He used to say that personal beauty was a better introduction than any letter; but others say that it was Diogenes who gave this description of it, while Aristotle called beauty "the gift of God;" that Socrates called it "a short-lived tyranny;" Theophrastus, "a silent deceit;" Theocritus, "an ivory mischief;" Carneades, "a sovereignty which stood in need of no guards."

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200 a d): Aristotle. xi.

  He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.

Edward Hyde Clarendon (1608-1674): History of the Rebellion. Vol. iii. Book vii. § 84.

  In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794): Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. xlviii.

  A little neglect may breed mischief: for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard's Almanac, 1757.

  No one returns with good-will to the place which has done him a mischief.

Phaedrus (8 a d): Book i. Fable 18, 1.

  Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.