Quote#World
Such is the disposition of men, that we value what is speculative and…
Quote byWilliam Playfair · 1759–1823
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Commercial and Political Atlas, 3rd Edition, Observations on the Trade to Flanders, Chart IX, page 40..
English (original)
Such is the disposition of men, that we value what is speculative and precarious, more than what is safe and beneficial.
— William Playfair
You may also like
Men in general are very slow to enter into what is reckoned a new thing; and there seems to be a very universal as well as great reluctance to undergo the drudgery of acquiring information that seems not to be absolutely necessary.
All those things that make a nation richer, stronger, or more happy; or that tend to exalt national character, but that will not pay individuals, deserve public encouragement.
In this country … men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.
The spider-men came first, and presented her Majesty with a table full of mathematical points, lines and figures of all sorts of squares, circles, triangles, and the like; which the Empress, notwithstanding that she had a very ready wit, …
I am the greatest landowner in the world.
[T]he past was supreme; the priest who cherished it lived in a realm of shadows, and for the contemporary world he had no vital meaning. Likewise in Babylon the same retrospective spirit was now the dominant characteristic of the reviving …