Viscount Quotes & Sayings

He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, color, and complexion: he embraced the old statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty. — Barry Yelverton, 1st Viscount Avonmore

Viscount St. John? He's got the intelligence of a goat. If this is an indication of the kind of suitors I've got simpering after me, it speaks to a significant problem with my perceived quality." "Alexandra, there are some forty bouquets in this room alone, and I've had several posies sent to the upstairs parlor because of space constraints here. I feel confident that there are several notes from gentlemen who are not dull-witted. — Sarah MacLean

No religion ever appeared in the world whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes right reason a law in every possible definition of the word. And therefore, even supposing it to have been purely a human invention, it had been the most amiable and the most useful invention that was ever imposed on mankind for their good. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Many people think of knowledge as money, They would like knowledge, but do not want to face the perseverance and self- denial that goes into the acquisition of it. — John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley Of Blackburn

In business a reputation for keeping absolutely to the letter and spirit of an agreement, even when it is unfavorable, is the most precious of assets, although it is not entered in the balance sheet. — Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos

The Labour Party is going about the country stirring up apathy. — William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw

A long novitiate of acquaintance should precede the vows of friendship. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Whatever study tends neither directly nor indirectly to make us better men and citizens is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness; and the knowledge we acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance, nothing more. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Dirt is matter in the wrong place. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Large republics seem to be essentially and inherently aggressive. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

I think it indisputable that the distance between the intellectual faculties of different men is greater than that between the same faculties in some men and some other animals. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

If she simply stayed in the country she would never have to see him again. Viscount Rohan was notoriously unmoved by the countryside, avoiding it at all costs. If she could just convince Lina to remove to her Dorset estate then soon or later Rohan would go abroad, and maybe he'd fall off a mountain or marry a Chinese princess or be eaten by a tiger. — Anne Stuart

Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Some of us may forget that, of all the allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

My message to the Pope would be, don't take sides on the science. Don't make the same mistake as seven out of 10 judges in the trial of Galileo, when they invited him to retract his views. — Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton Of Brenchley

One man who could understand it very well was the architect of these stop-gap measures: General the Viscount Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. A big burly man of 53, Lord Gort was no strategist - he was happy to follow the French lead on such matters - but he had certain soldierly virtues that came in handy at a time like this. He was a great fighter - had won the Victoria Cross storming the Hindenburg Line in 1918 - and he was completely unflappable. — Walter Lord

Bravery escapes more dangers than cowardice. — Joseph Alexandre Pierre De Segur, Viscount Of Segur

The ideal Government minister may well be someone who has no itch to run other people's lives. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

Nations are always making mistakes because they do not understand each other's psychology. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who went mad. I am the third and I have forgotten all about it — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

The free expression of opinion, as experience has taught us, is the safety-valve of passion. The noise of the rushing steam, when it escapes, alarms the timid; but it is the sign that we are safe. The concession of reasonable privilege anticipates the growth of furious-appetite. — Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

The main reason, Your Holiness, of why we are here today, is it is not the business of the church to stray from the field of faith and morals and wonder into the playground that is science ... it is not the business of the church to pronounce on science. — Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton Of Brenchley

I was aware of something stable in his nature. Ha game me a feeling of security, as if nothing I said or did would change his opinion of me. I never found his pleasantries irksome, partly, no doubt, because he was a Viscount, but, partly, too, because I respected his self-discipline. He had very little to laugh about, I thought, and yet he laughed. His gaiety had a background of the hospital and the battlefield. I felt he had some inner reserve of strength which no reverse, however serious, would break down. — L.P. Hartley

We have not eternal allies and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and peretual and those interests it is out duty to follow. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

There is no security for any power unless it be a security in which its neighbours have an equal share. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are Many things More valuable than Peace, and many Things Much worse than war. The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire belongs to the First Class, the Occupation of Turkey by Russia belongs to the Second. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

I believe the only way you can make sure that submarines will not be abused in future wars is that there should be no submarines. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

Ah, now,' the count said casually, 'you must do as you wish, Viscount, because this is your business and you are in charge; but I must say that in your place I should say nothing of all these adventures. Your life story is a novel; and people, though they love novels bound between two yellow paper covers, are oddly suspicious of those which come to them in living vellum, even when they are as gilded as you are capable of being. Allow me to point out this difficulty to you, Monsieur le Vicomte, which is that no sooner will you have told your touching story to someone, that it will travel all round society, completely distorted. You will have to play the part of Antony, and Antony's day has passed somewhat. You might perhaps enjoy the reputation of a curiosity, but not everyone likes to be the centre of attention and the butt of comment. It might possibly fatigue you. — Alexandre Dumas

Communists, socialists and fascists everywhere, from Mr. Obama upward, have taken to the global warming cause like a quack to colored water. Just about every word they utter on this subject is a falsehood calculated to deceive, or in plain English a lie. — Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton Of Brenchley

Of the whole sum of human life no small part is that which consists of a man's relations to his country, and his feelings concerning it. — Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

It is more important to know the properties of chlorine than the improprieties of Claudius! — Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell

To converse with historians is to keep good company; many of them were excellent men, and those who were not, have taken care to appear such in their writings. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

The fire of my adversity has purged the mass of my acquaintance. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Faction is to party what the superlative is to the positive. Party is a political evil, and faction is the worst of all parties. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

We have no permanent allies, only permanent interests. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Believe me when I tell you that thrift of time will repay you in after life, with a usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams; and that waste of it will make you dwindle, alike in intellectual and moral stature, beyond your darkest reckoning. — Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

Then a faintness came over her; she recalled the Viscount who had waltzed with her at Vaubyessard, and his beard exhaled like this air an odour of vanilla and citron, and mechanically she half-closed her eyes the better to breathe it in. But — Gustave Flaubert

There are no unemployed, either in Russia or in Dartmoor jail, and for the same reason. — Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

Saint took a seat at the main faro table at the Society club. "What the devil is a ladies' political tea?"
Tristan Carroway, Viscount Dare, finished placing his wager, then sat back, reaching for his glass of
port. "Do I look like a dictionary?"
"You're domesticated." Saint motioned for a glass of his own, despite unfriendly looks from the tables'
other players. "What is it?"
"I'm not domesticated; I'm in love. You should try it. Does wonders for your outlook on life."
"I'll take your word for it, thank you. — Suzanne Enoch

As the four young women proceeded to a hallway leading toward the morning room, they encountered Lord St. Vincent, who was strolling in the opposite direction.
Elegant and dazzling in his formal clothes, he paused and regarded Evie with a caressing smile. "You appear to be escaping from something," he remarked.
"We are," Evie told her husband.
St. Vincent slid his arm around Evie's waist and asked in a conspiratorial whisper, "Where are you going?"
Evie thought for a moment. "Somewhere to powder Daisy's nose."
The viscount gave Daisy a dubious glance. "It takes all four of you? But it's such a little nose."
"We'll only be a few minutes, my lord," Evie said. "Will you make excuses for us?"
St. Vincent laughed gently. "I have an endless supply, my love," he assured her. — Lisa Kleypas

He had no money or influence here. The clothes on his back were ragged, his moccasins were worn, and he was skeletally thin from lack of food and walking. But he would sail on a ship bound for England even if he had to scrub the decks to pay his way.

He was Reynaud St. Aubyn, the Viscount of Hope, and by God or the devil, he was going home. — Elizabeth Hoyt

The beautiful is always severe. — Joseph Alexandre Pierre De Segur, Viscount Of Segur

If you intend to drink yourself to death," Amelia had told Leo calmly, "I wish you would do it at a more affordable place."
"But I'm a viscount now," Leo had replied nonchalantly. "I have to do it with style, or what will people say?"
"That you were a wastrel and a fool, and the title might just as well have gone to a monkey?"
That had elicited a grin from her handsome brother. "I'm sure that comparison is quite unfair to the monkey. — Lisa Kleypas

I was one of those people who was always rather frightened of women politicians. — William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw

I have read somewhere or other,-in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think,-that history is philosophy teaching by examples. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

I've always thought that violet ribbons look especially nice with brown hair. — Julia Quinn

Miss Clover," said Minister Fairweller to the Viscount after a long moment, "is not here. She has gone to a speech with her father, in Werttemberg. I could set you up with a carriage, if you'd like."
The girls' mouths dropped open. Viscount Duquette did not see.
"Well!" he said,clicking his heels together. "It is nice to see that someone behaves like a gentleman around here!"
The girls found Clover about an hour later, hidinga mong the untrimmed unicorn and lion topiaries, weeping on a stone bench. They flocked to her, wrapped an extra shawl around her shoulders, and told her the story.
"Werttemberg, though," said Eve. That's two countries away!"
Clover wept and laughed at the same time. — Heather Dixon

Politicians cannot alter trends. — Harold Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson

The world is like a mirror; frown at it, and it frowns at you. Smile and it smiles, too. — Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

Today a Scot is leading a British army in France [Field Marshall Douglas Haig], another is commanding the British Grand Fleet at sea [Admiral David Beatty], while a third directs the Imperial General Staff at home [Sir William Roberton]. The Lord Chancellor is a Scot [Viscount Finlay]; so are the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary [Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour]. The Prime Minister is a Welshman [David Lloyd George], and the First Lord of the Admiralty is an Irishman [Lord Carson]. Yet no one has ever brought in a bill to give home rule to England! — John Hay Beith

The right honorable gentleman [Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke] is the first of the new party who has retired into his political cave of Adullam and he has called about him everyone that was in distress and everyone that was discontented. — John Bright

This is true valor, I hope you know. Legends have sprung from less. All Lancelot did was paddle about in a balmy lake." She smiled. "Lancelot was a knight. You're a viscount. The bar is higher. — Tessa Dare

The next great task of science is to create a religion for humanity. — John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley Of Blackburn

Some people reach the age of sixty before others. — Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood

Unguarded moment she pictured herself waltzing with Viscount Whitleaf, — Mary Balogh

In the end men love better that for which they have made sacrifices than that through which they have enjoyed pleasures. — David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel

For the first time a British force had met, held and decisively defeated a major Japanese attack, and followed this up by driving the enemy out of the strongest possible natural positions. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

What a world is this, and how does fortune banter us! — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

The British Army should be a projectile to be fired by the British Navy. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

The latest mode from Paris, the gown had a devastatingly low, square-cut bodice accentuated with the tiniest bit of sheer, gold trim that barely concealed a hint of dusky nipple. If the viscount appreciated her well-endowed bosom, what harm in teasing from afar that which he could never touch? Deeming it naught but a bit of harmless flirtation with a charming rogue, Diana paid little heed to the fleeting notion that she might actually be playing with fire. — Victoria Vane

Why do you like Hugh better? Because he is a Viscount?'
'Well, that's one reason,' I admitted, without any false shame. Respect for degree was in my blood and I didn't think of it as snobbery. — L.P. Hartley

I have observed that in comedies the best actor plays the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the fine gentleman or hero. Thus it is in the farce of life. Wise men spend their time in mirth; it is only fools who are serious. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

What is merit? The opinion one man entertains of another. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

The time must come to all of us, who live long, when memory is more than prospect. An angler who has reached this stage and reviews the pleasure of life will be grateful and glad that he has been an angler, for he will look back on days radiant with happiness, peaks of enjoyment that are no less bright because they are lit in memory by the light of a setting sun. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature and Nature's God; that is, he follows God in his works and in his word. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Equality of opportunity is an equal opportunity to prove unequal talents. — David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel

Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war. — Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

From a most kind suggestion put to me by Mr Farraday himself one afternoon almost a fortnight ago, when I had been dusting the portraits in the library. In fact, as I recall, I was up on the step-ladder dusting the portrait of Viscount Wetherby — Anonymous

By the by," Stephen said, "what is the difference between a viscount and a stallion?"
Miss Marshall shook her head. "What is it?"
Stephen gave her a broad smile. "The first is a horse's arse. The second is an entire horse."
She buried her head in her hands. "No. You cannot distract me with terrible jokes. You are supposed to be looking up facts. Shoo!"
But Stephen didn't stop. "What's the difference between a marquess and a paperweight?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
"One of them can't do anything unless a servant helps it along. The other one holds down papers. — Courtney Milan

The aeroplane will never fly. — Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane

Indifference must be a crime in us, to be ranked but one degree below treachery; for deserting the commonwealth is next to betraying it. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Full lips are better for kissing. — Julia Quinn

I'm a rather useless insomniac viscount, but" - he gestured at Minerva - "my companion here is a brilliant geologist. There's a symposium, you see. We need to get to Edinburgh by tomorrow, so she can present her findings about giant lizards and possibly alter our understanding of the world's natural history. — Tessa Dare

You know the definition of the perfectly designed machine ... The perfectly designed machine is one in which all its working parts wear out simultaneously. I am that machine. — Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell

Two temptations that impair the value of their work inevitably beset public men who write memoirs. One is a tendency to reconstruct the past to suit the present views and feelings of the writer; the other is a natual desire to set his own part in affairs in a pleasing light. — Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey Of Fallodon

One could guess that there was the delicate forethought of a mother behind this choice of the pavillon for Albert: while not wanting to be separated from her son, she nevertheless realized that a young man of the viscount's age needed all his freedom. On the other hand, it must be said that one could also recognize in this the intelligent egoism of the young man, the son of wealthy parents, who enjoyed the benefits of a free and idle life, which was gilded for him like a birdcage. — Alexandre Dumas

I have lately obtained the opinion of a number of Chief Constables, who declare with almost complete unanimity that the recent great increase in juvenile delinquency is, to a considerable extent, due to demoralising cinematograph films. — Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

Be not over solicitous about education. It may be able to do much, but it does not do as much as expected from it. It may mould and direct the character, but it rarely alters it. — William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Wouldn't you be pleased if I decided I'm becoming too old for adventuring?"
Viscount Dare frowned. "You're not too old for it. But I'd like to think you're becoming too wise for it. — Suzanne Enoch

I just
I know my own heart and I love you, Turner. And if you have even the tiniest shred of decency, you'll say something because I've said everything I possibly can, and I can't bear the silence, and
oh for heaven's sake! Will you at least blink?
He couldn't even manage that. — Julia Quinn

Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

God himself, with reverence be it spoken, is not an absolute but a limited monarch, limited by the rule which infinite wisdom prescribes to infinite power. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Harold Wilson is a petty bourgeois and will remain so in spirit even if they make him a Viscount. — Neil Kinnock

Quite so, quite so," agreed the Viscount inconsistently, not from any want of intelligence but rather from the habit he had formed of naturally deferring to his wife's viewpoint, since she would listen to none but her own. — Rachel Carter

In youth, the absense of pleasure is pain, in old age, the absence of pain is pleasure. — Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth

It doesn't matter what we say , so long as we all say the same thing. — William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

The political spirit is the great force in throwing the love of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary place. — John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley Of Blackburn

Just like Love is yonder rose,
Heavenly fragrance round it throws,
Yet tears its dewy leaves disclose,
And in the midst of briars it blows
Just like Love. — Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford

The house of Lords must be the only institution in the world which is kept efficient by the persistent absenteeism of most of its members. — Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

Dirt is not dirty, but only something in the wrong place. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

She walked home', explained Sir Roland. 'We were walking home, weren't we? Very well, then. She walked home. Passed Lethbridge's house. Went in. Hit him on the head with the poker. Came out. Met us in the street. There you are. Plain as a pikestaff.'
'Well, I don't know,' said the Viscount. 'Seems queer to me. — Georgette Heyer

The confirmed prejudices of a thoughtful life are as hard to change as the confirmed habits of an indolent life; and as some must trifle away age because they trifled away youth, others must labor on in a maze of error because they have wandered there too long to find their way out. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

While I cannot be regarded as a pillar, I must be regarded as a buttress of the church, because I support it from outside. — William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

There are no bad regiments, there are only bad officers. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

You are too kind, my lady. Indeed, you are the most amiable Englishwoman I have ever met."
She laughed. The viscount was rapidly rising on her list. "Some people don't find me amiable." Like a certain unfeeling Bow Street Runner.
He struck a hand to his chest. "I cannot believe that! You are such an alma brilhante ... a bright soul. How can anyone not see it?"
She grinned at him. "They must all be blind."
"And deaf." He tapped his temple. "And not very right in the head."
"Excellent, my lord," she said. "Your grasped that idiom quite well."
He looked surprised by that, then smiled. "I have to learn if I am to impress the senhora."
She cast him a coy glance. "And why would you want to impress me, sir?"
Picking up her hand, he pressed a kiss to it again and this time didn't release it. "Why would I not?" His wistful expression tugged at her sympathies.
"You'd better eat your eggs before they get cold," she said, gently withdrawing her hand. — Sabrina Jeffries

A difficulty for every solution. — Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel

Now, part of the problem with the climate debate is that so much gas board language like that [the IPCC's language] has been used and there's been too little plain, scientific, and economic thinking. And so, the entire political class has been captured by an idea, which as always with the best bad ideas has a grain of truth in it, which is then exaggerated beyond all reason. This has happened before - one thinks of the Dreyfus case, for instance. — Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton Of Brenchley

Our liberty cannot be taken away unless the people are themselves accomplices. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Connected with my fable - that this was the very gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which my heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures. The influence of the viscount and viscountess in their brother's behalf was assisted by that right understanding of Mr. Morland's circumstances which, as soon as the general would allow himself to be informed, they were qualified to give. It taught him that he had been scarcely more misled by Thorpe's first boast of the family wealth than by his subsequent malicious overthrow of it; that — Jane Austen

As well as might we say that a ship is built, loaded and manned for the sake of any particular pilot, instead of acknowledging that the pilot is made for the sake of the ship, her lading, and her crew, who are always the owners in the political vessel; as to say that kingdoms were instituted for kings, not kings for kingdoms. — Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke