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Policy: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
All men carry about them that which is poyson to serpents: for if it be true that is Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of reported, they will no better abide the touching with man's spittle than scalding water cast upon them: but if it happen to light within their chawes or mouth, especially if it come from a man that is fasting, it is present death.— PLINY — Natural History. Bk. VII.
Chap. II. Holland's trans.
When I am at Rome I fast as the Romans do; when I am at Milan I do not fast. So likewise you, whatever church you come to, observe the custom of the place, if you would neither give offence to others, nor take offence from them.— ST. AMBROSE — Advice to St. Austin on
Sabbath Keeping. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."— BACON — Essays. Of Boldness.
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.— BURKE — Reflections on the Revolution in
France. Of this stamp is the cant of, not men, but measures.— BURKE — Thoughts on the Cause of the
Present Discontents. Like Æsop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.— BURTON — Anatomy of Melancholy.
Democritus to the Reader. They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot.— CERVANTES — Don Quixote. Pt. II. Ch. XXXVII.
Measures, not men, have always been my mark.— GOLDSMITH — The Good-Natured Man. Act II.
Factions among yourselves; preferring such To offices and honors, as ne'er read The elements of saving policy; But deeply skilled in all the principles That usher to destruction.— MASSINGER — The Bondman. Act I.
S. Sc. 3. L. 210, When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy and throwing half his goods on the counter, thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.— CHARLES MINER — Who'll turn
Grindstones? The publick weal requires that a man should betray, and lye, and massacre.— MONTAIGNE — Essays. Of Profit and
Honesty. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 65.
Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is stili.— Shakespeare — Henry V. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 45.
In this country [England] it is found requisite, now and then, to put one admiral to death in order to spirit up the others to fight.— VOLTAIRE — Candide. Ch. XXIII.
Tenez bonne table et soignez les femmes. Keep a good table and don't forget the ladies.— NAPOLEON I — Instructions to ABBÉ DE