Quotes from William Temple

The best rules to form a young man are: to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.

There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of conferring them on others.

Man's wisdom is his best friend; folly his worst enemy.

You may keep your beauty and your health, unless you destroy them yourself, or discourage them to stay with you, by using them ill.

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they passed.

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.

The greatest medicine is a true friend.