EDWARD WOOD, 1ST EARL OF HALIFAX

The invisible thing called a Good Name is made up of the breath of numbers that speak well of you.

A person may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him a prisoner.

Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts.

Most men's anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady they neither of them care for.

He who leaves nothing to chance will do few things poorly, but he will do few things.

The plainer the dress, the greater luster does beauty appear.

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.

Ignorance makes most men go into a political party, and shame keeps them from getting out of it.

Those who are of the opinion that money will do everything may reasonably be expected to do everything for money.

Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with men, or else all the obligations in the world will not create it.

If Hitler were to succeed, it would be the end for many besides ourselves of all those things which, as we say, “make life worth living.” We realize that the struggle may cost us everything, but just because the things we are defending are worth any sacrifice, it is a noble privilege to be the defenders of things so precious.

Anger is seldom without argument but seldom with a good one.

The Triumph of Wit is to make your good Nature subdue your Censure; to be quick in seeing Faults, and slow in exposing them. You are to consider, that the invisible thing called a Good Name, is made up of the Breath of Numbers that speak well of you; so that if by a disobliging Word you silence the meanest, the Gale will be less strong which is to bear up your Esteem.

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation.

I often think how much easier the world would have been to manage if Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had been at Oxford.