Prudence Quotes - Page 9

• To seek the greatest good is to live well, and to live well is nothing other than to love God with the whole heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind: It is therefore obvious that this love must be kept whole and uncorrupt, that is temperance; it should not be overcome with difficulties, that is fortitude, it must not be subservient to anything else, that is justice; it must discriminate among things so as not to be deceived by falsity or fraud, that is prudence.

  Saint Augustine

  Wisdom, Heart, Justice

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• Let us learn the meaning of economy. Economy is a high human office,--a sacrament when its aim is grand, when it is the prudence of simple tastes, when it is practised for freedom or for love or devotion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Simple, Office, Taste

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• If a man of good natural disposition acquires Intelligence [as a whole], then he excels in conduct, and the disposition which previously only resembled Virtue, will now be Virtue in the true sense. Hence just as with the faculty of forming opinions [the calculative faculty] there are two qualities, Cleverness and Prudence, so also in the moral part of the soul there are two qualities, natural virtue and true Virtue; and true Virtue cannot exist without Prudence.

  Aristotle

  Men, Two, Soul

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• In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.

  Horace

  Adversity, Gale, Prosperity

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• Do not limp before the lame.
  [Old Fr., Ne clochez pas devant les boyteus.]

  Francois Rabelais

  Lame

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• Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. It is the outmost action of the inward life.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inward, Action, Appearance

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.72, Graphic Arts Books

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• The emperor of the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year: and, as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite resource of feeble and timid minds; who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence.

  Edward Gibbon

  Brother, Years, History

  Edward Gibbon (2008). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.94, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Limits, Use

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• For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
  And hold-fast is the only dog.

  William Shakespeare

  Dog, Men, Cake

  'Henry V' (1599) act 2, sc. 3, l. [53]

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• Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence.

  John Adams

  Practice, United States, Slavery

  John Adams, Carolyn P. Yoder (2007). “John Adams, the writer: a treasury of letters, diaries, and public documents”, Calkins Creek Books

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• But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an Imperial proselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church; and Constantine was permitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of the privileges, before he had contracted any of the obligations, of a Christian.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Discipline, History

  Edward Gibbon, François Guizot (1859). “Guizot's Gibbon: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.258

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• Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Soul, May, Morality

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1138, Delphi Classics

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• Men with common minds seldom break through general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness; and they rarely go as far as as they may in any undertaking, who are determined not to go beyond it on any account.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Men, Break Through, Mind

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (Illustrated)”, p.1034, Delphi Classics

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• Many a man wins glory for prudence by seeking advice, then seeking advice as to what advice would be best to take, and finally following appetite.

  Austin O'Malley

  Winning, Men, Advice

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• Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest.

  Francis Bacon

  Evil, Body, Causes

  Francis Bacon, John Blackbourne, George Fabyan Collection (Library of Congress) (1730). “Francisci Baconi Baronis de Verulamio ... Opera Omnia Quatuor Voluminibus Comprehensa: Containing, I. His Natural history. II. Physiological and medical remains. III. The new Atlantis. IV. His Apothegms. V. Essays. VI. Colours of good and evil. VII. History of the reign of Henry VII. VIII. History of Henry VIII. IX. Beginning of the history of Great Britain. X. Of a war with Spain. XI. Of an holy war. XII. The history of the office of alienations. XIII. Advice to the Duke of Buckingham, Sir Geor”, p.329

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• A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: he who wants everything must risk very little.

  Pierre Corneille

  Power, Risk, Littles

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• Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Want, Virtue

  Oliver Goldsmith (1801). “The Beauties of Goldsmith”, p.158

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• He who goes oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.

  Herman Melville

  Capes, Danger, Horns

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• Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.

  Herman Melville

  Selfish, Military, Men

  Herman Melville (1966). “Billy Budd”, p.14, Hayes Barton Press

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• Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject.... Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Strong, Government

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• Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Knowledge, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.90, Xist Publishing

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• Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.

  Carl Sagan

  Exercise, Technology, Wish

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.245, Ballantine Books

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• I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Men, Insulting, Enemy

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• Go, all of you poor people, in the name of God the Creator, and let him forever be your guide. And henceforth, do not be beguiledby these idle and useless pilgrimages. See to your families, and work, each one of you, in your vocation, raise your children, and live as the good Apostle Paul teaches you.

  Francois Rabelais

  Wisdom, Children, Names

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• You thank God [for your salvation] because "you do not attribute your repenting and believing to your own wisdom, or prudence, or sound judgment, or good sense.

  J. I. Packer

  Believe, Thank God, Sound

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