Richard Whately

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?'

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself.

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed; we see the most indistinctly the objects which are close around us.

It is generally true that all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe God for any blessing is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.