Prodigals Quotes - Page 4

• There are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: 'In the long run we are all dead.' And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom.

  Henry Hazlitt

  Running, Father, Son

  Henry Hazlitt (2010). “Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics”, p.12, Crown Business

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• When I caution you against becoming a miser, I do not therefore advise you to become a prodigal or a spendthrift.

  Horace

  Becoming, Wealth, Caution

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• Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail. Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

  Paul Klee

  Artist, Confusion, Details

  Diary entry for 1909, No. 857. "The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918", p. 236, 1968.

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• Search out the wisdom of nature, there is depth in all her doings; she seemeth prodigal of power, yet her rules are the maxims of frugality.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Nature, Depth, Frugality

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1860). “Tupper's Complete Poetical Works: Containing "Proverbial Philosophy," "A Thousand Lines," "Hactenus," "Geraldine," and "Miscellaneous Poems"”, p.18

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• Men of the greatest genius are not always the most prodigal of their encomiums. But then it is when their range of power is confined, and they have in fact little perception, except of their own particular kind of excellence.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Perception, Excellence

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1465, Delphi Classics

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• Nothing lies on our hands with such uneasiness as time. Wretched and thoughtless creatures! In the only place where covetousness were a virtue we turn prodigals.

  Joseph Addison

  Time, Lying, Hands

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• The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented; our Saviour's speech to His disciples, with which He closed His earthly ministrations, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection, surpass everything that I ever read; and like the spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart.

  William Cowper

  Bible, Beautiful, Heart

  William Cowper (1862). “Letters of William Cowper; being a selection from his correspondence: with a sketch of his life, and biographical notices of his correspondents. [With a portrait.]”, p.54

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• The greatest part of mankind labor under one delirium or another; and Don Quixote differed from the rest, not in madness, but the species of it. The covetous, the prodigal, the superstitious, the libertine, and the coffee-house politician, are all Quixotes in their several ways.

  Henry Fielding

  Coffee, House, Way

  Henry Fielding (1824). “Works: With a Life of the Author”, p.297

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• Sight is a slick and overbearing autocrat, trumpeting its prodigal knowledge and perceptions so forcefully that it drowns out the other, subtler senses.

  Rosemary Mahoney

  Sight, Perception, Slick

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• Blind self-love, vanity, lifting aloft her empty head, and indiscretion, prodigal of secrets more transparent than glass, follow close behind.

  Horace

  Self, Vanity, Glasses

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• I never understood redemption when I was young. Even before I was an atheist, I always thought with the prodigal son, "well, why's he getting the special treatment?"

  Ricky Gervais

  Atheist, Son, Special

  "Ghost Town - Ricky Gervais interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Nature does nothing in vain, and in the use of means to her goals she is not prodigal. Her giving to man reason and the freedom of the will which depends upon it is clear indication of her purpose. Man accordingly was not to be guided by instinct, not nurtured and instructed with ready-made knowledge; rather, he should bring forth everything out of his own resources.

  Immanuel Kant

  Mean, Men, Giving

  "Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View" as translated in '"On History" by Lewis White Beck, (Third Thesis), www.marxists.org. 1963.

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• We have been the most prodigal of people with land, and for years we wasted it with impunity. There was so much of it, and no matter how we fouled it, there was always more over the next hill, or so it seemed.

  William H. Whyte

  Years, Land, People

  William H. Whyte (2012). “The Last Landscape”, p.1, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• Tis strange the miser should his cares employTo gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy;Is it less strange the prodigal should wasteHis wealth to purchase what he ne'er can taste?

  Alexander Pope

  Care, Riches, Taste

  Alexander Pope, William Roscoe (1824). “The Works of Alexander Pope: Esq. with Notes and Illustrations by Himself and Others. To which are Added, a New Life of the Author, an Estimate of His Poetical Character and Writings, and Occasional Remarks”, p.377

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• If the Prodigal Son's a parable, and if Adam and Eve are metaphors, then maybe God is just figure of speech.

  Dan Barker

  Son, Atheism, Speech

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• Men are misers, and women prodigal, in affection.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Women, Affection, Misers

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• Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Order, Generosity, Brave

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.157

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• A parsimony of words prodigal of sense.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Parsimony, Brevity

  Isaac Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield) (1860). “Curiosities of Literature”, p.360

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