"Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humour was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit."

--

Source : "Characteristics", Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, Part I. Sect. V, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 673-74, 1922.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

#Sage Quotes #Examination Quotes #Tests Quotes

“The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it; but they are tuned differently in every one of us.”
“I don't really believe in cliques - I think everyone can be friends with everyone.”

Source : "What Was Lucy Hale Like When She Was 17?". Seventeen Interview, www.seventeen.com. January 22, 2013.
“Though Stalinism may have been a needless tragedy for both the Russian people and communism as an ideal, there is the intellectually tantalizing possibility that for the world at large it was, as we shall see, a blessing in disguise.”
“I think Ed Koch is the person most responsible for allowing AIDS to get out of control. It happened here first, on his watch. If he had done what any moral human being should have done in the beginning, and put out alarms, then a lot fewer people would have gotten sick.”
“I think that anything you feel strange or nervous about, you weren't cut out to do.”

Source : Jane Bowles (2014). “My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles”, p.10, Macmillan
“He who wishes to maintain that the past of mankind no longer has any absolute value in lifemust also be ready to deny his ownlife until the present moment, indeed in advance until the last moment, as worthless. He who realizes that culture is the giving of form will also see that the highest forms that it is given to the human spirit to recognize have always been, psychologically considered, such evasions from the present. Considerations such as these do not at all square with the direction of America's mind.”
“I write on a computer, on a laptop or whatever.”
“Willful ignorance and endless laws become the replacement for self-education and self-restraint, because ignorance and laws are easy.”

Source : Holly Lisle (2001). “The Secret Texts”, p.194, Hachette UK

You may also like:

Algernon Sidney
English Politician
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
English statesman
John Locke
Philosopher