H.W. Charles Quotes
That extremes beget extremes is an apothegm built on the most profound observation of the human mind.
That profound firmness which enabler a man to regard difficulties but as evils to be surmounted, no matter what shape they may assume.
There is this paradox in fear: he is most likely to inspire it in others who has none himself!
Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty.
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.
When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.
War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.
Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and do the least work.
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.
Gross and vulgar minds will always pay a higher respect to wealth than to talent; for wealth, although it be a far less efficient source of power than talent, happens to be far more intelligible.
We make a goddess of Fortune ... and place her in the highest heaven. But it is not fortune that is exalted and powerful, but we ourselves that are abject and weak.
Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.
Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.
We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.
The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, renounces earth to forfeit Heaven.
Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her; and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them.
Adroit observers will find that some who affect to dislike flattery, may yet be flattered indirectly, by a well seasoned abuse and ridicule of their rivals.
We injure mysteries, which are matters of faith by any attempt at explanation in order to make them matters of reason.
Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual.
Pity a thing often avowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.
No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind; despatch of a strong one.
We should have all our communications with men, as in the presence of God; and with God, as in the presence of men.
To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.
Precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity as to those mysterious powers assumed by others.
There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.
The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.
A leveller has long ago been set down as a ridiculous and chimerical being, who, if he could finish his work to-day, would have to begin it again tomorrow.
No propagation or multiplication is more rapid that that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more certain.
Deformity of the heart I call The worst deformity of all; For what is form, or what is face, But the soul's index, or its case?
Death is like thunder in two particulars; we are alarmed, at the sound of it; and it is formidable only from that which preceded it.
Courage is like the diamond,--very brilliant; not changed by fire, capable of high polish, but except for the purpose of cutting hard bodies useless.
He that has never known adversity is but half acquainted with others, or with himself.
Any one can give advice, such as it is, but only a wise man knows how to profit by it.
None are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company, as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves.
Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber and takes out our brains to make room for it.
Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.
Keep up appearances; there lies the test. The world will give thee credit for the rest.
With curious art the brain, too finely wrought, Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought.
There's a strange something, which without a brain Fools feel, and which e'en wise men can't explain, Planted in man, to bind him to that earth, In dearest ties, from whence he drew his birth.