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As Not Every Instance Of Similitude Can Be Considered As A Proof Of Imitation, So Not Every Imitation Ought To Be Stigmatised As Plagiarism. The Adoption Of A Noble Sentiment, Or The Insertion Of A Borrowed Ornament, May Sometimes Display So Much Judgment As Will Almost Compensate For Invention; And An Inferior Genius May, Without Any Imputation Of Servility, Pursue The Paths Of The Ancients, Provided He Declines To Tread In Their Footsteps.

-Samuel Johnson

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As Not Every Instance

Samuel Johnson

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As Not Every Instance Of Similitude Can Be Considered As A Proof Of Imitation, So Not Every Imitation Ought To Be Stigmatised As Plagiarism. The Adoption Of A Noble Sentiment, Or The Insertion Of A Borrowed Ornament, May Sometimes Display So Much Judgment As Will Almost Compensate For Invention; And An Inferior Genius May, Without Any Imputation Of Servility, Pursue The Paths Of The Ancients, Provided He Declines To Tread In Their Footsteps.

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

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

Among Many Parallels Which Men Of Imagination Have Drawn Between The Natural And Moral State Of The World, It Has Been Observed That Happiness As Well As Virtue Consists In Mediocrity.

Some Desire Is Necessary To Keep Life In Motion, And He Whose Real Wants Are Supplied Must Admit Those Of Fancy.

In Misery's Darkest Cavern Known, His Useful Care Was Ever Nigh Where Hopeless Anguish Pour'd His Groan, And Lonely Want Retir'd To Die.

When Once A Man Has Made Celebrity Necessary To His Happiness, He Has Put It In The Power Of The Weakest And Most Timorous Malignity, If Not To Take Away His Satisfaction, At Least To Withhold It. His Enemies May Indulge Their Pride By Airy Negligence And Gratify Their Malice By Quiet Neutrality.

Men Do Not Suspect Faults Which They Do Not Commit

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

It May Be Observed In General That The Future Is Purchased By The Present. It Is Not Possible To Secure Distant Or Permanent Happiness But By The Forbearance Of Some Immediate Gratification.

Sir, As A Man Advances In Life, He Gets What Is Better Than Admiration, - Judgement, To Estimate Things At Their True Value.

Every Man Has A Lurking Wish To Appear Considerable In His Native Place.

More Knowledge May Be Gained Of A Man's Real Character By A Short Conversation With One Of His Servants Than From A Formal And Studied Narrative, Begun With His Pedigree And Ended With His Funeral.

In All Pointed Sentences, Some Degree Of Accuracy Must Be Sacrificed To Conciseness.

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.

I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.

I Would Not Give Half A Guinea To Live Under One Form Of Government Rather Than Another. It Is Of No Moment To The Happiness Of An Individual.

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

No People Can Be Great Who Have Ceased To Be Virtuous.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought.

What Provokes Your Risibility, Sir? Have I Said Anything That You Understand? Then I Ask Pardon Of The Rest Of The Company.

He That Can Swim Needs Not Despair To Fly; To Swim Is To Fly In A Grosser Fluid, And To Fly Is To Swim In A Subtler. We Are Only To Proportion Our Power Of Resistance To The Different Density Of Matter Through Which We Are To Pass. You Will Be Necessarily Upborne By The Air If You Can Renew Any Impulse Upon It Faster Than The Air Can Recede From The Pressure.

Other Things May Be Seized By Might, Or Purchased With Money, But Knowledge Is To Be Gained Only By Study, And Study To Be Prosecuted Only In Retirement.

The Commodiousness Of Money Is Indeed Great; But There Are Some Advantages Which Money Cannot Buy, And Which Therefore No Wise Man Will By The Love Of Money Be Tempted To Forego.

Every Man Has Something To Do Which He Neglects, Every Man Has Faults To Conquer Which He Delays To Combat.

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.

The Care Of The Critic Should Be To Distinguish Error From Inability, Faults Of Inexperience From Defects Of Nature.

A Short Letter To A Distant Friend Is, In My Opinion, An Insult Like That Of A Slight Bow Or Cursory Salutation - A Proof Of Unwillingness To Do Much, Even Where There Is A Necessity Of Doing Something.

He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.

He That Resigns His Peace To Little Casualties, And Suffers The Course Of His Life To Be Interrupted For Fortuitous Inadvertencies Or Offences, Delivers Up Himself To The Direction Of The Wind, And Loses All That Constancy And Equanimity Which Constitutes The Chief Praise Of A Wise Man.

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

I Do Not Much Wish Well To Discoveries, For I Am Always Afraid They Will End In Conquest And Robbery.

People Have Now A-days Got A Strange Opinion That Every Thing Should Be Taught By Lectures. Now, I Cannot See That Lectures Can Do As Much Good As Reading The Books From Which The Lectures Are Taken.

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

Gaiety Is To Good-humor As Animal Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance. The One Overpowers Weak Spirits, The Other Recreates And Revives Them. Gaiety Seldom Fails To Give Some Pain; Good-humor Boasts No Faculties Which Every One Does Not Believe In His Own Power, And Pleases Principally By Not Offending.

To Keep Your Secret Is Wisdom; But To Expect Others To Keep It Is Folly.

Keeping Secrets

The Ambition Of Superior Sensibility And Superior Eloquence Disposes The Lovers Of Arts To Receive Rapture At One Time, And Communicate It At Another; And Each Labors First To Impose Upon Himself And Then To Propagate The Imposture.

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.

It Is More Reasonable To Wish For Reputation While It May Be Enjoyed, As Anacreon Calls Upon His Companions To Give Him For Present Use The Wine And Garlands Which They Propose To Bestow Upon His Tomb.

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

He That Pines With Hunger, Is In Little Care How Others Shall Be Fed. The Poor Man Is Seldom Studious To Make His Grandson Rich.

These Papers Of The Day Have Uses More Adequate To The Purposes Of Common Life Than More Pompous And Durable Volumes.

Discord Generally Operates In Little Things; It Is Inflamed ... By Contrariety Of Taste Oftener Than Principles.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

Piety Is The Only Proper And Adequate Relief Of Decaying Man. He That Grows Old Without Religions Hopes, As He Declines Into Imbecility, And Feels Pains And Sorrows Incessantly Crowding Upon Him, Falls Into A Gulf Of Bottomless Misery, In Which Every Reflection Must Plunge Him Deeper And Deeper.

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

I Have Always Considered It As Treason Against The Great Republic Of Human Nature, To Make Any Man's Virtues The Means Of Deceiving Him.

Misery Is Caused For The Most Part, Not By A Heavy Crush Of Disaster, But By The Corrosion Of Less Visible Evils, Which Canker Enjoyment, And Undermine Security. The Visit Of An Invader Is Necessarily Rare, But Domestic Animosities Allow No Cessation.

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.

No Knowledge Is Useless, With The Exception Of Heraldry.

Criticism, As It Was First Instituted By Aristotle, Was Meant As A Standard Of Judging Well.

A Merchant May, Perhaps, Be A Man Of An Enlarged Mind, But There Is Nothing In Trade Connected With An Enlarged Mind.

Curiosity Is One Of The Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect. Every Advance Into Knowledge Opens New Prospects, And Produces New Incitements To Farther Progress.

Nothing Is More Idle Than To Inquire After Happiness, Which Nature Has Kindly Placed Within Our Reach.

To Forget, Or Pretend To Do So, To Return A Borrowed Article, Is The Meanest Sort Of Petty Theft.

Falsehoods Of Convenience Or Vanity, Falsehoods From Which No Evil Immediately Visible Ensues, Except The General Degradation Of Human Testimony, Are Very Lightly Uttered, And Once Uttered Are Sullenly Supported.

Labor's Face Is Wrinkled With The Wind, And Swarthy With The Sun.

It Is Very Natural For Young Men To Be Vehement, Acrimonious And Severe. For As They Seldom Comprehend At Once All The Consequences Of A Position, Or Perceive The Difficulties By Which Cooler And More Experienced Reasoners Are Restrained From Confidence, They Form Their Conclusions With Great Precipitance. Seeing Nothing That Can Darken Or Embarrass The Question, They Expect To Find Their Own Opinion Universally Prevalent, And Are Inclined To Impute Uncertainty And Hesitation To Want Of Honesty, Rather Than Of Knowledge.

Man Is A Transitory Being, And His Designs Must Partake Of The Imperfections Their Author.

Sir, A Man Who Cannot Get To Heaven In A Green Coat, Will Not Find His Way Thither The Sooner In A Grey One.

If A Man Begins To Read In The Middle Of A Book, And Feels An Inclination To Go On, Let Him Not Quit It To Go To The Beginning. He May Perhaps Not Feel Again The Inclination.

A Decent Provision For The Poor Is The True Test Of Civilization.

Ladies, Stock And Tend Your Hive, Trifle Not At Thirty-five; For, Howe'er We Boast And Strive, Life Declines From Thirty-five; He That Ever Hopes To Thrive Must Begin By Thirty-five.

Milton, Madam, Was A Genius That Could Cut A Colossus From A Rock; But Could Not Carve Heads Upon Cherry-stones.

A Country Is In A Bad State, Which Is Governed Only By Laws; Because A Thousand Things Occur For Which Laws Cannot Provide, And Where Authority Ought To Interpose.

Life Must Be Filled Up, And The Man Who Is Not Capable Of Intellectual Pleasures Must Content Himself With Such As His Senses Can Afford.

Must Helpless Man, In Ignorance Sedate, Roll Darkly Down The Torrent Of His Fate.

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.

Was There Ever Yet Anything Written By Mere Man That Was Wished Longer By Its Readers, Excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, And The Pilgrim's Progress?

Robinson Crusoe

A Wise Man Is Cured Of Ambition By Ambition Itself; His Aim Is So Exalted That Riches, Office, Fortune And Favour Cannot Satisfy Him.

The Liberty Of The Press Is A Blessing When We Are Inclined To Write Against Others, And A Calamity When We Find Ourselves Overborne By The Multitude Of Our Assailants.

Instead Of Rating The Man By His Performances, We Rate Too Frequently The Performances By The Man.

Stand Firm For Your Country, And Become A Man Honour'd And Lov'd: It Were A Noble Life, To Be Found Dead, Embracing Her.

Whatever Professes To Benefit By Pleasing Must Please At Once. The Pleasures Of The Mind Imply Something Sudden And Unexpected; That Which Elevates Must Always Surprise.

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

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.

It Is Very Strange, And Very Melancholy, That The Paucity Of Human Pleasures Should Persuade Us Ever To Call Hunting One Of Them.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

Life, To Be Worthy Of A Rational Being, Must Be Always In Progression; We Must Always Purpose To Do More Or Better Than In Time Past.

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

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

I Never Desire To Converse With A Man Who Has Written More Than He Has Read.

There Are People Whom One Should Like Very Well To Drop, But Would Not Wish To Be Dropped By.

Being In A Ship Is Being In A Jail, With The Chance Of Being Drowned.

All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire.

It Is Strange That There Should Be So Little Reading In The World, And So Much Writing. People In General Do Not Willingly Read, If They Can Have Any Thing Else To Amuse Them.

He That Outlives A Wife Whom He Has Long Loved, Sees Himself Disjoined From The Only Mind That Has The Same Hopes, And Fears, And Interest; From The Only Companion With Whom He Has Shared Much Good And Evil; And With Whom He Could Set His Mind At Liberty, To Retrace The Past Or Anticipate The Future. The Continuity Of Being Is Lacerated; The Settled Course Of Sentiment And Action Is Stopped; And Life Stands Suspended And Motionless.

It Is Better To Suffer Wrong Than To Do It.

Since Every Man Is Obliged To Promote Happiness And Virtue, He Should Be Careful Not To Mislead Unwary Minds, By Appearing To Set Too High A Value Upon Things By Which No Real Excellence Is Conferred.

The Authour Who Imitates His Predecessors Only By Furnishing Himself With Thoughts And Elegances Out Of The Same General Magazine Of Literature, Can With Little More Propriety Be Reproached As A Plagiary, Than The Architect Can Be Censured As A Mean Copier Of Angelo Or Wren, Because He Digs His Marble Out Of The Same Quarry, Squares His Stones By The Same Art, And Unites Them In Columns Of The Same Orders.

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

Guilt Has Always Its Horrors And Solicitudes; And, To Make It Yet More Shameful And Detestable, It Is Doomed Often To Stand In Awe Of Those To Whom Nothing Could Give Influence Or Weight But Their Power Of Betraying.

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

Foppery Is Never Cured; It Is The Bad Stamina Of The Mind, Which, Like Those Of The Body, Are Never Rectified; Once A Coxcomb Always A Coxcomb.

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

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

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.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.

Peevishness May Be Considered The Canker Of Life, That Destroys Its Vigor And Checks Its Improvement; That Creeps On With Hourly Depredations, And Taints And Vitiates What It Cannot Consume.

A Writer Only Begins A Book. A Reader Finishes It.

Prosperity's Right Hand Is Industry And Her Left Hand Is Frugality.

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

The Most Useful Truths Are Always Universal, And Unconnected With Accidents And Customs.

When I Find That So Much Of My Life Has Stolen Unprofitably Away, And That I Can Descry By Retrospection Scarcely A Few Single Days Properly And Vigorously Employed, Why Do I Yet Try To Resolve Again? I Try, Because Reformation Is Necessary And Despair Is Criminal. I Try, In Humble Hope Of The Help Of God.

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.

The Gratification Which Affluence Of Wealth, Extent Of Power, And Eminence Of Reputation Confer, Must Be Always, By Their Own Nature, Confined To A Very Small Number; And The Life Of The Greater Part Of Mankind Must Be Lost In Empty Wishes And Painful Comparisons, Were Not The Balm Of Philosophy Shed Upon Us, And Our Discontent At The Appearances Of Unequal Distribution Soothed And Appeased.

The Reciprocal Civility Of Authors Is One Of The Most Risible Scenes In The Farce Of Life.

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

The Perfect Day For Quitting Is Not Real. It Will Never Come, So Might As Well Start Today

The Dangers Gather As The Treasures Rise.

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.

Nothing Detains The Reader's Attention More Powerfully Than Deep Involutions Of Distress, Or Sudden Vicissitudes Of Fortune; And These Might Be Abundantly Afforded By Memoirs Of The Sons Of Literature. They Are Entangled By Contracts Which They Know Not How To Fulfill, And Obliged To Write On Subjects Which They Do Not Understand. Every Publication Is A New Period Of Time, From Which Some Increase Or Declension Of Fame Is To Be Reckoned. The Gradations Of A Hero's Life Are From Battle To Battle, And Of An Author's From Book To Book.

Why, Sir, Sherry Is Dull, Naturally Dull; But It Must Have Taken Him A Great Deal Of Pains To Become What We Now See Him. Such An Excess Of Stupidity, Sir, Is Not In Nature.

There Is Nothing Against Which An Old Man Should Be So Much Upon His Guard As Putting Himself To Nurse.

Nothing Concentrates One's Mind So Much As The Realization That One Is Going To Be Hanged In The Morning!

The Poor And The Busy Have No Leisure For Sentimental Sorrow.

One Of The Aged Greatest Miseries Is That They Cannot Easily Find A Companion Able To Share The Memories Of The Past.

I Also Admit, That There Are Some Sluggish Men Who Are Improved By Drinking; As There Are Fruits Which Are Not Good Till They Are Rotten.

A Simile, To Be Perfect, Must Both Illustrate And Ennoble The Subject; Must Show It To The Understanding In A Clearer View, And Display It To The Fancy With Greater Dignity; But Either Of These Qualities May Be Sufficient To Recommend It.... That It May Be Complete, It Is Required To Exhibit, Independently Of Its References, A Pleasing Image; For A Simile Is Said To Be A Short Episode.

A Man Is Not Obliged Honestly To Answer A Question Which Should Not Properly Be Put.

The First Years Of Man Must Make Provision For The Last.

The Coquette Has Companions, Indeed, But No Lovers,--for Love Is Respectful And Timorous; And Where Among Her Followers Will She Find A Husband?

I Am Not So Lost In Lexicography As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven.

Commerce Can Never Be At A Stop While One Man Wants What Another Can Supply; And Credit Will Never Be Denied, While It Is Likely To Be Repaid With Profit.

Pleasure Itself Is Not A Vice

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.

It Is The Care Of A Very Great Part Of Mankind To Conceal Their Indigence From The Rest. They Support Themselves By Temporary Expedients, And Every Day Is Lost In Contriving For To-morrow.

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.

The Maxim Of Cleobulus, "mediocrity Is Best," Has Been Long Considered A Universal Principle, Extending Through The Whole Compass Of Life And Nature. The Experience Of Every Age Seems To Have Given It New Confirmation, And To Show That Nothing, However Specious Or Alluring, Is Pursued With Propriety Or Enjoyed With Safety Beyond Certain Limits.

As Peace Is The End Of War, So To Be Idle Is The Ultimate Purpose Of The Busy.

Sir, There Is No Settling The Point Of Precedency Between A Louse And A Flea.

His Scorn Of The Great Is Repeated Too Often To Be Real; No Man Thinks Much Of That Which He Despises.

Human Experience, Which Is Constantly Contradicting Theory, Is The Great Test Of Truth. A System, Built Upon The Discoveries Of A Great Many Minds, Is Always Of More Strength, Than What Is Produced By The Mere Workings Of Any One Mind, Which, Of Itself, Can Do Very Little. There Is Not So Poor A Book In The World That Would Not Be A Prodigious Effort Were It Wrought Out Entirely By A Single Mind, Without The Aid Of Prior Investigators.

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

The Most Heterogeneous Ideas Are Yoked By Violence Together; Nature And Art Are Ransacked For Illustrations, Comparisons, And Allusions; Their Learning Instructs, And Their Subtlety Surprises; But The Reader Commonly Thinks His Improvement Dearly Bought And, Though He Sometimes Admires, Is Seldom Pleased.

I Am Willing To Love All Of Mankind, Except An American.

Truth, Such As Is Necessary To The Reputation Of Life, Is Always Found Where It Is Honestly Sought.

Learn That The Present Hour Alone Is Man's.

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.

Thought Is Always Troublesome To Him Who Lives Without His Own Approbation.

It Is A Common Error, And The Greater And More Mischievous For Being So Common, To Believe That Repentance Best Becomes And Most Concerns Dying Men. Indeed, What Is Necessary Every Hour Of Our Life Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too, And As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance, And Therefore It Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too; But He Who Hath Constantly Exercised Himself In It In His Health And Vigor, Will Do It With Less Pain In His Sickness And Weakness; And He Who Hath Practiced It All His Life, Will Do It With More Ease And Less Perplexity In The Hour Of His Death.

Attack Is The Reaction. I Never Think I Have Hit Hard Unless It Rebounds.

Even Those To Whom Providence Has Allotted Greater Strength Of Understanding, Can Expect Only To Improve A Single Science. In Every Other Part Of Learning, They Must Be Content To Follow Opinions, Which They Are Not Able To Examine; And, Even In That Which They Claim As Peculiarly Their Own, Can Seldom Add More Than Some Small Particle Of Knowledge, To The Hereditary Stock Devolved To Them From Ancient Times, The Collective Labour Of A Thousand Intellects.

Parents And Children Seldom Act In Concert: Each Child Endeavors To Appropriate The Esteem Or Fondness Of The Parents, And The Parents, With Yet Less Temptation, Betray Each Other To Their Children.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

Nay, Sir, Those Who Write In Them, Write Well, In Order To Be Paid Well.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity.

With What Hope Can We Endeavor To Persuade The Ladies That The Time Spent At The Toilet Is Lost In Vanity.

That Distrust Which Intrudes So Often On Your Mind Is A Mode Of Melancholy, Which, If It Be The Business Of A Wise Man To Be Happy, It Is Foolish To Indulge; And If It Be A Duty To Preserve Our Faculties Entire For Their Proper Use, It Is Criminal. Suspicion Is Very Often An Useless Pain.

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

No Writer Can Be Fully Convicted Of Imitation Except There Is A Concurrence Of More Resemblance Than Can Be Imagined To Have Happened By Chance; As Where The Same Ideas Are Conjoined Without Any Natural Series Or Necessary Coherence, Or Where Not Only The Thought But The Words Are Copied.

Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.

As He That Lives Longest Lives But A Little While, Every Man May Be Certain That He Has No Time To Waste. The Duties Of Life Are Commensurate To Its Duration; And Every Day Brings Its Task, Which, If Neglected, Is Doubled On The Morrow.

Friendship, Like Love, Is Destroyed By Long Absence, Though It May Be Increased By Short Intermissions. What We Have Missed Long Enough To Want It, We Value More When It Is Regained; But That Which Has Been Lost Till It Is Forgotten Will Be Found At Last With Little Gladness, And With Still Less If A Substitute Has Supplied The Place.

There Is A Certain Race Of Men That Either Imagine It Their Duty, Or Make It Their Amusement, To Hinder The Reception Of Every Work Of Learning Or Genius, Who Stand As Sentinels In The Avenues Of Fame, And Value Themselves Upon Giving Ignorance And Envy The First Notice Of A Prey.

Such Are The Vicissitudes Of The World, Through All Its Parts, That Day And Night, Labor And Rest, Hurry And Retirement, Endear Each Other; Such Are The Changes That Keep The Mind In Action: We Desire, We Pursue, We Obtain, We Are Satiated; We Desire Something Else And Begin A New Pursuit.

The Whole Power Of Cunning Is Privative; To Say Nothing, And To Do Nothing , Is The Utmost Of Its Reach. Yet Men, Thus Narrow By Nature And Mean By Art, Are Sometimes Able To Rise By The Miscarriages Of Bravery And The Openness Of Integrity, And, Watching Failures And Snatching Opportunities, Obtain Advantages Which Belong To Higher Characters.

Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.

There Are In Every Age New Errors To Be Rectified And New Prejudices To Be Opposed.

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?

Everything That Enlarges The Sphere Of Human Powers, That Shows Man He Can Do What He Thought He Could Not Do, Is Valuable.

A Small Country Town Is Not The Place In Which One Would Choose To Quarrel With A Wife; Every Human Being In Such Places Is A Spy.

This Mournful Truth Is Everywhere Confessed, Slow Rises Worth By Poverty Depressed.

Applause Abates Diligence.

When A Man Feel The Reprehension Of A Friend Seconded By His Own Heart, He Is Easily Heated Into Resentment.

When Making Your Choice In Life, Do Not Neglect To Live.

I Believe It Will Be Found That Those Who Marry Late Are Best Pleased With Their Children; And Those Who Marry Early, With Their Partners.

The Necessities Of Our Condition Require A Thousand Offices Of Tenderness, Which Mere Regard For The Species Will Never Dictate.

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.

As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.

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.

To Tell Of Disappointment And Misery, To Thicken The Darkness Of Futurity, And Perplex The Labyrinth Of Uncertainty, Has Been Always A Delicious Employment Of The Poets

As A Madman Is Apt To Think Himself Grown Suddenly Great, So He That Grows Suddenly Great Is Apt To Borrow A Little From The Madman.

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.

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

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

I Hope I Shall Never Be Deterred From Detecting What I Think A Cheat, By The Menaces Of A Ruffian.

If Misery Be The Effect Of Virtue, It Ought To Be Reverenced; If Of Ill-fortune, To Be Pitied; And If Of Vice, Not To Be Insulted, Because It Is Perhaps Itself A Punishment Adequate To The Crime By Which It Was Produced.

Let Observation With Extensive View, Survey Mankind From China To Peru; Remark Each Anxious Toil, Each Eager Strife, And Watch The Busy Scenes Of Crowded Life.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

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.

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

He That Is Pushing His Predecessors Into The Gulf Of Obscurity, Cannot But Sometimes Suspect, That He Must Himself Sink In Like Manner, And, As He Stands Upon The Same Precipice, Be Swept Away With The Same Violence.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

Among The Calamities Of War May Be Justly Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth By Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates And Credulity Encourages. A Peace Will Equally Leave The Warrior And The Relater Of Wars Destitute Of Employment; And I Know Not Whether More Is To Be Dreaded From Streets Filled With Soldiers Accustomed To Plunder, Or From Garrets Filled With Scribblers Accustomed To Lie.

I Would Consent To Have A Limb Amputated To Recover My Spirits

Health Is So Necessary To All The Duties, As Well As Pleasures Of Life, That The Crime Of Squandering It Is Equal To The Folly.

An Infallible Characteristic Of Meanness Is Cruelty. Men Who Have Practiced Tortures On Animals Without Pity, Relating Them Without Shame, How Can They Still Hold Their Heads Among Human Beings?

Riches Are Of No Value In Themselves; Their Use Is Discovered Only In That Which They Procure.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause Awhile From Letters, To Be Wise.

I Look Upon Every Day To Be Lost, In Which I Do Not Make A New Acquaintance.

It Is Wonderful To Think How Men Of Very Large Estates Not Only Spend Their Yearly Income, But Are Often Actually In Want Of Money. It Is Clear, They Have Not Value For What They Spend.

A Man Who Is Good Enough To Go To Heaven Is Good Enough To Be A Clergyman.

Not Good Enough

I Would Injure No Man, And Should Provoke No Resentment. I Would Relieve Every Distress, And Should Enjoy The Benedictions Of Gratitude. I Would Choose My Friends Among The Wise And My Wife Among The Virtuous, And Therefore Should Be In No Danger From Treachery Or Unkindness. My Children Should By My Care Be Learned And Pious, And Would Repay To My Age What Their Childhood Had Received.

The Happiness Of London Is Not To Be Conceived But By Those Who Have Been In It.

Players, Sir! I Look On Them As No Better Than Creatures Set Upon Tables And Joint Stools To Make Faces And Produce Laughter, Like Dancing Dogs.

Pleasure Is Very Seldom Found Where It Is Sought. Our Brightest Blazes Of Gladness Are Commonly Kindled By Unexpected Sparks. The Flowers Which Scatter Their Odours From Time To Time In The Paths Of Life, Grow Up Without Culture From Seeds Scattered By Chance.

Life Affords No Higher Pleasure Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties.

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