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Jeremy Collier
59 quotes
“This is brave Bear-Garden language!”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) first seen 1698 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), p 232.
“By reading a man does as it were antedate his life, and makes himself contemporary with the ages past. And this way of running up beyond one's nativity is much better than Plato's pre-existence, because here a man knows something of the state, and is the wiser for it, which he is not in the other.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man may as well expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading. Too much over-charges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. 'Tis thought and digestion which makes books serviceable, and gives health and vigour to the mind.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People's opinions of themselves are commonly legible in their countenances.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy [...], like a cold poison, [...] benumbs and stupefies. And thus conscious as it were of its own impotence, it folds its arms in despair, and sits cursing in a corner.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To believe a business impossible is the way to make it so. How many feasible projects have miscarried by despondency, and been strangled in the birth by a cowardly imagination?”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is the consequence of time, and multitude of days are fittest to teach wisdom.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A brave mind is always impregnable. True courage is the result of reasoning.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Avoid all affectation and singularity. What is according to nature is best, and what is contrary to it is always distasteful. Nothing is graceful that is not our own.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thoughts take up no room. When they are right, they afford a portable pleasure, which one may travel with, without any trouble or encumbrance.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lower your senses are kept, the better you may govern them. Appetite and reason are commonly like two buckets, — when one is at the top, the other is at the bottom. Now of the two, I had rather the reason-bucket be uppermost.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man that loves to be peevish and paramount, and to play the sovereign at every turn, does but blast the blessings of life, and swagger away his own enjoyments; and not to enlarge upon the folly, not to mention the injustice of such a behavior, it is always the sign of a little, unbenevolent temper. It is disease and discredit all over, and there is no more greatness in it, than in the swelling of a dropsy.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Atheism is the result of ignorance and pride, of strong sense and feeble reasons, of good eating and ill-living. It is the plague of society, the corrupter of manners, and the underminer of property.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remorse of conscience is like an old wound; a man is in no condition to fight under such circumstances. The pain abates his vigor and takes up too much of his attention.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Conscience and covetousness are never to be reconciled; like fire and water they always destroy each other, according to the predominancy of the element.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honor and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us farther than all the force of mechanism.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not that the moderns are born with more wit than their predecessors, but, finding the world better furnished at their coming into it, they have more leisure for new thoughts, more light to direct them, and more hints to work upon.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more we sink into the infirmities of age, the nearer we are to immortal youth. All people are young in the other world. That state is an eternal spring, ever fresh and flourishing. Now, to pass from midnight into noon on the sudden, to be decrepit one minute and all spirit and activity the next, must be a desirable change. To call this dying is an abuse of language.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dependence goes somewhat against the grain of a generous mind; and it is no wonder that it should do so, considering the unreasonable advantage which is often taken of the inequality of fortune.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Despair makes a despicable figure, and descends from a mean original. It is the offspring of fear, of laziness, of impatience; it argues a defect of spirit and resolution, and oftentimes of honesty too.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would not despair unless I knew the irrevocable decree was passed; saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate, and signed and sealed by necessity.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To believe a business impossible is the way to make it so. How many feasible projects have miscarried through despondency, and been strangled in their birth by a cowardly imagination!”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without discretion, people may be overlaid with unreasonable affection, and choked with too much nourishment.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Emulation is a handsome passion; it is enterprising, but just withal. It keeps a man within the terms of honor, and makes the contest for glory just and generous. He strives to excel, but it is by raising himself, not by depressing others.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy, like a cold prison, benumbs and stupefies; and, conscious of its own impotence, folds its arms in despair.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy is of all others the most ungratifying and disconsolate passion. There is power for ambition, pleasure for luxury, and pelf even for covetousness; but envy gets no reward but yexation.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy is an ill-natured vice, and is made up of meanness and malice. It wishes the force of goodness to be strained, and the measure of happiness abated. It laments over prosperity, and sickens at the sight of health. It oftentimes wants spirit as well as good-nature.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the language of the face is universal, so is it very comprehensive. No laconism can reach it. It is the short-hand of the mind, and crowds a great deal in a little room. A man may look a sentence as soon as speak a word. The strokes are small, but so masterly drawn that you may easily collect the image and proportions of what they resemble.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who despise fame seldom deserve it. We are apt to undervalue the purchase we can-not reach, to conceal our poverty the better. It is a spark which kindles upon the best fuel, and burns brightest in the bravest breast.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flattery is an ensnaring quality, and leaves a very dangerous impression. It swells a man's imagination, entertains his vanity, and drives him to a doting upon his own person.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fortitude implies a firmness and strength of mind, that enables us to do and suffer as we ought. It rises upon an opposition, and, like a river, swells the higher for having its course stopped.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man that is fit to make a friend of must have conduct to manage the engagement, and resolution to maintain it. He must use freedom without roughness, and oblige without design. Cowardice will betray friendship, and covetousness will starve it. Folly will be nauseous, passion is apt to ruffle, and pride will fly out into contumely and neglect.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Goodness is generous and diffusive; it is largeness of mind, and sweetness of temper, — balsam in the blood, and justice sublimated to a richer spirit.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If wrecks and ruins and desolation of kingdoms are marks of greatness, why do we not worship a tempest, and erect a statue to the plague? A panegyric upon an earthquake is every jot as reasonable as upon such conquests as these.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It were well if there were fewer heroes; for I scarcely ever heard of any, excepting Her-cules, but did more mischief than good. These overgrown mortals commonly use their will with their right hand, and their reason with their left.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost. And thus, by perpetually pushing and assurance, it puts a difficulty out of countenance, and makes a seeming im-possibility give way.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humility is the hall-mark of wisdom. Socrates, whom the oracle, that is, the united opinion of the world in which he moved, pronounced to be the wisest man, was content with the title of a lover, rather than a professor, of wisdom.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Idleness is an inlet to disorder, and makes way for licentiousness. People that have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Intemperance is a dangerous companion. It throws people off their guard; betrays them to a great many indecencies, to ruinous passions, to disadvantages in fortune; makes them discover secrets, drive foolish bargains, engage in play, and often to stagger from the tavern to the stews.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who come last seem to enter with advantage. They are born to the wealth of antiquity. The materials for judging are prepared, and the foundations of knowledge are laid to their hands. Besides, if the point was tried by antiquity, antiquity would lose it; for the present age is really the oldest and has the largest experience to plead.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty for the more a man knows, the more he discovers his ignorance.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modesty was designed by Providence as a guard to virtue, and that it might be always at hand it is wrought into the mechanism of the body. It is likewise proportioned to the occasions of life, and strongest in youth when passion is so too.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The end of pleasure is to support the offices of life, to relieve the fatigues of business, to reward a regular action, and to encourage the continuance.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The size of a man's sense and improvement is discovered by his pleasures as much as by anything else.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A poet's mind should be clear and unsullied; and the muses being virgins, their performances should agree with their condition.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all sorts of flattery, that which comes from a solemn character and stands before a sermon is the worst-complexioned. Such commendation is a satire upon the author, makes the text look mercenary, and disables the discourse from doing service.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By reading a man does, as it were, antedate his life, and make himself contemporary with past ages.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source