We were happy, and wished to make all happy around us. False pleasures make men haughty and severe, and such pleasures are always selfish. But true happiness inspires gentleness and benevolence, and diffuses its influence on very hand.
[Nous étions heureux, & nous voulions vivre avec des gens qui le fussent. Le bonheur faux rend les hommes durs & superbes, & ce bonheur ne se communique point. Le vrai bonheur les rend doux et sensibles, & ce bonheur se partage toujours.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) French political philosopher
“Arsaces and Ismenia [Arsace et Isménie]” (1742) [tr. 1797]
(Source)
Commonly quoted in isolation, with just the second two sentences; often misattributed to his Pensées.
(Source (French)). Other translations:We were happy ourselves; and were desirous of living with people that were so. False happiness renders men austere and haughty; and this happiness is selfish and unsociable. True felicity, on the contrary, softens them into sensibility and gentleness: it delights in reciprocal communication.
[tr. 1784]We were happy, and we wished to live with people who were happy too. False happiness renders men rigid and haughty; and this happiness has nothing social. True happiness makes them mild, and endues them with sensibility; and this happiness is always shared.
[tr. 1785][...] False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
[tr. 1854]
Quotations about:
sensibility
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Václav Havel (1936–2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala, ch. 5 “The Politics of Hope” (1986) [tr. Wilson (1990)]
(Source)
The last two sentences are usually combined as:Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Variant:Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.
Beliefs must be lived in for a good while, before they accommodate themselves to the soul’s wants, and wear loose enough to be comfortable.
Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer, lecturer
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Carnegie. The only place I can find this phrase actually used by him "officially" is in Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook (1959) [ed. Dorothy Carnegie], where (four years after his death) the quote is described as "from the writings of Dale Carnegie" but with no further citation.
I was unable to find it online in any books by him. I did find a variant in an essay (1938-09-12) published in newspapers, regarding Alexander de Seversky (possibly one of Carnegie's "5-Minute Biographies" columns):What are the qualities that make for success? Superior knowledge? Yes, sometimes; but more frequently it is flaming enthusiasm backed up by horse-sense and persistence.
The article also ran in papers on 1946-07-29.
In the 1946 (Vol. 68-70) archive of the Fireman's Fund Record, I did find text reading "... they have flaming enthusiasm backed by horse sense and dauntless courage," but could not confirm the context or whether it was attributed to Carnegie.
It takes not only humor, but sense, to enjoy a satirical story directed toward one’s self.
Minna Antrim (1861–1950) American epigrammatist, writer
Naked Truth and Veiled Allusions (1902)
(Source)
Poetry demands a man with special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him; the former can easily assume the required mood, and the latter may be actually beside himself with emotion.
[διὸ εὐφυοῦς ἡ ποιητική ἐστιν ἢ μανικοῦ: τούτων γὰρ οἱ μὲν εὔπλαστοι οἱ δὲ ἐκστατικοί εἰσιν.]
Aristotle (384–322 BC) Greek philosopher
Poetics [Περὶ ποιητικῆς, De Poetica], ch. 17 / 1455a.33 (c. 335 BC) [tr. Bywater (1909)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Fyfe (below) notes μανικός to mean "genius to madness near allied," and adds "Plato held that the only excuse for a poet was that he couldn't help it." A possible source of Seneca's "touch of madness" attribution to Aristotle. Other translations:Poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain of madness. In the one case a man can take the mould of any character; in the other, he is lifted out of his proper self.
[tr. Butcher (1895)]Poetry is the work for the finely constituted or the hysterical; for the hysterical are impressionable, whereas the finely constituted are liable to outbursts.
[tr. Margoliouth (1911); whiles this seems backward, Margoliouth further explains in his footnote.]Poetry needs either a sympathetic nature or a madman, the former being impressionable and the latter inspired.
[tr. Fyfe (1932)]Hence the poetic art belongs either to a naturally gifted person or an insane one, since those of the former sort are easily adaptable and the latter are out of their senses.
[tr. Sachs (2006)]In order to write tragic poetry, you must be either a genius who can adapt himself to anything, or a madman who lets himself get carried away.
[tr. Kenny (2013)]
We rarely find people sensible unless they agree with us.
[Nous ne trouvons guère de gens de bon sens, que ceux qui sont de notre avis.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶347 (1665–1678) [tr. Stevens (1939)]
(Source)
First included in the 4th (1675) edition. In manuscript, it read: "Nous ne sommes du même avis qu’avec les gens qui sont du nôtre."
(Source (French)). Other translations:We seldom allow any Men to have good Sense, who are not of our own Opinion.
[tr. Stanhope (1706 ed.), ¶761]We think very few people sensible except those who are of our opinion.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶357]We hardly find any persons of good sense, save those who agree with us.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶347]We rarely consider anyone sensible unless he agrees with our ideas.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶354]A man of good sense is almost always one who shares our views.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶347]Unless they share our opinions, we seldom find people sensible.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶347]There are few sensible people, we find, except those who share our opinion.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶347]We find very few sensible people who are not of our own opinion.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶347]We find few people possessed of good sense unless they agree with our own opinions.
[tr. Chandler, ¶347]We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us.
[Bartlett's, ¶347]
Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess.
[Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée; car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu, que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose n’ont point coutume d’en désirer plus qu’ils en ont.]
René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician
Discourse on Method [Discours de la méthode], Part 1, Opening Words (1637) [tr. Haldane & Ross (1911)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Other translations:Right understanding is the most equally divided thing in the World; for every one beleevs himself so well stor’d with it, that even those who in all other things are the hardest to be pleas’d, seldom desire more of it then they have.
[Newcombe ed. (1649)]Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.
[tr. Veitch (1850)]Good sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world; for everyone thinks himself so well supplied with it, that even those who are hardest ot satisfy in every other way do not usually desire more of it than they already have.
[tr. Ascombe & Geach (1971)]Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world: for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it that even those who are hardest to please in everything else do not usually desire more of it than they possess.
[tr. Cottingham, Stoothoff (1985), sec. 1]Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.
[Oxford Reference]Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
