Clergyman's

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"

Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new.
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"

When these children are four years old, they shall be sent to the country workhouse and there taught to read two hours a day and kept fully employed the rest of their time in any of the manufactures of the house which best suits their age, strength and capacity. If it be objected that at these early years, they cannot be made useful, I reply that at four years of age there are sturdy employments in which children can earn their living; but besides, there is considerable use in their being, somehow or other, constantly employed at least twelve hours in a day, whether they earn a living or not; for by these means, we hope that the rising generation will be so habituated to constant employment that it would at length prove agreeable and entertaining to them...
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"

All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections towards all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave it shall see fit to take away.
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"

No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than declaration of war against Holland in 1672.
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
- "Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet"