Top 100 Quotes About Prudence
#1. [Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed.
Nicolas Chamfort
#2. You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.
Luc De Clapiers
#5. In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.
Horace
#6. What does he know of the force that drives the utmost strangers into each other's arms, making them kin, kind, beyond all prudence?
J.M. Coetzee
#8. What the Depression teaches us is that when the economy is so depressed that even a zero interest rate isn't low enough, you have to put conventional notions of prudence and sound policy aside.
Paul Krugman
#9. Does what happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness? Nope. Then get back to work! Subconsciously, we should be constantly asking ourselves this question: Do I need to freak out about this?
Ryan Holiday
#10. I said that this would be a Budget based on prudence for a purpose and that guides us also in our approach to public spending.
Gordon Brown
#11. 35 There are many pretty terms I don't like: you call cowardice "prudence." Your "prudence" gives an opportunity to those enemies of God, without any ideas in their heads, to pass themselves off as scholars, and so reach positions that they never should attain.
Josemaria Escriva
#12. Life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed.
George Washington
#13. I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.
Molly Ivins
#14. But by marriages of prudence we mean those in which both parties have sown their wild oats already. That's like scarlatina - one has to go through it and get it over.
Leo Tolstoy
#15. Painting or poetry is made as one makes love - a total embrace, prudence thrown to the winds, nothing held back.
Joan Miro
#17. A prince ... is only the first servant of the state, who is obliged to act with probity and prudence. ... As the sovereign is properly the head of a family of citizens, the father of his people, he ought on all occasions to be the last refuge of the unfortunate.
Frederick The Great
#18. I have the consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
George Washington
#19. Prudence is not hesitation, procrastination, or moderation. It is not driving in the middle of the road. It is not the way of ambivalence, indecision, or safety.
John Ortberg
#20. The virtuous woman flees from danger; she trusts more to her prudence in shunning it than in her strength to overcome it.
Jean Antoine Petit-Senn
#21. I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth; 'tis like ivy round a sapling, and spoils the growth of the tree.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
#23. What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.
Adam Smith
#24. Philanthropic humility is necessary if a giver is to do more good than harm, but it is not sufficient - philanthropic prudence is also needed.
Marvin Olasky
#25. Much was to be done by prudence, much by conciliation, much by firmness.
George Washington
#26. But yet they that have no Science , are in better, and nobler condition with their naturall Prudence; than men, that by their mis-reasoning, or by trusting them that reason wrong, fall upon false and absurd generall rules.
Thomas Hobbes
#27. It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.
Marcus Aurelius
#29. Patience is as important as prelude & love-play for a woman and prudence is as important as sexual union for a man.
Anyaele Sam Chiyson
#30. Prudence was waiting for us when we arrived, and I saw her visibly wince as I pulled the Fiesta into the parking space beside her Lexus, like an automotive version of Lady in the Tramp.
M.L. Brennan
#31. When depression economics prevails, the usual rules of economic policy no longer apply: virtue becomes vice, caution is risky and prudence is folly.
Paul Krugman
#32. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence.
Khaled Hosseini
#34. Those that earn serendipity see what others don't, do what others won't and keep pushing when prudence says quit.
Glenn Llopis
#35. Prudence therefore consists in knowing how to distinguish degrees of disadvantage,
Niccolo Machiavelli
#36. Wisdom or intelligence and prudence are intellectual, liberality and temperance are moral virtues.
Aristotle.
#37. Few things in this world more trouble people than poverty, or the fear of poverty; and, indeed, it is a sore affliction; but, like all other ills that flesh is heir to, it has its antidote, its reliable remedy. The judicious application of industry, prudence and temperance is a certain cure.
Hosea Ballou
#38. Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.
Francesco Guicciardini
#39. I think that the principle of the Conservative Party is jealousy of liberty and of the people , only qualified by fear ; but I think the principle of the Liberal Party is trust in the people, only qualified by prudence .
William E. Gladstone
#40. There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
Samuel Johnson
#41. I know few significant questions of public policy which can safely be confided to computers. In the end, the hard decisions inescapably involve imponderables of intuition, prudence, and judgment.
John F. Kennedy
#42. Many a man wins glory for prudence by seeking advice, then seeking advice as to what advice would be best to take, and finally following appetite.
Austin O'Malley
#43. Ah, how true it is that we love ourselves too much and proceed with too much human prudence, that we may not lose an atom of our consideration! Oh, what a great mistake that is! The Saints did not act thus.
Teresa Of Avila
#44. All the other virtues, and the living of a virtuous life, depend on them. If you took an introductory philosophy course in college, they were probably translated from the Greek as courage, justice, temperance, and prudence.
Charles Murray
#45. Hear the words of prudence, give heed unto her counsels, and store them in thine heart; her maxims are universal, and all the virtues lean upon her; she is the guide and the mistress of human life.
Akhenaton
#46. She had uttered these words simply in order to provoke a reply in certain other words, which she seemed, indeed, to wish to hear spoken, but, from prudence, would let her friend be the first to speak.
Marcel Proust
#48. Virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.
Aristotle.
#49. I contrive,"' said Prudence softly. 'Do you know, sir, you puzzle me.' 'It has ever been my motto,' the old gentleman pointed out triumphantly.
Georgette Heyer
#50. Selfish prudence is too often allowed to come between duty and human life.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
#51. Love is involuntary. It does not often run in a yoke with prudence.
Anthony Trollope
#52. Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#53. Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.
Jonathan Swift
#54. Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.
John Milton
#55. Idealism is one of the greatest forces in the world. It makes seeming impossibilities possible and succeeds where prudence fails. But unless the idealist is brave and has the courage to face the truth, his idealism creates nothing.
Grenville Kleiser
#56. Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise.
Charles Horton Cooley
#57. We ought at least, from prudence, never to speak of ourselves, because that is a subject on which we may be sure that other people's views are never in accordance with our own.
Marcel Proust
#58. Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by incapacity.
William Blake
#59. The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win.
Mason Cooley
#60. ...[T]o be unfaithful to my maxim of prudence may often be very advantageous to me, although to abide by it is certainly safer.
Immanuel Kant
#61. The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.
Edmund Burke
#62. Make sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be hateful; make prudence a habit, and reckless profligacy will be as contrary to the nature of the child, grown or adult, as the most atrocious crimes, are to any of us.
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham And Vaux
#63. It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.
Napoleon Bonaparte
#64. Now there are five matters to which a general must pay strict heed. The first of these is administration; the second, preparedness; the third, determination; the fourth, prudence; and the fifth, economy.
Wu Ta-ch'i
#65. I mention this only to shew that the citations of the most judicious authors frequently deceive us, and consequently that prudence obliges us to examine quotations, by whomsoever alleged.
Pierre Bayle
#66. There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution but of fear.
Edmund Burke
#67. The limits of prudence: one cannot jump out of a burning building gradually.
Mason Cooley
#68. A moral vision must be balanced by the realist dimension of prudence to have a reasonable prospect of success.
Joseph S. Nye Jr.
#69. We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.
Robert E.Lee
#70. Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.
William Ewart Gladstone
#71. Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.
Edmund Burke
#72. Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.
Clara Barton
#73. Aquinas called prudence the queen of virtues, saying that she gently guides all the rest.
Jonathan V. Last
#74. Magnanimity will not consider the prudence of its motives.
Luc De Clapiers
#75. When those we love are in question, our prudence invents every sort of madness.
Victor Hugo
#77. Every year that I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well. - Mary Cholmondeley
Robin S. Sharma
#78. And, as a general rule, it is more advisable to show your intelligence by saying nothing than by speaking out; for silence is a matter of prudence whilst speech has something in it of vanity
Arthur Schopenhauer
#79. Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude; not to be allured by enticements is temperance; not to be diverted by pride is justice.
Francis Quarles
#80. [T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all ... are essential to the well-being of a family.
Samuel Adams
#81. It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.
Nicolas Chamfort
#82. You thank God [for your salvation] because you do not attribute your repenting and believing to your own wisdom, or prudence, or sound judgment, or good sense.
J.I. Packer
#83. As there are none so weak that we may venture to injure them with impunity, so there are none so low that they may not at some time be able to repay an obligation. Therefore, what benevolence would dictate, prudence would confirm.
Charles Caleb Colton
#85. It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.
Samuel Johnson
#86. Let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old. Otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had the power to enjoy, had not the prudence to acquire; and when they had the prudence to acquire, had no longer the power to enjoy.
Charles Caleb Colton
#87. For today the petty people have become lord and master: they all preach submission and acquiescence and prudence and diligence and consideration and the long et cetera of petty virtues.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#88. It is a common thing for men to benumb their own arms, and make them as dead and useless by leaning too much upon them: so it is in a moral as well as a natural way: all the prudence and pains in the world avail nothing without God. So saith the Psalmist, in Psalm cxxvii. 2.
John Flavel
#89. If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify us in speaking our thoughts.
Edmund Burke
#90. Embellish the soul with simplicity, with prudence, and everything which is neither virtuous nor vicious. Love all men. Walk according to God; for, as a poet hath said, his laws govern all.
Marcus Aurelius
#91. Men with common minds seldom break through general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness; and they rarely go as far as as they may in any undertaking, who are determined not to go beyond it on any account.
Mary Wollstonecraft
#92. Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.
Samuel Johnson
#93. T happens in all human affairs that we never seek to escape one mischief without falling into another. Prudence therefore consists in knowing how to distinguish degrees of disadvantage, and in accepting a less evil as a good.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#94. Self-denial is not a virtue; it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.
George Bernard Shaw
#95. Pray, what's the nature of his trouble?" Prudence asked solicitously.
"Oh, cursed bad news, my boy. That old aunt of his from whom he has expectations has rallied, and they say she'll last another ten years. Poor old Devereux, y'know! Must try and raise his spirits.
Georgette Heyer
#96. Prudence must not be expected from a man who is never sober.
[Lat., Non est ab homine nunquam sobrio postulanda prudentia.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#97. In merest prudence men should teach ...
That science ranks as monstrous things
Two pairs of upper limbs; so wings
E'en Angel's wings!
are fictions.
Henry Austin Dobson
#98. But after this natural burst of indignation, no man of sense, courage, or prudence will waste his time or his strength in retrospective reproaches or repinings.
Robert Peel
#99. No cold prudence for me. I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it." The
Jane Austen
#100. The bounds of a man's knowledge are easily concealed, if he has but prudence.
Oliver Goldsmith
