Quote#Wisdom
Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune…
Quote byHenry Home, Lord Kames · 1696–1782
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Treasury of Thought (1881), "Custom", p. 110.
English (original)
Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.
— Henry Home, Lord Kames
More from Henry Home, Lord Kames
A man does but faintly relish that felicity which costs him nothing; happy they whom pain leads to pleasure.
Beauty is a dangerous property, tending to corrupt the mind of the wife, though it soon loses its influence over the husband. A figure agreeable and engaging, which inspires affection, without the ebriety of love, is a much safer choice.
A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body, without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.
We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.
Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.
An agreeable figure and winning manner, which inspire affection without love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the graces never; after the longest acquaintance, they are no less agreeable than at first.