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Among The Numerous Requisites That Must Concur To Complete An Author, Few Are Of More Importance Than An Early Entrance Into The Living World. The Seed Of Knowledge May Be Planted In Solitude, But Must Be Cultivated In Public. Argumentation May Be Taught In Colleges, And Theories Formed In Retirement; But The Artifice Of Embellishment And The Powers Of Attraction Can Be Gained Only By A General Converse.

-Samuel Johnson

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Among The Numerous Requisites

Samuel Johnson

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Among The Numerous Requisites That Must Concur To Complete An Author, Few Are Of More Importance Than An Early Entrance Into The Living World. The Seed Of Knowledge May Be Planted In Solitude, But Must Be Cultivated In Public. Argumentation May Be Taught In Colleges, And Theories Formed In Retirement; But The Artifice Of Embellishment And The Powers Of Attraction Can Be Gained Only By A General Converse.

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Unless A Woman Has An Amorous Heart, She Is A Dull Companion.

Ignorance Is Mere Privation By Which Nothing Can Be Produced: It Is A Vacuity In Which The Soul Sits Motionless And Torpid For Want Of Attraction: And, Without Knowing Why, We Always Rejoice When We Learn, And Grieve When We Forget.

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.

Nothing Can Be Truly Great Which Is Not Right.

It Is Not Easy To Surround Life With Any Circumstances In Which Youth Will Not Be Delightful.

The Authors That In Any Nation Last From Age To Age Are Very Few, Because There Are Very Few That Have Any Other Claim To Notice Than That They Catch Hold On Present Curiosity, And Gratify Some Accidental Desire, Or Produce Some Temporary Conveniency.

Every Cold Empirick, When His Heart Is Expanded By A Successful Experiment, Swells Into A Theorist.

The Greatest Part Of A Writer's Time Is Spent In Reading In Order To Write. A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make A Book.

When The Eye Or The Imagination Is Struck With An Uncommon Work, The Next Transition Of An Active Mind Is To The Means By Which It Was Performed

Small Debts Are Like Small Shot; They Are Rattling On Every Side, And Can Scarcely Be Escaped Without A Wound: Great Debts Are Like Cannon; Of Loud Noise, But Little Danger.

Shakespeare Never Had More Than 6 Lines Together Without A Fault.

Whoever Rises Above Those Who Once Pleased Themselves With Equality, Will Have Many Malevolent Gazers At His Eminence.

Probably No One Will Ever Know Whether It Is Better To Wear A Nightcap Or Not.

I Am Always For Getting A Boy Forward In His Learning, For That Is Sure Good. I Would Let Him At First Read Any English Book Which Happens To Engage His Attention; Because You Have Done A Great Deal When You Have Brought Him To Have Entertainment From A Book. He'll Get Better Books Afterwards.

Each Person's Work Is Always A Portrait Of Himself.

Life Consists Not Of A Series Of Illustrious Actions Or Elegant Enjoyments. The Greater Part Of Our Time Passes In Compliance With Necessities, In The Performance Of Daily Duties, In The Removal Of Small Inconveniences, In The Procurement Of Petty Pleasures; And We Are Well Or Ill At Ease, As The Main Stream Of Life Glides On Smoothly, Or Is Ruffled By Small Obstacles And Frequent Interruption.

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

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

We Are All Prompted By The Same Motives, All Deceived By The Same Fallacies, All Animated By Hope, Obstructed By Danger, Entangled By Desire, And Seduced By Pleasure.

Every Reader Should Remember The Diffidence Of Socrates, And Repair By His Candour The Injuries Of Time: He Should Impute The Seeming Defects Of His Author To Some Chasm Of Intelligence, And Suppose That The Sense Which Is Now Weak Was Once Forcible

By Writing, You Learn To Write.

He Who Praises Everybody, Praises Nobody.

Jesting, Often, Only Proves A Want Of Intellect.

Friendship Is Not Always The Sequel Of Obligation.

A Person Loves To Review His Own Mind. That Is The Use Of A Diary, Or Journal.

To Talk In Public, To Think In Solitude, To Read And To Hear, To Inquire And Answer Inquiries, Is The Business Of The Scholar

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.

Vulgar And Inactive Minds Confound Familiarity With Knowledge, And Conceive Themselves Informed Of The Whole Nature Of Things, When They Are Shown Their Form Or Told Their Use.

A Man May Write At Any Time, If He Will Set Himself Doggedly To It.

Cautious Age Suspects The Flattering Form, And Only Credits What Experience Tells.

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Sickness And Captivity Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable.

Excellence In Any Department Can Be Attained Only By The Labor Of A Lifetime; It Is Not To Be Purchased At A Lesser Price.

Occupation Alone Is Happiness.

A Ship Is Worse Than A Gaol. There Is, In A Gaol, Better Air, Better Company, Better Conveniency Of Every Kind; And A Ship Has The Additional Disadvantage Of Of Being In Danger.

As The Mind Must Govern The Hands, So In Every Society The Man Of Intelligence Must Direct The Man Of Labor.

I Have Two Very Cogent Reasons For Not Printing Any List Of Subscribers; One, That I Have Lost All The Names, The Other, That I Have Spent All The Money.

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

Life Will Not Bear Refinement. You Must Do As Other People Do.

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

Wine Gives A Man Nothing... It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

Some People Wave Their Dogmatic Thinking Until Their Own Reason Is Entangled.

This World, Where Much Is To Be Done And Little To Be Known.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity. It Becomes Cheap As It Becomes Vulgar, And Will No Longer Raise Expectation Or Animate Enterprise.

His Virtues Walked Their Narrow Round, Nor Made A Pause, Nor Left A Void; And Sure The Eternal Master Found The Single Talent Well Employed.

Every Man May Be Observed To Have A Certain Strain Of Lamentation, Some Peculiar Theme Of Complaint On Which He Dwells In His Moments Of Dejection.

Present Opportunities Are Neglected, And Attainable Good Is Slighted, By Minds Busied In Extensive Ranges And Intent Upon Future Advantages.

It Is Generally Allowed, That No Man Ever Found The Happiness Of Possession Proportionate To That Expectation Which Incited His Desire, And Invigorated His Pursuit; Nor Has Any Man Found The Evils Of Life So Formidable In Reality, As They Were Described To Him By His Own Imagination; Every Species Of Distress Brings With It Some Peculiar Supports, Some Unforeseen Means Of Resisting, Or Powers Of Enduring.

He That Hopes To Look Back Hereafter With Satisfaction Upon Past Years Must Learn To Know The Present Value Of Single Minutes, And Endeavour To Let No Particle Of Time Fall Useless To The Ground.

Mankind Have A Great Aversion To Intellectual Labor; But Even Supposing Knowledge To Be Easily Attainable, More People Would Be Content To Be Ignorant Than Would Take Even A Little Trouble To Acquire It.

Curiosity, Like All Other Desires, Produces Pain As Well As Pleasure.

That Fellow Seems To Me To Possess But One Idea, And That Is A Wrong One.

There Is Nothing So Minute, Or Inconsiderable, That I Would Not Rather Know It Than Not.

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.

There Is Something In Obstinacy Which Differs From Every Other Passion. Whenever It Fails, It Never Recovers, But Either Breaks Like Iron, Or Crumbles Sulkily Away, Like A Fractured Arch. Most Other Passions Have Their Periods Of Fatigue And Rest, Their Sufferings And Their Cure; But Obstinacy Has No Resource, And The First Wound Is Mortal.

The Parallel Circumstances And Kindred Images To Which We Readily Conform Our Minds Are, Above All Other Writings, To Be Found In The Lives Of Particular Persons, And Therefore No Species Of Writing Seems More Worthy Of Cultivation Than Biography.

He Who Fails To Please In His Salutation And Address Is At Once Rejected, And Never Obtains An Opportunity Of Showing His Latest Excellences Or Essential Qualities.

Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.

Such Is The Pleasure Of Projecting That Many Content Themselves With A Succession Of Visionary Schemes, And Wear Out Their Allotted Time In The Calm Amusement Of Contriving What They Never Attempt Or Hope To Execute.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

Every Man Prefers Virtue, When There Is Not Some Strong Incitement To Transgress Its Precepts.

He Who Writes Much Will Not Easily Escape A Manner, Such A Recurrence Of Particular Modes As May Be Easily Noted.

There Is No Book So Poor That It Would Not Be A Prodigy If Wholly Made By A Single Man.

The Vanity Of Being Known To Be Trusted With A Secret Is Generally One Of The Chief Motives To Disclose It.

We Must Consider How Very Little History There Is--i Mean Real, Authentic History. That Certain Kings Reigned And Certain Battles Were Fought, We Can Depend Upon As True; But All The Coloring, All The Philosophy, Of History Is Conjecture.

Prejudice, Not Being Founded On Reason, Cannot Be Removed By Argument.

Credulity Is The Common Failing Of Inexperienced Virtue; And He Who Is Spontaneously Suspicious May Justly Be Charged With Radical Corruption.

Those Who Have Any Intention Of Deviating From The Beaten Roads Of Life, And Acquiring A Reputation Superior To Names Hourly Swept Away By Time Among The Refuse Of Fame, Should Add To Their Reason And Their Spirit The Power Of Persisting In Their Pur

Sir, I Do Not Call A Gamester A Dishonest Man; But I Call Him An Unsociable Man, An Unprofitable Man. Gaming Is A Mode Of Transferring Property Without Producing Any Intermediate Good.

Knowledge Always Desires Increase, It Is Like Fire, Which Must First Be Kindled By Some External Agent, But Which Will Afterwards Propagate Itself.

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.

Many Useful And Valuable Books Lie Buried In Shops And Libraries, Unknown And Unexamined, Unless Some Lucky Compiler Opens Them By Chance, And Finds An Easy Spoil Of Wit And Learning.

Babies Do Not Want To Hear About Babies; They Like To Be Told Of Giants And Castles.

Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused, And It Is Therefore Become Necessary To Gain Attention By Magnificence Of Promises, And By Eloquence Sometimes Sublime And Sometimes Pathetic.

Like An Image In A Dream The World Is Troubled By Love, Hatred, And Other Poisons. So Long As The Dream Lasts, The Image Appears To Be Real; But On Awaking It Vanishes.

It Would Add Much To Human Happiness, If An Art Could Be Taught Of Forgetting All Of Which The Remembrance Is At Once Useless And Afflictive, That The Mind Might Perform Its Functions Without Encumbrance, And The Past Might No Longer Encroach Upon The Present.

Exactness Is First Obtained, And Afterwards Elegance. But Diction, Merely Vocal, Is Always In Its Childhood. As No Man Leaves His Eloquence Behind Him, The New Generations Have All To Learn. There May Possibly Be Books Without A Polished Language, But There Can Be No Polished Language Without Books.

The Friendship Which Is To Be Practised Or Expected By Common Mortals, Must Take Its Rise From Mutual Pleasure, And Must End When The Power Ceases Of Delighting Each Other.

Riches, Perhaps, Do Not So Often Produce Crimes As Incite Accusers.

A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.

None Are Happy But By Anticipation Of Change.

They Make A Rout About Universal Liberty, Without Considering That All That Is To Be Valued, Or Indeed Can Be Enjoyed By Individuals, Is Private Liberty.

A Poet, Naturalist, And Historian, Who Left Scarcely Any Style Of Writing Untouched, And Touched Nothing That He Did Not Adorn.

...a Man Estimable For His Learning, Amiable For His Life, And Venerable For His Piety. Arbuthnot Was A Man Of Great Comprehension, Skilful In His Profession, Versed In The Sciences, Acquainted With Ancient Literature, And Able To Animate His Mass Of Knowledge By A Bright And Active Imagination; A Scholar With Great Brilliance Of Wit; A Wit Who, In The Crowd Of Life, Retained And Discovered A Noble Ardour Of Religious Zeal.

Those Who Suppress Freedom Always Do So In The Name Of Law And Order." - John V. Lindsay "no Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.

Men Who Stand In The Highest Ranks Of Society Seldom Hear Of Their Faults; If By Any Accident An Opprobrious Clamour Reaches Their Ears, Flattery Is Always At Hand To Pour In Her Opiates, To Quiet Conviction And Obtund Remorse.

Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded, For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadful Than Its Extinction.

Where Grief Is Fresh, Any Attempt To Divert It Only Irritates.

It Is Thus That Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace. Were One Half Of Mankind Brave And One Cowards, The Brave Would Be Always Beating The Cowards. Were All Brave, They Would Lead A Very Uneasy Life; All Would Be Continually Fighting; But Being All Cowards, We Go On Very Well.

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

A Man Who Uses A Great Many Words To Express His Meaning Is Like A Bad Marksman Who, Instead Of Aiming A Single Stone At An Object, Takes Up A Handful And Throws At It In Hopes He May Hit.

A Fly, Sir, May Sting A Stately Horse And Make Him Wince; But, One Is But An Insect, And The Other Is A Horse Still.

There Lurks, Perhaps, In Every Human Heart A Desire Of Distinction, Which Inclines Every Man First To Hope, And Then To Believe, That Nature Has Given Him Something Peculiar To Himself.

It Is, However, Not Necessary, That A Man Should Forbear To Write, Till He Has Discovered Some Truth Unknown Before; He May Be Sufficiently Useful, By Only Diversifying The Surface Of Knowledge, And Luring The Mind By A New Appearance To A Second View Of Those Beauties Which It Had Passed Over Inattentively Before.

The Joy Of Life Is Variety; The Tenderest Love Requires To Be Rekindled By Intervals Of Absence.

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.

I Know Not, Madam, That You Have A Right, Upon Moral Principles, To Make Your Readers Suffer So Much.

I Am A Hardened And Shameless Tea Drinker, Who Has, For Twenty Years, Diluted His Meals With Only The Infusion Of This Fascinating Plant; Whose Kettle Has Scarcely Time To Cool; Who With Tea Amuses The Evening, With Tea Solaces The Midnight, And, With Tea, Welcomes The Morning.

Women Can Spin Very Well; But They Cannot Make A Good Book Of Cookery.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

Consider What Importance To Society The Chastity Of Women Is. Upon That All The Property In The World Depends. We Hang A Thief For Stealing A Sheep; But The Unchastity Of A Woman Transfers Sheep And Farm And All From The Right Owner.

Sir, When You Have Seen One Green Field, You Have Seen All Green Fields. Let Us Walk Down Cheapside.

Here Lies Our Good Edmund, Whose Genius Was Such, We Scarcely Can Praise It Or Blame It Too Much; Who, Born For The Universe, Narrowed His Mind, And To Party Gave Up What Was Meant For Mankind.

Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.

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

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

If Lawyers Were To Undertake No Causes Till They Were Sure They Were Just, A Man Might Be Precluded Altogether From A Trial Of His Claim, Though, Were It Judicially Examined, It Might Be Found A Very Just Claim.

Whoever Shall Review His Life, Will Find That The Whole Tenor Of His Conduct Has Been Determined By Some Accident Of No Apparent Moment.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

It Is No Matter What You Teach Them First, Any More Than What Leg You Shall Put Into Your Breeches First. You May Stand Disputing Which Is Best To Put In First, But In The Mean Time Your Breech Is Bare. Sir, While You Are Considering Which Of Two Things You Should Teach Your Child First, Another Boy Has Learned Them Both.

To Scatter Praise Or Blame Without Regard To Justice Is To Destroy The Distinction Of Good And Evil. Many Have No Other Test Of Actions Than General Opinion; And All Are So Far Influenced By A Sense Of Reputation That They Are Often Restrained By Fear Of Reproach, And Excited By Hope Of Honour, When Other Principles Have Lost Their Power.

Friendship, Like Love, Is Destroyed By Long Absence, Though It May Be Increased By Short Intermissions.

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

Exert Your Talents, And Distinguish Yourself, And Don't Think Of Retiring From The World, Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire.

A Good Wife Is Like The Ivy Which Beautifies The Building To Which It Clings, Twining Its Tendrils More Lovingly As Time Converts The Ancient Edifice Into A Ruin.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak; Yet There Are Prejudices So Near To Laudable That They Have Been Often Praised And Are Always Pardoned.

Men Go To Sea, Before They Know The Unhappiness Of That Way Of Life; And When They Have Come To Know It, They Cannot Escape From It, Because It Is Then Too Late To Choose Another Profession; As Indeed Is Generally The Case With Men, When They Have Once Engaged In Any Particular Way Of Life.

Every Human Being Whose Mind Is Not Debauched, Will Be Willing To Give All That He Has To Get Knowledge.

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.

The Whole World Is Put In Motion By The Wish For Riches And The Dread Of Poverty.

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

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

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

In Such A Government As Ours No Man Is Appointed To An Office Because He Is The Fittest For It--nor Hardly In Any Other Government--because There Are So Many Connections And Dependencies To Be Studied.

Time Is, Of All Modes Of Existence, Most Obsequious To The Imagination.

It Was His Peculiar Happiness That He Scarcely Ever Found A Stranger Whom He Did Not Leave A Friend; But It Must Likewise Be Added, That He Had Not Often A Friend Long Without Obliging Him To Become A Stranger.

As To The Christian Religion, Besides The Strong Evidence Which We Have For It, There Is A Balance In Its Favor From The Number Of Great Men Who Have Been Convinced Of Its Truth After A Serious Consideration Of The Question. Grotius Was An Acute Man, A Lawyer, A Man Accustomed To Examine Evidence, And He Was Convinced. Grotius Was Not A Recluse, But A Man Of The World, Who Certainly Had No Bias On The Side Of Religion. Sir Isaac Newton Set Out An Infidel, And Came To Be A Very Firm Believer.

I Respect Millar, Sir: He Has Raised The Price Of Literature.

Pleasure Itself Is Not A Vice

Adversity Leads Us To Think Properly Of Our State, And So Is Most Beneficial To Us.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure, That Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure! Still To Ourselves In Every Place Consigned, Our Own Felicity We Make Or Find. With Secret Course, Which No Loud Storms Annoy, Glides The Smooth Current Of Domestic Joy.

Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded; For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadsul Than Its Extinction.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

There Are Minds So Impatient Of Inferiority That Their Gratitude Is A Species Of Revenge, And They Return Benefits, Not Because Recompense Is A Pleasure, But Because Obligation Is A Pain.

Poetry Cannot Be Translation

Glory, The Casual Gift Of Thoughtless Crowds! Glory, The Bribe Of Avaricious Virtue!

Depend Upon It, Sir, It Is When You Come Close To A Man In Conservation That You Discover What His Real Abilities Are; To Make A Speech In A Public Assembly Is A Knack.

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.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

The Supreme End Of Education Is Expert Discernment In All Things-the Power To Tell The Good From The Bad, The Genuine From The Counterfeit, And To Prefer The Good And The Genuine To The Bad And The Counterfeit.

Distance Has The Same Effect On The Mind As On The Eye.

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.

Patience And Submission Are Very Carefully To Be Distinguished From Cowardice And Indolence. We Are Not To Repine, But We May Lawfully Struggle; For The Calamities Of Life, Like The Necessities Of Nature, Are Calls To Labor And Diligence.

Keeping Accounts, Sir, Is Of No Use When A Man Is Spending His Own Money, And Has Nobody To Whom He Is To Account. You Won't Eat Less Beef Today Because You Have Written Down What It Cost Yesterday.

Hunger Is Never Delicate; They Who Are Seldom Gorged To The Full With Praise May Be Safely Fed With Gross Compliments, For The Appetite Must Be Satisfied Before It Is Disgusted.

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write. The Regard Of The Public Is Not To Be Kept But By Tribute, And The Remembrance Of Past Service Will Quickly Languish Unless Successive Performances Frequently Revive It. Yet In Every New Attempt There Is New Hazard, And There Are Few Who Do Not, At Some Unlucky Time, Injure Their Own Characters By Attempting To Enlarge Them.

Now ... That You Are Going To Marry, Do Not Expect More From Life, Than Life Will Afford.

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

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

In Civilized Society We All Depend Upon Each Other, And Our Happiness Is Very Much Owing To The Good Opinion Of Mankind.

Sir, You Must Not Neglect Doing A Thing Immediately Good From Fear Of Remote Evil; - From Fear Of Its Being Abused.

Though The Wisdom Or Virtue Of One Can Very Rarely Make Many Happy, The Folly Or Vice Of One Man Often Make Many Miserable.

It Generally Happens That Assurance Keeps An Even Pace With Ability.

The Animadversions Of Critics Are Commonly Such As May Easily Provoke The Sedatest Writer To Some Quickness Of Resentment And Asperity Of Reply.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.

Good-humor Is A State Between Gayety And Unconcern,--the Act Or Emanation Of A Mind At Leisure To Regard The Gratification Of Another.

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.

Let Us Take A Patriot, Where We Can Meet Him; And, That We May Not Flatter Ourselves By False Appearances, Distinguish Those Marks Which Are Certain, From Those Which May Deceive; For A Man May Have The External Appearance Of A Patriot, Without The Constituent Qualities; As False Coins Have Often Lustre, Though They Want Weight.

If The Man Who Turnips Cries, Cry Not When His Father Dies, 'tis Proof That He Had Rather Have A Turnip Than His Father.

A Scotchman Must Be A Very Sturdy Moralist Who Does Not Love Scotland Better Than Truth.

Much May Be Made Of A Scotchman, If He Be Caught Young.

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.

He Who Sees Different Ways To The Same End, Will, Unless He Watches Carefully Over His Own Conduct, Lay Out Too Much Of His Attention Upon The Comparison Of Probabilities And The Adjustment Of Expedients, And Pause In The Choice Of His Road, Till Some Accident Intercepts His Journey.

They Whose Activity Of Imagination Is Often Shifting The Scenes Of Expectation, Are Frequently Subject To Such Sallies Of Caprice As Make All Their Actions Fortuitous, Destroy The Value Of Their Friendship, Obstruct The Efficacy Of Their Virtues, And Set Them Below The Meanest Of Those Who Persist In Their Resolutions, Execute What They Design, And Perform What They Have Promised.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

In Proportion As Our Cares Are Employed Upon The Future, They Are Abstracted From The Present, From The Only Time Which We Can Call Our Own, And Of Which, If We Neglect The Apparent Duties To Make Provision Against Visionary Attacks, We Shall Certainly Counteract Our Own Purpose.

Philosophers There Are Who Try To Make Themselves Believe That This Life Is Happy; But They Believe It Only While They Are Saying It, And Never Yet Produced Conviction In A Single Mind.

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

When Men Come To Like A Sea-life, They Are Not Fit To Live On Land.

In Most Ages Many Countries Have Had Part Of Their Inhabitants In A State Of Slavery; Yet It May Be Doubted Whether Slavery Can Ever Be Supposed The Natural Condition Of Man. It Is Impossible Not To Conceive That Men In Their Original State Were Equal; And Very Difficult To Imagine How One Would Be Subjected To Another But By Violent Compulsion. An Individual May, Indeed, Forfeit His Liberty By A Crime; But He Cannot By That Crime Forfeit The Liberty Of His Children.

Very Few Live By Choice. Every Man Is Placed In His Present Condition By Causes Which Acted Without His Foresight, And With Which He Did Not Always Willingly Cooperate; And Therefore You Will Rarely Meet One Who Does Not Think The Lot Of His Neighbor Better Than His Own.

A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance, Or To Extinguish The Desire Of Fond Endearments And Tender Officiousness; And, Therefore, No One Should Think It Unnecessary To Learn Those Arts By Which Friendship May Be Gained.

We Frequently Fall Into Error And Folly, Not Because The True Principles Of Action Are Not Known, But Because For A Time They Are Not Remembered; He May, Therefore, Justly Be Numbered Among The Benefactors Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into Short Sentences That May Early Be Impressed On The Memory, And Taught By Frequent Recollection To Occur Habitually To The Mind.

Too Much Nicety Of Detail Disgusts The Greatest Part Of Readers, And To Throw A Multitude Of Particulars Under General Heads, And Lay Down Rules Of Extensive Comprehension, Is To Common Understandings Of Little Use.

As The Greatest Liar Tells More Truths Than Falsehoods, So May It Be Said Of The Worst Man, That He Does More Good Than Evil.

You Are Much Surer That You Are Doing Good When You Pay Money To Those Who Work, As The Recompense Of Their Labor, Than When You Give Money Merely In Charity.

...a Common Observation, That Few Are Mended By Imprisonment, And That He, Whose Crimes Have Made Confinement Necessary, Seldom Makes Any Other Use Of His Enlargement, Than To Do, With Greater Cunning, What He Did Before With Less.

The Labor Of Rising From The Ground Will Be Great, ... But As We Mount Higher, The Earth's Attraction, And The Body's Gravity, Will Be Gradually Diminished Till We Arrive At A Region Where The Man Will Float In The Air Without Any Tendency To Fall.

We May Have Uneasy Feelings For Seeing A Creature In Distress Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

Slavery Is Now Nowhere More Patiently Endured, Than In Countries Once Inhabited By The Zealots Of Liberty.

Shame Arises From The Fear Of Men, Conscience From The Fear Of God.

Rash Oaths, Whether Kept Or Broken, Frequently Produce Guilt.

When Emulation Leads Us To Strive For Self-elevation By Merit Alone, And Not By Belittling Another, Then It Is One Of The Grandest Possible Incentives To Action.

You Think I Love Flattery (says Dr. Johnson), And So I Do; But A Little Too Much Always Disgusts Me: That Fellow Richardson, On The Contrary, Could Not Be Contented To Sail Quietly Down The Stream Of Reputation, Without Longing To Taste The Froth From Every Stroke Of The Oar.

In General Those Parents Have The Most Reverence Who Most Deserve It; For He That Lives Well Cannot Be Despised.

Few Men Survey Themselves With So Much Severity As Not To Admit Prejudices In Their Own Favour, Which An Artful Flatterer May Gradually Strengthen, Till Wishes For A Particular Qualification Are Improved To Hopes Of Attainment, And Hopes Of Attainment To Belief Of Possession.

He Who Would Bring Home The Wealth Of The Indies Must Carry The Wealth Of The Indies With Him.

All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise. It Is In Order To Show How Much He Can Spare.

Don't Think Of Retiring From The World Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire. I Hate A Fellow Whom Pride Or Cowardice Or Laziness Drive Into A Corner, And Who Does Nothing When He Is There But Sit And Growl. Let Him Come Out As I Do, And Bark.

The Business Of Life Is To Go Forward.

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

Exercise Cannot Secure Us From That Dissolution To Which We Are Decreed; But While The Soul And Body Continue United, It Can Make The Association Pleasing, And Give Probable Hopes That They Shall Be Disciplined By An Easy Separation...to Die Is The Fate Of Man; But To Die With Lingering Anguish Is Generally His Folly.

We Never Do Anything Consciously For The Last Time Without Sadness Of Heart.

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

That What Cannot Be Repaired Is Not To Be Regretted.

Every Man Has Frequent Grievances Which Only The Solicitude Of Friendship Will Discover And Remedy, And Which Would Remain For Ever Unheeded In The Mighty Heap Of Human Calamity, Were It Only Surveyed By The Eye Of General Benevolence Equally Attentive To Every Misery.

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