed than is expressed; if I praise myself, much less.

A relation is formed betwixt every man and the fruits of his own labour, the very thing we call property, which he himself is sensible of, and of which every other is equally sensible. Yours and mine are terms in all languages, familiar among savages, and understood even by children. This is a fact, which every human creature can testify.

Death, whether it regards ourselves or others, appears less terrible in war than at home. The cries of women and children, friends in anguish, a dark room, dim tapers, priests and physicians, are what affect us the most on the death-bed. Behold us already more than half dead and buried.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.

If you should escape the censure of others, hope not to escape your own.