Quote#Happiness
Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be…
Quote byJane Porter · 1776–1850
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with Remarks (1807), "Woman".
English (original)
Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be surrendered at her voice. The law may seem hard, but it is the guardian of what it commands; and is the only sure defence of happiness.
— Jane Porter
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But the most annoying of all public reformers is the personal satirist. Though he may be considered by some few as a useful member of society, yet he is only ranked with the hangman, whom we tolerate because he executes the judgment we …
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Any base heart can devise means of vileness, and affix the ugly shapings of its own fancy to the actions of those around him; but it requires loftiness of mind, and the heaven-born spirit of virtue, to imagine greatness where it is not, …
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A cheerful temper spreads like the dawn, and all vapors disperse before it. Even the tear dries on the cheek, and the sigh sinks away half-breathed when the eye of benignity beams upon the unhappy.
Compulsion hardly restores right; love yields all things.