Piozzi Quotes & Sayings

If truth can be found in any sublunary science, numbers will produce it, for to that at last almost all other sciences refer for confirmation. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

We look on those approaching the banks of a river all must cross, with ten times the interest they excited when dancing in the meadow. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped on the first favourable opportunity. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

It is never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest, or for their wit that one loves the wittiest; 'tis for benevolence and virtue and honest fondness one loves people. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

[Samuel] Johnson's conversation was by much too strong for a person accustomed to obsequiousness and flattery; it was mustard in a young child's mouth! — Hester Lynch Piozzi

I am perpetually bringing or losing babies, both very dreadful operations to me, and which tear mind and body both in pieces very cruelly. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That's what management is all about. — Tom DeMarco

Living at Venice is like a Journey to the Moon somehow....And a sweet Planet it is! — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Dr. Calder [a Unitarian minister] said of Dr. [Samuel] Johnson on the publications of Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, that he was like Actaeon, torn to pieces by his own pack. — Horace Walpole

Nothing is so fatiguing as the life of a wit ... — Hester Lynch Piozzi

One should know the value of Life better than to pout any part of it away. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to beggars? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco. "And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence (says Johnson)? it is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths." — Hester Lynch Piozzi

I think character never changes; the Acorn becomes an Oak, which is very little like an Acorn to be sure, but it never becomes an Ash ... — Hester Lynch Piozzi

No companion however wise, no friend however useful, can be to me what my mother has been: her image will long pursue my fancy; her voice for ever hang in my ears: may her precepts but sink into my heart! — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Primum non nocere, 'First, don't make things worse,' was an essential principle of Hippocrates' medicine. Nowadays, unfortunately, it seems to have been forgotten. Conventional modern medicine aims at getting rid of patients' symptoms. Little, if any consideration is given to the fact that some of these symptoms may actually be used by the body in an attempt to correct deeper disorders. When this is the case, suppressing the symptom does not necessarily help the patient. — Samuel Sagan

Friendship is far more delicate than love. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

Women bear Crosses better than Men do, but bear Surprizes - worse. — Hester Lynch Piozzi

I think you're where you have to be and I'm not a person who wants to control things too much because I love surprises. — Marion Cotillard

Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army — Joseph Stalin

Every one in this world has as much as they can do in caring for themselves, and few have leisure really to think of their neighbours distresses, however they may delight their tongues with talking of them. — Hester Lynch Piozzi