George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

A Little Learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the Understanding.

Money hath too great a Preference given to it by States, as well as by particular Men.

They who are of opinion that Money will do every thing, may very well be suspected to do every thing for Money.

If Men considered how many Things there are that Riches cannot buy, they would not be so fond of them.

It is not a reproach but a compliment to learning, to say, that great scholars are less fit for business; since the truth is, business is so much a lower thing than learning, that a man used to the last cannot easily bring his stomach down …

Men make it such a point of honour to be fit for business that they forget to examine whether business is fit for a man.

The first mistake belonging to business is the going into it.

The vanity of teaching often tempteth a Man to forget he is a Blockhead.

Malice, like Lust, when it is at the Height, doth not know Shame.

Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms. It often reacheth into the next World, Death itself is not a Bar to it.

Hope is generally a wrong Guide, though it is very good Company by the way. It brusheth through Hedge and Ditch till it cometh to a great Leap, and there it is apt to fall and break its Bones.

Most men make little other use of their Speech than to give evidence against their own Understanding.

It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.

In this Age, when it is said of a Man, He knows how to live , it may be imply’d he is not very honest.

No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave ; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.

Popularity is a Crime from the Moment it is sought ; it is only a Virtue where Men have it whether they will or no.

There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business ; but the Reason is because they despised it.

Anger is never without an Argument, but seldom with a good one.

The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.

Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms.

Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.

The best Party is but a kind of Conspiracy against the rest of the Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the Jews to the Gentiles, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.

If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers in the first Place.

Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.