George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (November 11, 1633 – April 5, 1695) was an English statesman, writer, and politician.

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• Our nature hardly allows us to have enough of anything without having too much.
  • On Dr. Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Bishop of Salisbury : as cited in The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors: 1639-1729 , ed. Charles Wells Moulton, H. Malkan (1910) p. 591

The Anatomy of an Equivalent (1688)

• Every single Act either weakeneth or improveth our Credit with other Men ; and as an habit of being just to our Word will confirm, so an habit of too freely dispensing with it must necessarily destroy it.
  • The Anatomy of an Equivalent : from The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax (1912), ed. Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh, Clarendon Press p. 123

The Lady's New Year's Gift: or Advice to a Daughter (1688)

• A Husband without Faults is a dangerous Observer.

• In your Clothes avoid too much Gaudy ; do not value your self upon an Imbroidered Gown ; and remember, that a reasonable Word, or an obliging Look, will gain you more respect, than all your fine Trappings.

• Remember that Children and Fools want every thing because they want Wit to distinguish: and therefore there is no stronger Evidence of a Crazy Understanding, than the making too large a Catalogue of things necessary, when in truth there are so very few things that have a right to be placed in it.

• A Princely Mind will undo a private Family.

• Love is a Passion that hath Friends in the Garrison.

• 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 sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached on that subject.

A Character of King Charles II (1750)

• A very great Memory often forgetteth how much Time is lost by repeating things of no Use.
  • On King Charles II’s memory.

Political Thoughts and Reflections

• The People are never so perfectly backed, but that they will kick and fling if not stroked at seasonable times.

• A Prince who will not undergo the Difficulty of Understanding, must undergo the Danger of Trusting.

• Nothing is less forgiven than setting Patterns Men have no mind to follow.

• Men are so unwilling to displease a Prince, that it is as dangerous to inform him right, as to serve him wrong.

• When the People contend for their Liberty, they seldom get any thing by their Victory but new Masters.

• Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.

• If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers in the first Place.

• The best Party is but a kind of Conspiracy against the rest of the Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the Jews to the Gentiles, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.

• Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.

Moral Thoughts and Reflections

• There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business ; but the Reason is because they despised it.

• Popularity is a Crime from the Moment it is sought ; it is only a Virtue where Men have it whether they will or no.

• No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave ; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.

• In this Age, when it is said of a Man, He knows how to live , it may be imply’d he is not very honest.

• It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.

• Most men make little other use of their Speech than to give evidence against their own Understanding.

• Hope is generally a wrong Guide, though it is very good Company by the way. It brusheth through Hedge and Ditch till it cometh to a great Leap, and there it is apt to fall and break its Bones.

• Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms. It often reacheth into the next World, Death itself is not a Bar to it.

• Malice, like Lust, when it is at the Height, doth not know Shame.

• The vanity of teaching often tempteth a Man to forget he is a Blockhead.

• If Men considered how many Things there are that Riches cannot buy, they would not be so fond of them.

• They who are of opinion that Money will do every thing, may very well be suspected to do every thing for Money.

• Money hath too great a Preference given to it by States, as well as by particular Men.

• A Little Learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the Understanding.

Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections

• Modesty is oftner mistaken than any other Virtue.

• Men who borrow their Opinions can never repay their Debts. They are Beggars by Nature, and can therefore never get a Stock to grow rich upon.

• A Man is to go about his own Business as if he had not a Friend in the World to help him in it.

• If Men would think how often their own Words are thrown at their Heads, they would less often let them go out of their Mouths.

• A man that should call every thing by its right Name, would hardly pass the Streets without being knock'd down as a common Enemy.

• A Man may so overdo it in looking too far before him, that he may stumble the more for it.

• He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.

• A wise man will keep his Suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.

• Suspicion seldom wanteth Food to keep it up in Health and Vigour. It feedeth upon every thing it seeth, and is not curious in its Diet.

• MANY Men swallow the being cheated, but no Man could ever endure to chew it.

• Men take more pains to hide than to mend themselves.

• THE best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.

• The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory.

• Some Mens Memory is like a Box, where a Man should mingle his Jewels with his old Shoes.

• A Man may dwell so long upon a Thought, that it may take him Prisoner.

• Half the Truth is often as arrant a Lye, as can be made.

• It is a general Mistake to think the Men we like are good for every thing, and those we do not, good for nothing.

• A Man who is Master of Patience, is Master of everything else.

• Nothing hath an uglier Look to us than Reason, when it is not of our side.

• MISPENDING a Man's time is a kind of self-homicide, it is making Life to be of no use.

• Nothing would more contribute to make a Man wise, than to have always an Enemy in his view.

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• Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.
  • (See note on discussion page)