Robert Southey Quotes

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

There's only a handful of people I trust completely, and I know who they are. Other than that, I pretty much don't trust people.

No trusting without testing

No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted.

Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

A man ought never to trust another mans evaluation of a third mans disposition.

Sometimes I think he’s the kind of friend that grownups call a ‘fair-weather friend.’ That means when everything’s going smoothly, he’s the best friend a guy could want. But as soon as something goes wrong…(he) sort of turns on you.

A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.

Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to be had in them; and hold fast to God, Who does not change.

There is less misery in being cheated than in that kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind are cheats.

Everything I ever said to you was true and is true.

One fool will deny more truth in half an hour than a wise man can prove in seven years.

That we have but little faith is not sad, but that we have little faithfulness. By faithfulness faith is earned.

Work for god, love god alone, and be wise with god. When an ordinary man puts the necessary rime and enthusiasm into meditation and prayer, he becomes a divine man.

Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.

Don't let a man put anything over on you except an umbrella.

He will have to learn, I know, that all people are not just- that all men and women are not true. Teach him that for every scoundrel there is a hero that for every enemy there is a friend. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest people to lick.

How can Benedict Arnold be reliable in what he says?

I like dogs better [than people]. They give you unconditional love. They either lick your face or bite you, but you always know where they're coming from. With people, you never know which ones will bite. The difference between dogs and men is that you know where dogs sleep at night.

Everything Jack says is to be taken with considerable reserve.

The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be... The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough.

Never is a promise, and you can't afford to lie.

In living through this great epoch, it is difficult to reconcile oneself to the fact that one belongs to that mad, degenerate species that boasts of its free will. How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will. In such a place even I should be an ardent patriot!