~Architecture.~--Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the
edifices raised by man, for whatsoever uses, that the sight of them may
contribute to his mental health, power, and pleasure.--_Ruskin._
~Argument.~--There is no arguing with Johnson; for if his pistol misses
fire he knocks you down with the butt end of it.--_Goldsmith._
Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are
most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more
difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a
sword.--_Bishop Whately._
Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which
he is not entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning,
and are impressed by character; so that if you allow your adversary a
respectable character, they will think that, though you differ from him,
you may be in the wrong. Treating your adversary with respect is
striking soft in a battle.--_Johnson._
The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head
than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall
with equal velocity in a vacuum.--_Colton._
An ill argument introduced with deference will procure more credit than
the profoundest science with a rough, insolent, and noisy
management.--_Locke._
One may say, generally, that no deeply rooted tendency was ever
extirpated by adverse argument. Not having originally been founded on
argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic.--_G. H. Lewes._
A reason is often good, not because it is conclusive, but because it is
dramatic,--because it has the stamp of him who urges it, and is drawn
from his own resources. For there are arguments _ex homine_ as well as
_ad hominem_.--_Joubert._
If I were to deliver up my whole self to the arbitrament of special
pleaders, to-day I might be argued into an atheist, and to-morrow into a
pickpocket.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
~Aristocracy.~--And lords, whose parents were the Lord knows who.--_De
Foe._
What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it
runs back to a successful soldier?--_Walter Scott._
If in an aristocracy the people be virtuous, they will enjoy very nearly
the same happiness as in a popular government, and the state will become
powerful.--_Montesquieu._
An aristocracy is the true, the only support of a monarchy. Without it
the State is a vessel without a rudder--a balloon in the air. A true
aristocracy, however, must be ancient. Therein consists its real
force,--its talismanic charm.--_Napoleon._
I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world,
ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled
to be ridden.--_Richard Rumbold._
~Armor.~--The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.--_Lord Bacon._
Our armor all is strong, our cause the best; then reason wills our
hearts should be as good.--_Shakespeare._
~Art.~--Rules may teach us not to raise the arms above the head; but if
passion carries them, it will be well done: passion knows more than
art.--_Baron._
It is a great mortification to the vanity of man that his utmost art and
industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for
beauty or value. Art is only the underworkman, and is employed to give a
few strokes of embellishment to those pieces which come from the hand of
the master.--_Hume._
The mission of art is to represent nature; not to imitate her.--_W. M.
Hunt._
True art is not the caprice of this or that individual, it is a solemn
page either of history or prophecy; and when, as always in Dante and
occasionally in Byron, it combines and harmonizes this double mission,
it reaches the highest summit of power.--_Mazzini._
Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the
former has made us men.--_Schiller._
Art does not imitate nature, but it founds itself on the study of
nature--takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own
intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess,
namely, the mind and the soul of man.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
The mother of useful arts is necessity; that of the fine arts is
luxury.--_Schopenhaufer._
He who seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius, as he
must needs paint for other minds and not for his own.--_Washington
Allston._