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genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.

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genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Never did any Soul do good, but it came readier to do the same again, with more Enjoyment. Never was Love, or Gratitude, or Bounty practis'd but with increasing Joy, which made the Practiser still more in love with the fair Act.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

The most natural Beauty in the World is Honesty, and Moral Truth. For all Beauty is Truth. True Features make the Beauty of a Face; and true Proportions the Beauty of Architecture; as true Measures that of Harmony and Musick.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

True courage…has so little to do with Anger, that there lies always the strongest Suspicion against it, where this Passion is highest. The true Courage is the cool and calm. The bravest of Men have the least of a brutal bullying Insolence; and in the very time of Danger are found the most serene, pleasant, and free. Rage, we know, can make a Coward forget himself and fight. But what is done in Fury, or Anger, can never be plac’d to the account of Courage.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

All Politeness is owing to Liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Mens Understandings.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

We may have an excellent Ear in Musick, without being able to perform in any kind. We may judg well of Poetry, without being Poets, or possessing the least of a Poetick Vein: But we can have no tolerable Notion of Goodness, without being tolerably good.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Gravity is of the very Essence of Imposture. It does not only make us mistake other Things, but is apt perpetually almost to mistake it-self.

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

How comes it to pass then, that we appear such Cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the Test of Ridicule?

genius anthony ashley cooper, 3rd earl of shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Through certain humors or passions, and from temper merely, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward circumstances be ever so fortunate.