As accidental as my life may be, or as that random humor is, which governs it, I know nothing, after all, so real or substantial as myself

- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl Of Shaftesbury

All Politeness is owing to Liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this,…

- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl Of Shaftesbury

Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.

- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl Of Shaftesbury

Though painting borrows help indeed from colours... it has nothing more wide of its real aim or more remote from its intention than to make a show of…

- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl Of Shaftesbury