#noble

Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form. ↗

— Wilhelm von Humboldt

#beauty #coercion #even #form #freedom

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. ↗

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#noble

Contrary to his infallibly "honest" image, Abe wasn't above lying so long as it served a noble purpose. ↗

— Seth Grahame-Smith

#vampire #noble

It's Smith, actually.' Dr Smith smiled, bowing. 'I've remembered that my name is Smith. Almost definitely. Good old English name. Hopefully means 'noble valiant warriot' and not 'he who hits kittens with a hammer.' You'd be surprised the derivations of common surnames in the English countryside... ↗

— James Goss

#surnames #the-doctor #noble

Well, it doesn't sound particularly noble and knightly to say you've rescued the Chief Cook and Librarian, does it? And it has cut down on the number of interruptions. I used to get two or three knights a day, and now there's only about one a week. And the ones who do come are at least smart enough to figure out that I'm still a princess even if the dragons call me Chief Cook ↗

— Patricia C. Wrede

#cook #dragons #noble

In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests. ↗

— John James Audubon

#deepest #forests #frequently #i #me

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires. ↗

— Marcus Aurelius

#aspiration #aspires #compares #estimates #higher

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds. ↗

— Aristotle

#comfort #deeds #friends #incite #keep

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more. ↗

— Aristotle

#desire #equalize #getting #lower #more

The noble man is only God's image. ↗

— Ludwig Tieck

#image #man #noble #only