Hugh Blair

Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a stranger to cheerfulness.

Character | Cheerfulness | Distinction | Mind |

François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

Age | Folly | Men | Old age | Old |

Harriet Martineau

Must love be ever treated with profaneness as a mere illusion? or with coarseness as a mere impulse? or with fear as a mere disease? or with shame as a mere weakness? or with levity as a mere accident? whereas it is a great mystery and a great necessity, lying at the foundation of human existence, morality, and happiness - mysterious, universal, inevitable as death.

Accident | Death | Disease | Existence | Fear | Illusion | Impulse | Inevitable | Love | Lying | Morality | Mystery | Necessity | Shame | Weakness | Happiness |

Joseph Joubert

There is always some levity even in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, and also to stray.

Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron

Too much levity lessens respect.

Respect |

Talmud or The Talmud NULL

The Divine Presence does not dwell in the midst of idleness, sadness, jocularity, levity or idle chatter, but rather in the joy derived from a virtuous deed.

Idleness | Joy | Sadness |

Martin Tupper, fully Martin Farquhar Tupper

Better to read a little with thought, than much with levity and quickness.

Little |

Ted Sorensen, fully Theodore Chalkin "Ted" Sorensen

I approached each speech draft as if it might someday appear under Kennedy's name in a collection of the world's great speeches.

Charity | Good | Praise | Worth | Brevity |

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day it appears as the struggle of freemen to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth.

Existence | Experience | God | Life | Life | Ridicule | Trust | God |

Hugh Blair

By indulging this fretful temper you alienate those on whose affection much of your comfort depends.

Cheerfulness | Dignity | Enjoyment | Folly | Joy | Mind | Mirth | Pleasure | Religion | Spirit | Struggle | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | World | Happiness |

William Law

When a right knowledge of ourselves enters into our minds, it makes as great a change in all our thoughts and apprehensions as when we awake from the wanderings of a dream.

Soul |