Essays, or discourses, vol. 1 (of 4)

The Author of the following Discourses was a Spaniard, and a dignified clergyman of the Church of Rome, high in rank, and much respected as an ecclesiastic; but was not less est...

But what necessity is there for beating round the world, to discover, that in various regions, the common opinion is the reverse of truth; even among the people who were called...

XXIII. I never observed, that the dogmatic writers, who in various manners, have conclusively proved the evident credibility of our holy faith, have introduced as one of their a...

XX. For the more clear understanding this matter, and to enforce the argument we are using, it will be necessary to premise, that in this life, there is a heavy and mortal affli...

XLI. The stratagem of this little animal exactly resembles that which the devil practises upon men. He displays to him the road of vice, very broad and commodious at the entranc...

XXII. My first position is, that he who enjoys the most delights, is the man who enjoys the fewest; and I might even say, he enjoys none at all; but although this is another eni...

XL. All those voluntary poor, who are not so in the gospel sense, and for that reason, not comprehended in the benediction of Christ, are the pests of the states they inhabit, o...

X. England furnishes us in later times with two wayward, but successful politicians. The first was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester[1], the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and so...

XXVI. I repeat my assurance, that by using these precautions, the open honest politician, will obtain a much higher degree of estimation in the mind of a great man, than the sly...

XLII. Finally, and to sum up the whole, if we search history, we shall hardly find one among a thousand of those politicians, who have sought to exalt themselves by means of wic...

XI. But not to leave the reader in suspence, or not to give him occasion to think that I propose these three opinions as problems, I will here declare the judgement I entertain...

XXXV. I do not mean to say, that Aristotle was an abettor of perverse policy, or that he wrote with a design of instructing tyrants in the methods by which they might make thems...

LVII. The worst is, that by following the advice of Theodotus, you will furnish Cæsar with a specious pretence for usurping your kingdom; and therefore I say, that so far from a...

IX. These ambitious spirits bring on their subjects another injury, which is sufficiently serious, though less noticed than the former; and that is, that being totally occupied...

XXVIII. I am not surprized that some Princes have gone to this extreme, but rather wonder that all have not proceeded to it. The thirsty desire of domineering, which is never sa...

XIII. There is no doubt but you will frequently meet in history, accounts of unworthy children, who were descended from good parents. Germanicus is so generously disinterested,...

XXXVII. It may be also necessary to apprize the complaining gentlemen, that the rich, merely as rich people, are in some degree intitled to the respect that is shewn them. The b...

XIII. Add to this, the apprehension of their deceit being detected; for they look upon all the eyes that surround them as so many spies of their enemies; and they are very well...

XXXVII. If we view the exterior part of the life of Sir Thomas More, we only see an able politician, simple in his manners, engaged in a department of the state, and attentive t...

XLVII. But to resume the thread of our discourse, what we have just finished saying being rather an addition to, or digression from, our main or principal subject. The hypocrite...