Whately Quotes & Sayings

Dementia is often regarded as an embarrassing condition that should be hushed up and not spoken about. But I feel passionately that more needs to be done to raise awareness, which is why I became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society. — Kevin Whately

It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary. — Richard Whately

The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the love of commendation; but, on the other hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our: good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive. — Richard Whately

With something like cancer, there is a feeling that you can fight it in some way or control your response to it, but with dementia there is the fear of losing control of your mind and your life. — Kevin Whately

I don't like two-dimensional characters who are obviously villains from the moment they walk on stage. — Kevin Whately

Neither human applause nor human censure is to be taken as the best of truth; but either should set us upon testing ourselves. — Richard Whately

The rendering of my thoughts, emotions, and experiences is part comedy and part tragedy as well as history, for life is such a mingling. — Karen Harper

Falsehood, like poison, will generally be rejected when administered alone; but when blended with wholesome ingredients may be swallowed unperceived. — Richard Whately

Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved. — Richard Whately

I wanted to be a stage actor but I got stuck on television. It took a couple of years to get used to. — Kevin Whately

You get pigeonholed. Some people are film stars, and some are theatre stars who do one-off telly. Somehow, I get into long-running series. — Kevin Whately

I honestly don't think I sought fame. It wasn't something I courted or wanted, particularly. — Kevin Whately

It is an awful, an appalling thought, that we may be, this moment and every moment, in the presence of malignant spirits. — Richard Whately

It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them; but on the contrary, men have dived for them because they fetch a high price. — Richard Whately

Grace is in a great measure a natural gift; elegance implies cultivation; or something of more artificial character. A rustic, uneducated girl may be graceful, but an elegant woman must be accomplished and well trained. It is the same with things as with persons; we talk of a graceful tree, but of an elegant house or other building. Animals may be graceful, but they cannot be elegant. The movements of a kitten or a young fawn are full of grace; but to call them "elegant" animals would be absurd. — Richard Whately

I hate anything with 'celebrity' in the title, where people are playing to the cameras all the time. — Kevin Whately

I read the papers like everybody else, so I don't complain about what they print. — Kevin Whately

Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it divides itself into two; first, whether Oratorical skill be, on the whole, a public benefit, or evil; and secondly, whether any artificial system of Rules is conducive to the attainment of that skill. — Richard Whately

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it. — Richard Whately

I catch an old 'Morse' on ITV3. I've never thought I looked particularly like my son. He's taller than me and blond. But when I see Lewis walk into a room with John Thaw, it's like my son has just come onto the screen. That's very strange indeed! — Kevin Whately

Persecution is not wrong because it is cruel; but it is cruel because it is wrong. — Richard Whately

As the telescope is not a substitute for, but an aid to, our sight, so revelation is not designed to supersede the use of reason, but to supply its deficiencies. — Richard Whately

Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument. — Richard Whately

Great affectation and great absence of it are at first sight very similar. — Richard Whately

Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves. — Richard Whately

Knowledge of our duties is the most useful part of philosophy. — Richard Whately

One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business. — Richard Whately

Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man. — Richard Whately

I suppose it's a sentimental thing, but I wouldn't want to do more 'Lewis' than we did 'Morse' because I do still think of it as an offshoot. — Kevin Whately

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?' — Richard Whately

Oxford is a funny place, as it is a mixture of town and gown. You have the students at the main university and at Oxford Brookes, but there is also a big working-class community. — Kevin Whately

Especially look to those sins to which your crosses have some reference and respect. Are you crossed in your goods? Think if you did not over-love them and get them unjustly, or if in your children, see if you did not over-love them and cocker them, and so in all things of like kind. In what God smites vou, see if you have not in that sinned against Him, and so frame to lament your sins and to seek help against them. — William Whately

In TV, you just have to decide the night before exactly how you're going to say it and stick with that. You can't kick it around; you haven't got time. — Kevin Whately

I initially thought 'Lewis' was a terrible idea. The character had very much been Morse's work donkey and sounding board. But I was persuaded to do it, thinking if it was a flop, at least ITV would stop asking me. But the pilot took off, so we got back on this moving train, and we've never looked back. — Kevin Whately

Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers; who, however, seem not so much to have disagreed in their conceptions of the nature of the same thing, as to have had different things in view while they employed the same term. — Richard Whately

All gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at the expense of another, involves a breach of the tenth commandment. — Richard Whately

It always staggers me when series don't use their sidekicks. — Kevin Whately

A certain class of novels may with propriety be called fables. — Richard Whately

Sophistry, like poison, is at once detected and nauseated, when presented to us in a concentrated form; but a fallacy which, when stated barely in a few sentences, would not deceive a child, may deceive half the world, if diluted in a quarto volume. — Richard Whately

People are very appreciative, and I'm always thrilled at how long the 'Morse' films have lasted. They seem to have an afterlife that goes on and on for decades, which is touching. — Kevin Whately

Let's just say I've never relied on my looks to make a living. — Kevin Whately

With all the lines I have to learn for TV scripts, I don't think I have any problems with forgetfulness - that's brain exercise enough for me. — Kevin Whately

When a man says he wants to work, what he means is that he wants wages. — Richard Whately

Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. When the materials of a building are solid blocks of stone, very rude architecture will suffice; but a structure of rotten materials needs the most careful adjustment to make it stand at all. — Richard Whately

Man, considered not merely as an organized being, but as a rational agent and a member of society, is perhaps the most wonderfully contrived, and to us the most interesting specimen of Divine wisdom that we have any knowledge of. — Richard Whately

Women never reason, or, if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises; and they always poke the fire from the top. — Richard Whately

I feel very at home in woodlands and could easily live there. I should have been one of Robin Hood's men. — Kevin Whately

It is generally true that all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe God for any blessing is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly. — Richard Whately

You just suddenly think that there's something quite childish about acting. Basically, it's pretending, isn't it? It's good fun and I enjoy it, but it's a funny way of making a living, particularly when you make a very good wage, as I've been fortunate enough to do. — Kevin Whately

Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well-established authors. — Richard Whately

The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction. — Richard Whately

Eloquence is relative. One can no more pronounce on the eloquence of any composition than the wholesomeness of a medicine, without knowing for whom it is intended. — Richard Whately

Being a grandparent is whole new phase in your life. — Kevin Whately

He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion. — Richard Whately

An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads. — Richard Whately

Better too much form than too little. — Richard Whately

A man will never change his mind if he have no mind to change. — Richard Whately

As a science, logic institutes an analysis of the process of the mind in reasoning, and investigating the principles on which argumentation is conducted; as an art, it furnishes such rules as may be derived from those principles, for guarding against erroneous deductions. — Richard Whately

The attendant on William Rufus, who discharged at a deer an arrow, which glanced against a tree and killed the king, was no murderer, because he had no such design. And, on the other hand, a man who should lie in wait to assassinate another, and pull the trigger of a gun with that intent, would be morally a murderer, not the less though the gun should chance to miss fire. — Richard Whately

I'm not interested in more money for the sake of it. — Kevin Whately

You're very aware in the theater by the response you get, but not so much on television, obviously. — Kevin Whately

I've been going to Bamburgh for holidays since I was a child. — Kevin Whately

No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar.. — Richard Whately

I'm very good at being out of work. — Kevin Whately

A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's. — Richard Whately

He who is unaware of his ignorance will only be misled by his knowledge. — Richard Whately

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself. — Richard Whately

Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth. — Richard Whately

Party spirit enlists a man's virtues in the cause of his vices. — Richard Whately

Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know how the world could go on. — Richard Whately

As the flower is before the fruit, so is faith before good works. — Richard Whately

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do. — Richard Whately

I'm the captain of the Variety Club over in England, and so I'm playing golf for them once a week but doing odd bits. — Kevin Whately

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it. — Richard Whately

Being in Oxford can be a bit like being on holiday - there's plenty of time spent in the pub. — Kevin Whately

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air. — Richard Whately

As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally forgotten, to form the character. — Richard Whately

Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest. — Richard Whately

Before my mother's diagnosis with Alzheimer's, I had heard of the disease, but hadn't known anyone who had suffered from it. — Kevin Whately

With your own children, you love them immediately - and with grandchildren, it's exactly the same. — Kevin Whately

If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed. — Richard Whately

Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil. — Richard Whately

To teach one who has no curiosity to learn, is to sow a field without ploughing it. — Richard Whately

When any person of really eminent virtue becomes the object of envy, the clamor and abuse by which he is assailed is but the sign and accompaniment of his success in doing service to the public. And if he is a truly wise man, he will take no more notice of it than the moon does of the howling of the dogs. Her only answer to them is to shine on. — Richard Whately

There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil. — Richard Whately

The depreciation of Christianity by indifference is a more insidious and less curable evil than infidelity itself. — Richard Whately

Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected. — Richard Whately

All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar ... always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support. — Richard Whately

Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don't go over my lines or try to solve the world's problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife. — Kevin Whately

Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience only in the same sense in which a coachman may be said to follow the horses he is driving. — Richard Whately

Do you want to know the man against whom you have most reason to guard yourself? Your looking-glass will give you a very fair likeness of his face. — Richard Whately

The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity. — Richard Whately

I love taking the boat to the Farne Islands, a few miles offshore. It has a National Trust bird sanctuary with seals and every sort of seabird you can imagine. — Kevin Whately

When you meet with crosses and calamities, say, "Now I see God's justice and God's truth; now I see the hatefulness and hurtfulness of sin; and therefore now I will mourn, not because I am crossed, but because I have deserved this cross, and a worse too." — William Whately

Man is naturally more desirous of a quiet and approving, than of a vigilant and tender conscience
more desirous of security than of safety. — Richard Whately

I still remember going to a smart restaurant in Los Angeles, and the maitre d' knew my name and showed me straight to a table even though we hadn't booked. I get stopped for autographs by people from Sweden on the tops of mountains. — Kevin Whately

He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge. — Richard Whately

Christianity, contrasted with the Jewish system of emblems, is truth in the sense of reality, as substance is opposed to shadows, and, contrasted with heathen mythology, is truth as opposed to falsehood. — Richard Whately

You can see some very great theatre actors who don't work at all well on screen. They're trying too hard at it. — Kevin Whately

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed; we see the most indistinctly the objects which are close around us. — Richard Whately