A person may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him prisoner.
– George Savile
Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.
– George Savile
Men that cannot entertain themselves want somebody, though they care for nobody.
– George Savile
Misspending a man’s time is a kind of self-homicide.
– George Savile
The struggling for knowledge hath a pleasure in it like that of wrestling with a fine woman.
– George Savile
Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not on our side.
– George Savile
Nothing would more contribute to make a man wise, than to have always an enemy in his
view.
– George Savile
The vanity of teaching doth oft tempt a man to forget that he is a blockhead.
– George Savile
Most mens anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady that neither of them
care for.
– George Savile
Our virtues and vices couple with one another, and get children that resemble both their
parents.
– George Savile
Men in business are in as much danger from those at work under them as from those that
work against them.
– George Savile
Explaining is generally half confessing.
– George Savile
Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts.
– George Savile
Weak men are the worse for the good sense they read in books because it furnisheth them
only with more matter to mistake.
– George Savile
A wise man will keep his suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.
– George Savile
Malice is of a low stature, but it hath very long arms.
– George Savile
They who are of the opinion that money will do everything, may very well be suspected to do
everything for money.
– George Savile
A prince who will not undergo the difficulty of understanding, must undergo the danger of
trusting.
– George Savile
It is ill-manners to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on.
– George Savile
Popularity is a crime from the moment it is sought; it is only a virtue where men have it
whether they will or no.
– George Savile
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.
– George Savile
Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them,
by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.
– George Savile
Many men swallow the being cheated, but no man could ever endure to chew it.
– George Savile
If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers in the first place.
– George Savile
A little learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the understanding.
– George Savile
Malice, like lust, when it is at the height, doth not know shame.
– George Savile
When the people contend for their liberty, they seldom get anything by their victory but new
masters.
– George Savile
Nothing is less forgiven than setting patterns men have no mind to follow.
– George Savile
It is a general mistake to think the men we like are good for every thing, and those we do not,
good for nothing.
– George Savile
A man that should call every thing by its right name, would hardly pass the streets without
being knocked down as a common enemy.
– George Savile
The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever
preached on that subject.
– George Savile
Love is a passion that hath friends in the garrison.
– George Savile
There is reason to think the most celebrated philosophers would have been bunglers at
business; but the reason is because they despised it.
– George Savile
Men are so unwilling to displease a prince, that it is as dangerous to inform him right, as to
serve him wrong.
– George Savile
If men considered how many things there are that riches cannot buy, they would not be so
fond of them.
– George Savile
Men make it such a point of honour to be fit for business that they forget to examine
whether business is fit for a man.
– George Savile
Men take more pains to hide than to mend themselves.
– George Savile
Our nature hardly allows us to have enough of anything without having too much.
– George Savile
No man is so much a fool as not to have wit enough sometimes to be a knave; nor any so
cunning a knave as not to have the weakness sometimes to play the fool.
– George Savile
A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.
– George Savile
A fool hath no dialogue within himself; the first thought carrieth him without the reply of a
second.
– George Savile
Could we know what men are most apt to remember, we might know what they are most apt
to do.
– George Savile
You should live in the world so as it may hang about you like a loose garment.
– George Savile
The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.
– George Savile