O grant me, Heaven, a middle state,
Neither too humble nor too great;
More than enough, for nature’s ends,
With something left to treat my friends.
—David Mallet
True valor, on virtue founded strong, meets all events alike.
—David Mallet
I courted fame but as a spur to brave and honest deeds; who despises fame wil soon renounce the virtues that deserve it.
—David Mallet
Topics: Fame
Uncertainty ! fell demon of our fears! The human soul that can support despair, supports not thee.
—David Mallet
Topics: Uncertainty
Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew himself, or his own virtue.
—David Mallet
Topics: Adversity, Courage, Difficulties
A sovereign’s great example forms a people; the public breast is noble or vile as he inspires it.
—David Mallet
Bred in camps, trained in the gallant openness of truth that best becomes a soldier, thou art happily a stranger to the baseness and infamy of courts.
—David Mallet
Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue, where patience, honor, sweet humuily, and calm fortitude, take root and strongly flourish.
—David Mallet
The multitude unawed is insolent; once seized with fear, contemptible and vain.
—David Mallet
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Arthur Conan Doyle Scottish Writer
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) English Romantic Poet
Walter Scott Scottish Novelist
Robert Burns Scottish Poet, Songwriter
Thomas Carlyle Scottish Historian, Essayist
David Hume Scottish Philosopher, Historian
James Mill Scottish Philosopher
J. M. Barrie Scottish Novelist
Hugh Blair Scottish Minister, Scholar
Robert Louis Stevenson Scottish Novelist