The greatest attribute of Heaven is mercy. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]
Pardon, not wrath, is God's best attribute. [ Bayard Taylor ]
Cruelty is the first attribute of the devil. [ Proverb ]
Novelty is an essential attribute of the beautiful. [ Beaconsfield ]
A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. [ Lowell ]
Revenge, the attribute of gods! they stamped it with their great image on our natures. [ Otway ]
Good Heaven, whose darling attribute we find is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind, abhors the cruel. [ Dryden ]
As to be perfectly just is an attribute of the Divine nature, to be so to the utmost of our abilities is the glory of man. [ Addison ]
The pride of the heart is the attribute of honest men; pride of manners is that of fools; the pride of birth and rank is often the pride of dupes. [ Duclos ]
When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials: when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things. [ Shenstone ]
Ask men of genius how much they owe to their mothers, and you will find that they attribute almost all to them and their influence; and if we could only guage the mental capacity of the wives of great men, we might perhaps learn why genius is so seldom hereditary. [ Lord Kames ]
Wealth brings noble opportunities, and competence is a proper object of pursuit; but wealth, and even competence, may be bought at too high a price. Wealth itself has no moral attribute. It is not money, but the love of money, which is the root of all evil. It is the relation between wealth and the mind and the character of its possessor which is the essential thing. [ Hillard ]
The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it. But we cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for; that task is left to others. With the desire for excellence comes, therefore, the desire for approbation. And this distinguishes intellectual excellence from moral excellence; for the latter has no necessity of human tribunal; it is more inclined to shrink from the public than to invite the public to be its judge. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]