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Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. This is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy. Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong principle.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the love of pleasure, etc., etc., which are his own faults, than through incapacity and unfitness, which are the faults of his nature.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
If it was not absolutely necessary, it was the foolishest thing ever done.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say the same.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
You should never assume contempt for that which it is not very manifest that you have it in your power to possess, nor does a wit ever make a more contemptible figure than when, in attempting satire, he shows that he does not understand that which he would make the subject of his ridicule.
– William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
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