There is properly no history, only biography. [ Emerson ]
Nothing is properly one's duty but what is also one's interest. [ Bishop Wilkins ]
Everything good in a man thrives best when properly recognized. [ J. G. Holland ]
Cant is properly a double-distilled lie, the second power of a lie. [ Carlyle ]
Man is properly an incarnated word; the word that he speaks is the man himself. [ Carlyle ]
As adversity lends us to think properly of our state, it is most beneficial to us. [ Johnson ]
He who boasts of his lineage boasts of that which does not properly belong to him. [ Seneca ]
Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time. [ Not traceable ]
Proverbs are for the most part rules of moral, or, still more properly, of prudential conduct. [ Brande ]
Humour is properly the exponent of low things; that which first renders them poetical to the mind. [ Carlyle ]
Friendship consists properly in mutual offices, and a generous strife in alternate acts of kindness. [ South ]
The age of curiosity, like that of chivalry, is ended, properly speaking, gone. Yet perhaps only gone to sleep. [ Carlyle ]
Those whom we call the ancients were in truth novices in all things, and properly constituted the infancy of mankind. [ Prescott ]
We speak of profane arts, but there are none properly such; every art is holy in itself; it is the son of Eternal Light. [ Tegner ]
Nor do they speak properly who say that time consumeth all things; for time is not effective, nor are bodies destroyed by it. [ Sir T. Browne ]
Having sown the seed of secrecy, it should be properly guarded and not in the least broken; for being broken, it will not prosper. [ Hitopadesa ]
To write well is at once to think well, to feel rightly, and to render properly; it is to have, at the same time, mind, soul, taste. [ Buffon ]
Ridicule has ever been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm, and properly the only antagonist that can be opposed to it with success. [ Goldsmith ]
Science is the knowledge of constant things, not merely of passing events, and is properly less the knowledge of general laws than of existing facts. [ John Ruskin ]
Libraries are the wardrobes of our literature, whence men, properly informed, might bring something for ornament, much for curiosity, and more for use. [ J. Dyer ]
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that it may be said to possess him. [ Bacon ]
Properly speaking, we learn from those books only that we cannot judge. The author of a book that I am competent to criticise would have to learn from me. [ Goethe ]
Pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expressions, and something of a neat cast of verse are properly the dress, gems, or loose ornaments of poetry. [ Pope ]
Life may as properly be called an art as any other, and the great incidents in it are no more to be considered as mere accidents than the severest members of a fine statue or a noble poem. [ Fielding ]
A good name is properly that reputation of virtue that every man may challenge as his right and due in the opinions of others, till he has made forfeit of it by the viciousness of his actions. [ South ]
It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor, - a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness. [ Whately ]
In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to their causes. [ George Washington ]
To a man who is uncorrupt and properly constituted, woman always remains something of a mystery and a romance. He never interprets her quite literally. She, on her part, is always striving to remain a poem, and is never weary of bringing out new editions of herself in novel bindings. [ James Parton ]
No one was ever the better for advice: in general, what we called giving advice was properly taking an occasion to show our own wisdom at another's expense; and to receive advice was little better than tamely to afford another the occasion of raising himself a character from our defects. [ Lord Shaftesbury ]
The first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what grammar is in literature, - a general preparation for whatever species of the art the student may afterwards choose for his more particular application. The power of drawing, modelling, and using colors is very properly called the language of the art. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]
Ridicule intrinsically is a small faculty; we may say, the smallest of all faculties that other men are at the pains to repay with any esteem. It is directly opposed to thought, to knowledge, properly so called; its nourishment and essence is denial, which hovers on the surface, while knowledge dwells far below. [ Carlyle ]
Necessary or Essential? Necessary signifies not to be departed from, and is a general and an indefinite term. The essential contains that essence or property which cannot be omitted. It is necessary for men to die. Exercise is essential to the preservation of health. There is an essential difference between gold and silver. Here we could not properly use necessary for essential. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]
As monarchs have a right to call in the specie of a state, and raise its value, by their own impression; so are there certain prerogative geniuses, who are above plagiaries, who cannot be said to steal, but, from their improvement of a thought, rather to borrow it, and repay the commonwealth of letters with interest again; and may more properly be said to adopt, than to kidnap a sentiment, by leaving it heir to their own fame. [ Sterne ]