Love is superior to genius. [ A. de Musset ]
Refinement is superior to beauty. [ Lascaris ]
A spirit superior to every weapon. [ Ovid ]
The object of the superior man is truth. [ Confucius ]
Many books,
Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
Uncertain and unsettled still remains -
Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself. [ Milton ]
The immortal mind, superior to his fate.
Amid the outrage of external things,
Firm as the solid base of this great world.
Rests on his own foundation. Blow, ye winds!
Ye waves! ye thunders! roll your tempests on!
Shake, ye old pillars of the marble sky!
Till at its orbs and all its worlds of fire
Be loosen'd from their seats; yet still serene,
The unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck;
And ever stronger as the storms advance,
Firm through the closing ruin holds his way,
When nature calls him to the destined goal. [ Akenside ]
Woman, once made equal to man, becometh his superior. [ Socrates ]
When you obey your superior you instruct your inferior. [ Proverb ]
The education of circumstances is superior to that of tuition. [ Wordsworth ]
He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it. [ Karl Von Knebel ]
Taste is something quite different from fashion, superior to fashion. [ Thackeray ]
It is a great art to be superior to others without letting them know it. [ H. W. Shaw ]
May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune. [ Shenstone ]
The superior man wishes to be slow in his words and earnest in his conduct. [ Confucius ]
Grace is a light superior to Nature, which should direct and preside over it. [ Thomas à Kempis ]
The weak have remedies, the wise have joys: superior wisdom is superior bliss. [ Young ]
Travel improves superior wine and spoils the poor; it is the same with the brain.
For the qualities of sheer wit and humor. Swift had no superior, ancient or modern. [ Leigh Hunt ]
We do not commonly find men of superior sense amongst those of the highest fortune. [ Juvenal ]
A woman whose ruling passion is not vanity is superior to any man of equal capacity. [ Lavater ]
Will no superior genius snatch the quill, and save me on the brink from writing ill? [ Young ]
In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior. [ Proverb ]
Superior strength is found in the long-run to lie with those who had the right on their side. [ Froude ]
In taking revenge a man is but equal to his enemy, but in passing it over he is his superior. [ Bacon ]
A freeman contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth. [ George Washington ]
That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own. [ Swift ]
There is in things a resistance superior to ideas, but for which the world would not exist six months. [ Lamennais ]
It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated but by his equal or superior. [ Ruskin ]
I have often thought that the nature of women was inferior to that of men in general, but superior in particular. [ Greville ]
All duties are matter of conscience, with this restriction that a superior obligation suspends the force of an inferior one. [ L'Estrange ]
You may fail to shine, in the opinion of others, both in your conversation and actions, from being superior, as well as inferior to them. [ Greville ]
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds; and these invaluable communications are within the reach of all. [ Mme. de Genlis ]
The way of the superior man is threefold - virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear. [ Confucius ]
Men who marry wives very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives as they are unawares made slaves to their position. [ Plutarch ]
Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to commonsense, and in lending one's self to the universal delusion without becoming its dupe. [ Amiel ]
It is a general rule, one at least to which I know no exceptions, that all superior men inherit the elements of their superiority from their mothers. [ Michelet ]
A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury: for he has it then in his power to make himself his superior to the other by forgiveness. [ Drummond ]
To have neither superior, nor inferior, nor equal, united manlike to you; without father, without child, without brother, - man knows no sadder destiny. [ Carlyle ]
The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. He has his faults, and all men see them; he changes, and all men look up to him. [ Confucius ]
All these are elements of happiness - love of nature, acquaintance with the wide earth, congenial intercourse with superior minds, and abiding friendships. [ Charles W. Eliot ]
Qualities of a too superior order render a man less adapted to society. One does not go to market with big lumps of gold; one goes with silver or small change. [ Chamfort ]
Among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior. [ Plutarch ]
The diamond is more valuable than any other stone, and vastly superior to all others in lustre and beauty; as also in hardness, which renders it more durable and lasting. [ Woodward ]
Superior powers of mind and profound study are of no use if they do not sometimes lead a person to different conclusions from those which are formed by ordinary powers of mind without study. [ J. S. Mill ]
People seem to think themselves in some ways superior to heaven itself, when they complain of the sorrow and want round about them. And yet it is not the devil for certain who puts pity into their hearts. [ Anne Isabella Thackeray ]
He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior understanding he unites with. [ Burke ]
A poet of superior merit, whose vein is of no vulgar kind, who never winds off anything trite, nor coins a trivial poem at the public mint, I cannot describe, but only recognise as a man whose soul is free from all anxiety. [ Juv ]
If a superior woman marry a vulgar or inferior man, he makes her miserable, but seldom governs her mind or vulgarizes her nature; and if there be love on his side, the chances are that in the end she will elevate and refine him. [ Mrs. Jameson ]
I would rather be the author of one original thought than conqueror of a hundred battles. Yet moral excellence is so much superior to intellectual, that I ought to esteem one virtue more valuable than a hundred original thoughts. [ W. B. Clulow ]
Boasting and bravado may exist in the breast even of the coward, if he is successful through a mere lucky hit: but a just contempt of an enemy can alone arise in those who feel that they are superior to their opponent by the prudence of their measures. [ Thucydides ]
Fetch a spray from the wood and place it on your mantel-shelf, and your household ornaments will seem plebeian beside its nobler fashion and bearing. It will wave superior there, as if used to a more refined and polished circle. It has a salute and response to all your enthusiasm and heroism. [ Thoreau ]
Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gesture or quick movement inspires involuntary disrespect. One looks for a moment at a cascade; but one sits for hours, lost in thought, and gazing upon the still water of a lake. A deliberate gale, gentle manners, and a gracious tone of voice - all of which may be acquired - give a mediocre man an immense advantage over those vastly superior to him. To be bodily tranquil, to speak little, and to digest without effort are absolutely necessary to grandeur of mind or of presence, or to proper development of genius. [ Balzac ]
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their soul into ours. God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers; they give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live. [ W. E. Channing ]