Disposition Quotes
More Disposition Quotes
There is a strong disposition in youth, from which some individuals never escape, to suppose that everyone else is having a more enjoyable time than we are ourselves.
— 1952 A Buyer's Market, ch.4.
As Dr. Sigmund Freud has observed, it can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to safeguard its own monopoly of crime. ... Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.
albert jay nock— p. 50 (Our Enemy, the State (1935))
Like the disposition of planes, the proportion of these planes and their colors seemed to depend only upon chance, and I declared that these works were ordered 'according to the law of chance', just like in the order of nature.
hans arp— p. 307 (Jours effeuillés: Poèmes, essaies, souvenirs, 1966)
The theory of politics that emerges from the political literature of the pre-Revolutionary years rests on the belief that what lay behind every political scene, the ultimate explanation of every political controversy, was the disposition of power.
bernard bailyn— Chapter III, POWER AND LIBERTY A THEORY OF POLITICS, p. 55
All men have an equal disposition for understanding.
claude adrien helvétius— p. 286 (De l'esprit or, Essays on the Mind, and Its Several Faculties (1758))
Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.
diogenes laërtius— Antisthenes, 4.
As to my body and burial, I do leave it to the disposition and discretion of my executor, hereafter named, but with this special charge, that it be done as privately as may be, without any state, acknowledging myself to be unworthy of the least outward regard in this world, and unworthy of any remembrance, that hath been so great a sinner, and I do further charge and desire that no monument be made for me, but at the utmost a plain stone with this inscription only — Vermis sum. [I am a worm.]
william lenthall— Last will, as quoted in History of Burford (1891) by William John Monk, p. 131
Good fortune and a good disposition are rarely given to the same man.
livy— Book XXX, sec. 42
By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound,
Adam Smith— Chapter II, p. 17
I know the disposition of women: when you will, they won't; when you won't, they set their hearts upon you of their own inclination.
terence— Act IV, scene 7, 42, line 812.
The most necessary disposition to relish pleasures is to know how to be without them.
— Marquise de Lambert, A Mother's Advice to Her Son (1726), p. 160.
I am not sure just what the unpardonable sin is, but I believe it is a disposition to evade the payment of small bills.
elbert hubbard— p. 146 (The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927))
I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel.
thomas henry huxley— Letter to Charles Kingsley (6 May 1863).
Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
samuel johnson— September 1, 1777.
Virtue refuses facility for her companion ... the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.
Michel de Montaigne— Book II, ch. 11
Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition and perchance to some excess I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.
Michel de Montaigne— Book III, ch. 9
Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told.
albert jay nock— p. 319 (Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943))
Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.
alexis de tocqueville— Book Two, Chapter V
Guyal reined his horse and reflected that flowers were rarely cherished by persons of hostile disposition.
jack vance— Chapter 6, "Guyal of Sfere"
Then westward ho! Grace and good disposition Attend your ladyship!
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act III, scene 1, line 146.
The desire to preserve our country from the calamities and ravages of war, by cultivating a disposition, and pursuing a conduct, conciliatory and friendly to all nations, has been sincerely entertained and faithfully followed. It was dictated by the principles of humanity, the precepts of the gospel, and the general wish of our country, and it was not to be doubted that the Society of Friends, with whom it is a religious principle, would sanction it by their support.
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Messrs. Thomas, Ellicot, and others, November 13, 1807.—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. H. A. Washington, vol. 8, p. 118 (1871).
It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government various manifestations of a just and friendly disposition towards us; we wish to cultivate peace and friendship with all nations, believing that course most conducive to the welfare of our own; it is natural that these friendships should bear some proportion to the common interests of the parties.
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Sir John Sinclair, July 31, 1816.—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 15, p. 54 (1904).
I want to feel my own nothingness, I want to give myself up in absolute resignation to God , to lie prostrate and passive at His feet, with no other disposition in my heart than that of merging my will into His will, and no other language in my mouth than that of prayer for the perfecting of His strength in my weakness. I desire from the abyss of my own nothingness and vileness to cry unto God that He might cause me to do as I ought, and to be as I ought.
— Thomas Chalmers, p. 331. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Humility, what is it? It is a gracious gift of the Holy Ghost. It is the same disposition which the Psalmist called a " broken heart," and that consciousness of need which Jesus had in view when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." So far as it has respect to God, it is that docility which is willing to learn what God teaches; that conscious penury, which is willing to accept whatever God proffers; that submission which is willing to do what God desires, and to endure whatever God deems needful.
— James Hamilton, p. 331. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
If you consider that the constant tenor of the gospel precepts is to promote love , peace , good-will among men you will not doubt that the cultivation of an amiable disposition is a great part your religious duty ; since nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity , and to the injury and molestation of our fellow creatures , than the indulgence of an ill-temper.
— Hester Chapone in:Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Cambridge University Press, 21 November 2013, p.120
Nothing sweetens life like a pleasant disposition.
— Majlisi, Bih?rul Anw?r, vol.78, p.111
