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Home  »  Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay  »  Charles James Fox

S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.

Charles James Fox

Nothing is more delightful than to lie under a tree, in the summer, with a book, except to lie under a tree, in the summer, without a book.

Charles James Fox.

True humanity consists not in a squeamish ear; it consists not in starting or shrinking at tales of misery, but in a disposition of heart to relieve it. True humanity appertains rather to the mind than to the nerves, and prompts men to use real and active endeavours to execute the actions which it suggests.

Charles James Fox.

Only one observation further, and I have done; and that is, that my theory about words simple rather than complex, and appealing to the senses rather than to the understanding, if it is true, helps to explain why they are better poets generally in the earlier than in the more refined periods of each language, and why many good poets are fond of adopting the style of the age preceding that in which they write.

Charles James Fox: Letter to Lord Holland, Feb. 19, 1799.

He [Mr. Fox] declared that he did not affect a democracy: that he always thought any of the simple, unbalanced governments bad; simple monarchy, simple aristocracy, simple democracy,—he held them all imperfect or vicious; all were bad by themselves; the composition alone was good. That these had been always his principles, in which he had agreed with his friend Mr. Burke.

C. J. Fox: Speech on the Army Estimates, Feb. 9, 1790.