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Anne Brontë

There is always a ‘but’ in this imperfect world.

Helen Graham, a character in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXII: ‘Traits of Friendship,’ by Anne Brontë (writing as Acton Bell)

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David Hume

Disputes with men, pertinaciously obstinate in their principles, are, of all others, the most irksome; except, perhaps, those with persons, entirely disingenuous, who really do not believe the opinions they defend, but engage in the controversy, from affectation, from a spirit of opposition, or from a desire of showing wit and ingenuity, superior to the rest of mankind. The same blind adherence to their own arguments is to be expected in both; the same contempt of their antagonists; and the same passionate vehemence, in inforcing sophistry and falsehood. And as reasoning is not the source, whence either disputant derives his tenets; it is in vain to expect, that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.

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Joseph Addison

The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader’s eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.

Joseph Addison, The Tatler (1711-1714), No. 224.
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C.-F. Volney

Can liberty be born from the bosom of despots? and shall justice be rendered by the hands of piracy and avarice?

Constantin-François de Chassebœuf (1757–1820), Comte de Volney, The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires: And The Law of Nature, Chapter II (Thomas Jefferson, translator).
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James Branch Cabell

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

The character “Coth of the Rocks,” in James Branch Cabell, The Silver Stallion: A Comedy of Redemption (1926).

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Joseph Addison

Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.

Joseph Addison, The Guardian (1713), no. 99.