C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Inconsistency
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the great weakness of human nature.
Woman is a most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves.
Only imagine a man acting for one single day on the supposition that all his neighbors believe all that they profess, and act up to all that they believe!
Men talk as if they believed in God, but they live as if they thought there was none; their vows and promises are no more than words, of course.
There are some who affect a want of affectation, and flatter themselves that they are above flattery; they are proud of being thought extremely humble, and would go round the world to punish those who thought them capable of revenge; they are so satisfied of the suavity of their own temper that they would quarrel with their dearest benefactor only for doubting it.
I have known several persons of great fame for wisdom in public affairs and councils governed by foolish servants. I have known great ministers, distinguished for wit and learning, who preferred none but dunces. I have known men of valor cowards to their wives. I have known men of cunning perpetually cheated. I knew three ministers who would exactly compute and settle the accounts of a kingdom, wholly ignorant of their own economy.