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All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.

-Samuel Johnson

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All Discourse Of Which

Samuel Johnson

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All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.

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He That Floats Lazily Down The Stream, In Pursuit Of Something Borne Along By The Same Current, Will Find Himself Indeed Moved Forward; But Unless He Lays His Hand To The Oar, And Increases His Speed By His Own Labour, Must Be Always At The Same Distance From That Which He Is Following.

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.

In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.

He Who Attempts To Do All Will Waste His Life In Doing Little.

Those Who Attempt Nothing Themselves Think Every Thing Easily Performed, And Consider The Unsuccessful Always As Criminal.

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society.

The Essence Of Poetry Is Invention; Such Invention As, By Producing Something Unexpected, Surprises And Delights.

It Is Generally Agreed, That Few Men Are Made Better By Affluence Or Exaltation.

I Advised Chambers, And Would Advise Every Young Man Beginning To Compose, To Do It As Fast As He Can, To Get A Habit Of Having His Mind To Start Promptly; It Is So Much More Difficult To Improve In Speed Than In Accuracy.

I Should As Soon Think Of Contradicting A Bishop

Profuseness Is A Cruel And Crafty Demon, That Gradually Involves Her Followers In Dependence And Debt; That Is, Fetters Them With Irons That Enter Into Their Souls.

It Is Not Possible To Be Regarded With Tenderness, Except By A Few. That Merit Which Gives Greatness And Renown Diffuses Its Influence To A Wide Compass, But Acts Weakly On Every Single Breast; It Is Placed At A Distance From Common Spectators, And Shines Like One Of The Remote Stars, Of Which The Light Reaches Us, But Not The Heat.

Flattery Pleases Very Generally. In The First Place, The Flatterer May Think What He Says To Be True; But, In The Second Place, Whether He Thinks So Or Not, He Certainly Thinks Those Whom He Flatters Of Consequence Enough To Be Flattered.

As To The Rout That Is Made About People Who Are Ruined By Extravagance, It Is No Matter To The Nation That Some Individuals Suffer. When So Much General Productive Exertion Is The Consequence Of Luxury, The Nation Does Not Care Though There Are Debtors; Nay, They Would Not Care Though Their Creditors Were There Too.

While An Author Is Yet Living, We Estimate His Powers By His Worst Performance; And When He Is Dead, We Rate Him By His Best.

It Is Not Difficult To Conceive, However, That For Many Reasons A Man Writes Much Better Than He Lives. For Without Entering Into Refined Speculations, It May Be Shown Much Easier To Design Than To Perform. A Man Proposes His Schemes Of Life In A State Of Abstraction And Disengagement, Exempt From The Enticements Of Hope, The Solicitations Of Affection, The Importunities Of Appetite, Or The Depressions Of Fear.

Truth, Sir, Is A Cow Which Will Yield Such People No More Milk, And So They Are Gone To Milk The Bull.

A Generous And Elevated Mind Is Distinguished By Nothing More Certainly Than An Eminent Degree Of Curiosity.

Ye Who Listen With Credulity To The Whispers Of Fancy, And Pursue With Eagerness The Phantoms Of Hope; Who Expect That Age Will Perform The Promises Of Youth, And That The Deficiencies Of The Present Day Will Be Supplied By The Morrow, - Attend To The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia.

The Duties Of Religion, Sincerely And Regularly Performed, Will Always Be Sufficient To Exalt The Meanest And To Exercise The Highest Understanding.

The Finest Landscape In The World Is Improved By A Good Inn In The Foreground.

The Business Of Life Is To Go Forward.

Diligence In Employments Of Less Consequence Is The Most Successful Introduction To Greater Enterprises.

A Few Men Are Sufficient To Broach Falsehoods, Which Are Afterwards Innocently Diffused By Successive Relaters.

Every Man That Has Felt Pain Knows How Little All Other Comforts Can Gladden Him To Whom Health Is Denied. Yet Who Is There Does Not Sometimes Hazard It For The Enjoyment Of An Hour?

He That Wishes To See His Country Robbed Of Its Rights Cannot Be A Patriot.

The Luster Of Diamonds Is Invigorated By The Interposition Of Darker Bodies; The Lights Of A Picture Are Created By The Shades; The Highest Pleasure Which Nature Has Indulged To Sensitive Perception Is That Of Rest After Fatigue.

The Public Pleasures Of Far The Greater Part Of Mankind Are Counterfeit.

Do Not ... Hope Wholly To Reason Away Your Troubles; Do Not Feed Them With Attention, And They Will Die Imperceptibly Away. Fix Your Thoughts Upon Your Business, Fill Your Intervals With Company, And Sunshine Will Again Break In Upon Your Mind.

It Has Long Been Observed, That An Atheist Has No Just Reason For Endeavouring Conversions; And Yet None Harass Those Minds Which They Can Influence, With More Importunity Of Solicitation To Adopt Their Opinions. In Proportion As They Doubt The Truth Of Their Own Doctrines, They Are Desirous To Gain The Attestation Of Another Understanding: And Industriously Labour To Win A Proselyte, And Eagerly Catch At The Slightest Pretense To Dignify Their Sect With A Distinguished Name.

The Insolence Of Wealth Will Creep Out.

Affectation Naturally Counterfeits Those Excellences Which Are Placed At The Greatest Distance From Possibility Of Attainment, Because, Knowing Our Own Defects, We Eagerly Endeavor To Supply Them With Artificial Excellence.

To Hear Complaints Is Wearisome Alike To The Wretched And The Happy.

Hunting Was The Labour Of The Savages Of North America, But The Amusement Of The Gentlemen Of England.

Such Is The Emptiness Of Human Enjoyment That We Are Always Impatient Of The Present. Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, And Possession By Disgust.

Labor, If It Were Not Necessary For Existence, Would Be Indispensable For The Happiness Of Man.

Surely A Long Life Must Be Somewhat Tedious, Since We Are Forced To Call In So Many Trifling Things To Help Rid Us Of Our Time, Which Will Never Return.

No Man Is Much Regarded By The Rest Of The World. He That Considers How Little He Dwells Upon The Condition Of Others, Will Learn How Little The Attention Of Others Is Attracted By Himself. While We See Multitudes Passing Before Us, Of Whom Perhaps Not One Appears To Deserve Our Notice Or Excites Our Sympathy, We Should Remember, That We Likewise Are Lost In The Same Throng, That The Eye Which Happens To Glance Upon Us Is Turned In A Moment On Him That Follows Us, And That The Utmost Which We Can Reasonably Hope Or Fear Is To Fill A Vacant Hour With Prattle, And Be Forgotten.

There Must Always Be A Struggle Between A Father And Son, While One Aims At Power And The Other At Independence.

No Place Affords A More Striking Conviction Of The Vanity Of Human Hopes Than A Public Library; For Who Can See The Wall Crowded On Every Side By Mighty Volumes, The Works Of Laborious Meditations And Accurate Inquiry, Now Scarcely Known But By The Catalogue.

The Hapless Wit Has His Labors Always To Begin, The Call For Novelty Is Never Satisfied, And One Jest Only Raises Expectation Of Another.

As Every One Is Pleased With Imagining That He Knows Something Not Yet Commonly Divulged, Secret History Easily Gains Credit; But It Is For The Most Part Believed Only While It Circulates In Whispers, And When Once It Is Openly Told, Is Openly Refuted.

Courtesy And Good-humour Are Often Found With Little Real Worth.

Apologies Are Seldom Of Any Use.

It Is Good Sense Applied With Diligence To What Was At First A Mere Accident, And Which By Great Application Grew To Be Called, By The Generality Of Mankind, A Particular Genius.

He Who Would Govern His Actions By The Laws Of Virtue Must Regulate His Thoughts By Those Of Reason.

Of Those That Spin Out Trifles And Die Without A Memorial, Many Flatter Themselves With High Opinions Of Their Own Importance, And Imagine That They Are Every Day Adding Some Improvement To Human Life.

The Time Will Come To Every Human Being When It Must Be Known How Well He Can Bear To Die.

The Mind Is Never Satisfied With The Objects Immediately Before It, But Is Always Breaking Away From The Present Moment, And Losing Itself In Schemes Of Future Felicity... The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself, And, Therefore, In His Own Opinion, To Others; And, Supposing The World Already Acquainted With His Pleasures And His Pains, Is Perhaps The First To Publish Injuries Or Misfortunes Which Had Never Been Known Unless Related By Himself, And At Which Those That Hear Them Will Only Laugh, For No Man Sympathises With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness. He Whose Inclination Prompts Him To Cultivate Your Friendship Of His Own Accord, Will Love You More Than One Whom You Have Been At Pains To Attach To You.

The Round Of A Passionate Man's Life Is In Contracting Debts In His Passion, Which His Virtue Obliges Him To Pay. He Spends His Time In Outrage And Acknowledgment, Injury And Reparation.

It Is However, Reasonable, To Have Perfection In Our Eye; That We May Always Advance Towards It, Though We Know It Never Can Be Reached.

No Man Can Have Much Kindness For Him By Whom He Does Not Believe Himself Esteemed, And Nothing So Evidently Proves Esteem As Imitation.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

Dogs Have Not The Power Of Comparing. A Dog Will Take A Small Piece Of Meat As Readily As A Large, When Both Are Before Him.

By Seeing London, I Have Seen As Much Of Life As The World Can Show.

Nobody Can Write The Life Of A Man But Those Who Have Eat And Drunk And Lived In Social Intercourse With Him.

The Stream Of Time, Which Is Continually Washing The Dissoluble Fabrics Of Other Poets, Passes Without Injury By The Adamant Of Shakespeare.

Politics Are Now Nothing More Than Means Of Rising In The World.

A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.

Human Reason Borrowed Many Arts From The Instinct Of Animals.

It Was The Maxim, I Think, Of Alphonsus Of Aragon, That Dead Counsellors Are Safest. The Grave Puts An End To Flattery And Artifice, And The Information We Receive From Books Is Pure From Interest, Fear, And Ambition. Dead Counsellors Are Likewise Most Instructive, Because They Are Heard With Patience And With Reverence.

The Seeds Of Knowledge May Be Planted In Solitude, But Must Be Cultivated In Public.

History Can Be Formed From Permanent Monuments And Records; But Lives Can Only Be Written From Personal Knowledge, Which Is Growing Every Day Less, And In A Short Time Is Lost Forever.

Personal Knowledge

By Forbearing To Do What May Innocently Be Done, We May Add Hourly New Vigor To Resolution.

The Common People Do Not Accurately Adapt Their Thoughts To Objects; Nor, Secondly, Do They Accurately Adapt Their Words To Their Thoughts; They Do Not Mean To Lie; But, Taking No Pains To Be Exact, They Give You Very False Accounts. A Great Part Of Their Language Is Proverbial; If Anything Rocks At All, They Say It Rocks Like A Cradle; And In This Way They Go On.

A Lexicographer, A Writer Of Dictionaries, A Harmless Drudge.

There Is No Crime More Infamous Than The Violation Of Truth. It Is Apparent That Men Can Be Social Beings No Longer Than They Believe Each Other. When Speech Is Employed Only As The Vehicle Of Falsehood, Every Man Must Disunite Himself From Others, Inhabit His Own Cave And Seek Prey Only For Himself.

Gratitude Is A Fruit Of Great Cultivation; You Do Not Find It Among Gross People.

Expectation Improperly Indulged In Must End In Disappointment.

Were It Not For Imagination A Man Would Be As Happy In The Arms Of A Chambermaid As Of A Duchess.

The Limbs Will Quiver And Move After The Soul Is Gone.

Life Is But Short; No Time Can Be Afforded But For The Indulgence Of Real Sorry, Or Contests Upon Questions Seriously Momentous. Let Us Not Throw Away Any Of Our Days Upon Useless Resentment, Or Contend Who Shall Hold Out Longest In Stubborn Malignity. It Is Best Not To Be Angry; And Best, In The Next Place, To Be Quickly Reconciled.

Few Things Are So Liberally Bestowed, Or Squandered With So Little Effect, As Good Advice.

There Is A Certain Degree Of Temptation Which Will Overcome Any Virtue. Now, In So Far As You Approach Temptation To A Man, You Do Him An Injury; And, If He Is Overcome, You Share His Guilt.

We Owe To Memory Not Only The Increase Of Our Knowledge, And Our Progress In Rational Inquiries, But Many Other Intellectual Pleasures

Books Like Friends, Should Be Few And Well-chosen.

It Was The Peculiar Artifice Of Habit Not To Suffer Her Power To Be Felt At First. Those Whom She Led, She Had The Address Of Appearing Only To Attend, But Was Continually Doubling Her Chains Upon Her Companions; Which Were So Slender In Themselves, And So Silently Fastened, That While The Attention Was Engaged By Other Objects, They Were Not Easily Perceived. Each Link Grew Tighter As It Had Been Longer Worn; And When By Continual Additions They Became So Heavy As To Be Felt, They Were Very Frequently Too Strong To Be Broken.

Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

Resolve Not To Be Poor: Whatever You Have, Spend Less. Poverty Is A Great Enemy To Human Happiness; It Certainly Destroys Liberty, And It Makes Some Virtues Impracticable, And Others Extremely Difficult.

Truth Allows No Choice.

We May Have Many Acquaintances, But We Can Have But Few Friends; This Made Aristotle Say That He That Hath Many Friends Hath None.

Enlarge My Life With Multitude Of Days, In Health, In Sickness, Thus The Suppliant Prays; Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know, That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe. Time Hovers O'er, Impatient To Destroy, And Shuts Up All The Passages Of Joy.

As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance.

Whatever Advantage We Snatch Beyond A Certain Portion Allotted Us By At Nature, Is Like Money Spent Before It Is Due, Which, At The Time Of Regular Payment, Will Be Missed And Regretted.

He That Reads And Grows No Wiser Seldom Suspects His Own Deficiency, But Complains Of Hard Words And Obscure Sentences, And Asks Why Books Are Written Which Cannot Be Understood.

We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.

Sir, Sorrow Is Inherent In Humanity. As You Cannot Judge Two And Two To Be Either Five, Or Three, But Certainly Four, So, When Comparing A Worse Present State With A Better Which Is Past, You Cannot But Feel Sorrow. It Is Not Cured By Reason, But By The Incursion Of Present Objects, Which Bear Out The Past.

To A People Warlike And Indigent, An Incursion Into A Rich Country Is Never Hurtful.

Nay, Madam, When You Are Declaiming, Declaim; And When You Are Calculating, Calculate.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

Avarice Is Always Poor.

But Grant, The Virtues Of A Temp'rate Prime Bless With An Age Exempt From Scorn Or Crime; An Age That Melts With Unperceived Decay, And Glides In Modest Innocence Away

I Inherited A Vile Melancholy From My Father, Which Has Made Me Mad All My Life, At Least Not Sober.

The Synonyme Of Usury Is Ruin.

The Diversion Of Baiting An Author Has The Sanction Of All Ages And Nations, And Is More Lawful Than The Sport Of Teasing Other Animals, Because, For The Most Part, He Comes Voluntarily To The Stake, Furnished, As He Imagines, By The Patron Powers Of Literature, With Resistless Weapons, And Impenetrable Armour, With The Mail Of The Boar Of Erymanth, And The Paws Of The Lion Of Nemea.

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments.

In The Description Of Night In Macbeth, The Beetle And The Bat Detract From The General Idea Of Darkness - Inspissated Gloom.

There Is ... Scarcely Any Species Of Writing Of Which We Can Tell What Is Its Essence, And What Are Its Constituents; Every New Genius Produces Some Innovation, Which, When Invented And Approved, Subverts The Rules Which The Practice Of Foregoing Authors Had Established.

It Is A Most Mortifying Reflection For A Man To Consider What He Has Done, Compared To What He Might Have Done.

If A Man Does Not Make New Acquaintances As He Advances Through Life, He Will Soon Find Himself Left Alone. A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.

Life Admits Not Of Delays; When Pleasure Can Be Had, It Is Fit To Catch It. Every Hour Takes Away Part Of The Things That Please Us, And Perhaps Part Of Our Disposition To Be Pleased.

Though The Discoveries Or Acquisitions Of Man Are Not Always Adequate To The Expectations Of His Pride, They Are At Least Sufficient To Animate His Industry.

Friendship May Well Deserve The Sacrifice Of Pleasure, Though Not Of Conscience.

Disappointment, When It Involves Neither Shame Nor Loss, Is As Good As Success; For It Supplies As Many Images To The Mind, And As Many Topics To The Tongue.

The End Of Writing Is To Instruct; The End Of Poetry Is To Instruct By Pleasing.

It May Be Laid Down As A Position Which Seldom Deceives, That When A Man Cannot Bear His Own Company, There Is Something Wrong.

Sir, I Have No Objection To A Man's Drinking Wine, If He Can Do It In Moderation. I Found Myself Apt To Go To Excess In It, And Therefore, After Having Been For Some Time Without It, On Account Of Illness, I Thought It Better Not To Return To It. Every Man Is To Judge For Himself, According To The Effects Which He Experiences.

The Law Is The Last Result Of Human Wisdom Acting Upon Human Experience For The Benefit Of The Public.

Reason And Truth Will Prevail At Last

Truth Will Prevail

The Good Of Our Present State Is Merely Comparative, And The Evil Which Every Man Feels Will Be Sufficient To Disturb And Harass Him If He Does Not Know How Much He Escapes.

Scarcely Any Degree Of Judgment Is Sufficient To Restrain The Imagination From Magnifying That On Which It Is Long Detained

Every Other Author May Aspire To Praise; The Lexicographer Can Only Hope To Escape Reproach.

Languages Are The Pedigree Of Nations.

For Life Affords No Higher Pleasure, Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties, Passing From One Step Of Success To Another, Forming New Wishes And Seeing Them Gratified. He That Labours In Any Great Or Laudable Undertaking, Has His Fatigues First Supported By Hope, And Afterwards Rewarded By Joy... To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity.

Critics Ought Never To Be Consulted, But While Errors May Yet Be Rectified Or Insipidity Suppressed. But When The Book Has Once Been Dismissed Into The World, And Can Be No More Retouched, I Know Not Whether A Very Different Conduct Should Not Be Prescribed, And Whether Firmness And Spirit May Not Sometimes Be Of Use To Overpower Arrogance And Repel Brutality.

Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.

If We Consider The Manner In Which Those Who Assume The Office Of Directing The Conduct Of Others Execute Their Undertaking, It Will Not Be Very Wonderful That Their Labours, However Zealous Or Affectionate, Are Frequently Useless. For What Is The Advice That Is Commonly Given? A Few General Maxims, Enforced With Vehemence, And Inculcated With Importunity, But Failing For Want Of Particular Reference And Immediate Application.

No Man Reads A Book Of Science From Pure Inclination. The Books That We Do Read With Pleasure Are Light Compositions, Which Contain A Quick Succession Of Events.

The Return Of My Birthday, If I Remember It, Fills Me With Thoughts Which It Seems To Be The General Care Of Humanity To Escape.

Accustom Your Children Constantly To This; If A Thing Happened At One Window And They, When Relating It, Say That It Happened At Another, Do Not Let It Pass, But Instantly Check Them; You Do Not Know Where Deviation From Truth Will End

The Drama's Laws The Drama's Patrons Give. For We That Live To Please Must Please To Live.

The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England.

Pension: An Allowance Made To Anyone Without An Equivalent. In England It Is Generally Understood To Mean Pay Given To A State Hireling For Treason To His Country.

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

The Business Of A Poet Is To Examine Not The Individual But The Species; To Remark General Properties And Large Appearances.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure/that Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure.

Let Him That Desires To See Others Happy, Make Haste To Give While His Gift Can Be Enjoyed, And Remember That Every Moment Of Delay Takes Away Something From The Value Of His Benefaction.

Among The Many Inconsistencies Which Folly Produces Or Infirmity Suffers In The Human Mind, There Has Often Been Observed A Manifest And Striking Contrariety Between The Life Of An Author And His Writings... Those Whom The Appearance Of Virtue Or The Evidence Of Genius Has Tempted To A Nearer Knowledge Of The Writer, In Whose Performances They May Be Found, Have Indeed Had Frequent Reason To Repent Their Curiosity.

A Married Man Has Many Cares, But A Bachelor No Pleasures.

Sir, He Throws Away His Money Without Thought And Without Merit. I Do Not Call A Tree Generous That Sheds Its Fruit At Every Breeze.

Melancholy, Indeed, Should Be Diverted By Every Means But Drinking.

People In Distress Never Think That You Feel Enough.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes; The Distinctions Which Set One Man So Much Above Another Are Very Little Perceived In The Gloom Of A Sick Chamber, Where It Will Be Vain To Expect Entertainment From The Gay, Or Instruction From The Wise; Where All Human Glory Is Obliterated, The Wit Is Clouded, The Reasoner Perplexed, And The Hero Subdued; Where The Highest And Brightest Of Mortal Beings Finds Nothing Left Him But The Consciousness Of Innocence.

There Are Two Types Of Knowledge. One Is Knowing A Thing. The Other Is Knowing Where To Find It.

Men Who Have Flattered Themselves Into This Opinion Of Their Own Abilities, Look Down On All Who Waste Their Lives Over Books, As A Race Of Inferior Beings Condemned By Nature To Perpetual Pupilage, And Fruitlessly Endeavouring To Remedy Their Barrenness By Incessant Cultivation, Or Succour Their Feebleness By Subsidiary Strength. They Presume That None Would Be More Industrious Than They, If They Were Not More Sensible Of Deficiences; And Readily Conclude, That He Who Places No Confidence In His Own Powers Owes His Modesty Only To His Weakness.

It Is The Great Privilege Of Poverty To Be Happy Unenvied, To Be Healthful Without Physic, And Secure Without A Guard; To Obtain From The Bounty Of Nature, What The Great And Wealthy Are Compelled To Procure By The Help Of Artists And Attendants, Of Flatterers And Spies.

Every Man Has Some Favorite Topic Of Conversation, On Which, By A Feigned Seriousness Of Attention, He May Be Drawn To Expatiate Without End.

You May Abuse A Tragedy, Though You Cannot Write One. You May Scold A Carpenter Who Has Made You A Bad Table, Though You Cannot Make A Table. It Is Not Your Trade To Make Tables.

A Writer Who Obtains His Full Purpose Loses Himself In His Own Lustre.

I Know Not Why Any One But A School Boy In His Declamation Would Whine Over The Commonwealth Of Rome, Which Grew Great Only By The Misery Of The Rest Of Mankind. The Romans, Like Others, As Soon As They Were Rich, Grew Corrupt; And In Their Corruption Sold The Lives And Freedoms Of Themselves And Of One Another.

Had I Learned To Fiddle, I Should Have Done Nothing Else.

Great Works Are Performed, Not By Strength, But By Perseverance. Those That Walk With Vigor, Three Hours A Day, Will Pass In Seven Years A Space Equal To The Circumference Of The Globe.

A Man Seldom Thinks With More Earnestness Of Anything Than He Does Of His Dinner.

When First The College Rolls Receive His Name, The Young Enthusiast Quilts His Ease For Fame; Through All His Veins The Fever Of Renown Burns From The Strong Contagion Of The Gown

Novelty Is Indeed Necessary To Preserve Eagerness And Alacrity; But Art And Nature Have Stores Inexhaustible By Human Intellects, And Every Moment Produces Something New To Him Who Has Quickened His Faculties By Diligent Observation.

There Ambush Here Relentless Ruffians Lay, And Here The Fell Attorney Prowls For Prey.

Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.

An Author Places Himself Uncalled Before The Tribunal Of Criticism And Solicits Fame At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

There Are Occasions On Which It Is Noble To Dare To Stand Alone. To Be Pious Among Infidels, To Be Disinterested In A Time Of General Venality, To Lead A Life Of Virtue And Reason In The Midst Of Sensualists, Is A Proof Of A Mind Intent On Nobler Things Than The Praise Or Blame Of Men, Of A Soul Fixed In The Contemplation Of The Highest Good, And Superiour To The Tyranny Of Custom And Example.

The Irish Are A Fair People: They Never Speak Well Of One Another.

Ireland And The Irish

Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.

Time Quickly Puts An End To Artificial And Accidental Fame

Every Man, However Hopeless His Pretensions May Appear, Has Some Project By Which He Hopes To Rise To Reputation; Some Art By Which He Imagines That The Attention Of The World Will Be Attracted; Some Quality, Good Or Bad, Which Discriminates Him From The Common Herd Of Mortals, And By Which Others May Be Persuaded To Love, Or Compelled To Fear Him.

The Fortitude Which Has Encountered No Dangers, That Prudence Which Has Surmounted No Difficulties, That Integrity Which Has Been Attacked By No Temptation, Can At Best Be Considered But As Gold Not Yet Brought To The Test, Of Which Therefore The True Value Cannot Be Assigned.

Lawyers Know Life Practically. A Bookish Man Should Always Have Them To Converse With.

For Who Is Pleased With Himself.

Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.

No Man Will Be A Sailor Who Has Contrivance Enough To Get Himself Into A Jail; For Being In A Ship Is Being In A Jail, With The Chance Of Being Drowned... A Man In A Jail Has More Room, Better Food, And Commonly Better Company.

When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was

Classical Quotation Is The Parole Of Literary Men All Over The World.

The Imaginations Excited By The View Of An Unknown And Untravelled Wilderness Are Not Such As Arise In The Artificial Solitude Of Parks And Gardens... The Phantoms Which Haunt A Desert Are Want, And Misery, And Danger; The Evils Of Dereliction Rush Upon The Thoughts; Man Is Made Unwillingly Acquainted With His Own Weakness, And Meditation Shows Him Only How Little He Can Sustain, And How Little He Can Perform.

Getting Money Is Not All A Man's Business: To Cultivate Kindness Is A Valuable Part Of The Business Of Life.

Pride Is Seldom Delicate, It Will Please Itself With Very Mean Advantages; And Envy Feels Not Its Own Happiness, But When It May Be Compared With The Misery Of Others

Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

Each Change Of Many-colour'd Life He Drew, Exhausted Worlds, And Then Imagin'd New.

Some Claim A Place In The List Of Patriots, By An Acrimonious And Unremitting Opposition To The Court. This Mark Is By No Means Infallible. Patriotism Is Not Necessarily Included In Rebellion. A Man May Hate His King, Yet Not Love His Country.

Bias And Impartiality Is In The Eye Of The Beholder.

The Love Of Fame Is A Passion Natural And Universal, Which No Man, However High Or Mean, However Wise Or Ignorant, Was Yet Able To Despise.

Most Men Think Indistinctly, And Therefore Cannot Speak With Exactness . . .

Life Is Not Long, And Too Much Of It Must Not Pass In Idle Deliberation How It Shall Be Spent.

Club: An Assembly Of Good Fellows, Meeting Under Certain Conditions.

So Different Are The Colors Of Life, As We Look Forward To The Future, Or Backward To The Past; And So Different The Opinions And Sentiments Which This Contrariety Of Appearance Naturally Produces, That The Conversation Of The Old And Young Ends Generally With Contempt Or Pity On Either Side.

It Is Not From Reason And Prudence That People Marry, But From Inclination.

What Makes All Doctrines Plain And Clear? About Two Hundred Pounds A Year. And That Which Was Proved True Before, Prove False Again? Two Hundred More.

They Who Look But Little Into Futurity, Have, Perhaps, The Quickest Sensation Of The Present.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.

What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure.

Knowledge Is Praised And Desired By Multitudes Whom Her Charms Could Never Rouse From The Couch Of Sloth; Whom The Faintest Invitation Of Pleasure Draws Away From Their Studies; To Whom Any Other Method Of Wearing The Day Is More Eligible Than The Use Of Books, And Who Are More Easily Engaged By Any Conversation Than Such As May Rectify Their Notions Or Enlarge Their Comprehension.

Courage Is A Quality So Necessary For Maintaining Virtue, That It Is Always Respected, Even When It Is Associated With Vice.

The Heroes Of Literary History Have Been No Less Remarkable For What They Have Suffered Than For What They Have Achieved.

The Disturbers Of Our Happiness, In This World, Are Our Desires, Our Griefs, And Our Fears.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendor Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate.

Who Drives Fat Oxen Should Himself Be Fat.

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous.

Luxury, So Far As It Reaches The People, Will Do Good To The Race Of People; It Will Strengthen And Multiply Them. Sir, No Nation Was Ever Hurt By Luxury; For, As I Said Before; It Can Reach But A Very Few.

The Uniform Necessities Of Human Nature Produce In A Great Measure Uniformity Of Life, And For Part Of The Day Make One Place Like Another; To Dress And To Undress, To Eat And To Sleep, Are The Same In London As In The Country.

Everybody Knows Worse Of Himself Than He Knows Of Other Men.

Almost Every Man Wastes Part Of His Life Attempting To Display Qualities Which He Does Not Possess.

Sir, If A Man Has A Mind To Prance, He Must Study At Christ Church And All Souls.

Sir, If You Wish To Have A Just Notion Of The Magnitude Of This City, You Must Not Be Satisfied With Seeing Its Great Streets And Squares, But Must Survey The Innumerable Little Lanes And Courts. It Is Not In The Showy Evolutions Of Buildings, But In The Multiplicity Of Human Habitations Which Are Crowded Together, That The Wonderful Immensity Of London Consists.

The Future Is Bought With The Present.

In A Time Of War The Nation Is Always Of One Mind, Eager To Hear Something Good Of Themselves And Ill Of The Enemy. At This Time The Task Of The News-writer Is Easy; They Have Nothing To Do But To Tell That A Battle Is Expected, And Afterwards That A Battle Has Been Fought, In Which We And Our Friends, Whether Conquering Or Conquered, Did All, And Our Enemies Did Nothing.

I Deny The Lawfulness Of Telling A Lie To A Sick Man For Fear Of Alarming Him; You Have No Business With Consequences, You Are To Tell The Truth.

It Is True That Of Far The Greater Part Of Things, We Must Content Ourselves With Such Knowledge As Description May Exhibit, Or Analogy Supply; But It Is True Likewise, That These Ideas Are Always Incomplete, And That At Least, Till We Have Compared Them With Realities, We Do Not Know Them To Be Just. As We See More, We Become Possessed Of More Certainties, And Consequently Gain More Principles Of Reasoning, And Found A Wider Base Of Analogy.

To Prevent Evil Is The Great End Of Government, The End For Which Vigilance And Severity Are Properly Employed.

Every Government Is Perpetually Degenerating Towards Corruption, From Which It Must Be Rescued At Certain Periods By The Resuscitation Of Its First Principles, And The Re-establishment Of Its Original Constitution.

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Lucas Papademos

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