Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet

No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than [England's] declaration of war against Holland in 1672.

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.

Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new.

All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections towards all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave it shall see …