This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
An absolute command of your temper, so as not to be provoked to passion, upon any account; patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications; with address enough to refuse, without offending, or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation; dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie; sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances; and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by your; a seeming frankness with a real reserve. There are the rudiments of a politician.
Absolute | Enough | Frankness | Obligation | Passion | Patience | People | Reserve | Sagacity | Serenity | Temper | Truth |
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
He had a certain frankness and generosity, qualities indeed which turn to a man's ruin, unless tempered with discretion.
We confess our little faults to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.