Harmless all malice, if our God be nigh;
Fruitless all pains, if he his help deny.
Patient I pass these gloomy hours away,
And wait the morning of eternal day! [ Lady Jane Dudley ]

Gold that buys health can never be ill spent.
Nor hours laid out in harmless merriment. [ John Webster ]

Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. [ Jesus ]

The bore is usually considered a harmless creature, or of that class of irrational bipeds who hurt only themselves. [ Maria Edgeworth ]

Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who, when he was chill, was harmless, but when warmth gave him strength, exerted it in poison. [ Johnson ]

If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind. [ Buddha ]

Harmless mirth is the best cordial against the consumption of the spirit; wherefore jesting is not unlawful, if it trespasseth not in quantity, quality or season. [ Fuller ]

In the use of the tongue God hath distinguished us from beasts, and by the well or ill using it we are distinguished from one another; and therefore, though silence be innocent as death, harmless as a rose's breath to a distant passenger, yet it is rather the state of death than life. [ Jeremy Taylor ]

There is a sort of harmless liars, frequently to be met with in company, who deal much in exaggeration; their usual intention is to please and entertain; but as men are most delighted with what they conceive to be truth, these people mistake the means of pleasing, and incur universal blame. [ Hume ]

Legitimately produced, and truly inspired, fiction interprets humanity, informs the understanding, and quickens the affections. It reflects ourselves, warns us against prevailing social follies, adds rich specimens to our cabinets of character, dramatizes life for the unimaginative, daguerreotypes it for the unobservant, multiplies experience for the isolated or inactive, and cheers age, retirement and invalidism with an available and harmless solace. [ Tuckerman ]