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James Mackintosh Quotes

Men are never so good or so bad as their opinions.

'Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy' (1830) sect. 6 'Jeremy Bentham'

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

James Mackintosh (1791). “Vindiciae Gallicae”, p.199

A vice utterly at variance with the happiness of him who harbors it, and, as such, condemned by self-love.

Sir James Mackintosh (1834). “A general view of the progress of ethical philosophy: chiefly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries”, p.117

Those who differ most from the opinions of their fellow men are the most confident of the truth of their own.

Sir James Mackintosh (1851). “The Miscellaneous Works of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh: Complete in One Volume”, p.27

Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations.

"Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 638-39, quoted on the title page of Broom's Legal Maxims (1911), 1922.

The frivolous work of polished idleness.

James Mackintosh (1872). “On the Progress of Ethical Philosophy: Chiefly During the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries”, p.232

It is not because we have been free, but because we have a right to be free, that we ought to demand freedom. Justice and liberty have neither birth nor race, youth nor age.

Sir James Mackintosh (1835). “History of the Revolution in England in 1688: Comprising a View of the Reign of James II. from His Accession, to the Enterprise of the Prince of Orange”, p.24

Praise is the symbol which represents sympathy, and which the mind insensibly substitutes for its recollection and language.

Sir James Mackintosh (1851). “The Miscellaneous Works of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh: Complete in One Volume”, p.95

The wealth of society is its stock of productive labor.

Sir James Mackintosh (1848). “The miscellaneous works of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh”, p.429