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But The Distant Hope Of Being One Day Useful Or Eminent Ought Not To Mislead Us Too Far From That Study Which Is Equally Requisite To The Great And Mean, To The Celebrated And Obscure; The Art Of Moderating The Desires, Of Repressing The Appetites; And Of Conciliating Or Retaining The Favour Of Mankind.

-Samuel Johnson

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But The Distant Hope

Samuel Johnson

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But The Distant Hope Of Being One Day Useful Or Eminent Ought Not To Mislead Us Too Far From That Study Which Is Equally Requisite To The Great And Mean, To The Celebrated And Obscure; The Art Of Moderating The Desires, Of Repressing The Appetites; And Of Conciliating Or Retaining The Favour Of Mankind.

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It Is Common To Overlook What Is Near By Keeping The Eye Fixed On Something Remote.

Madam, Before You Flatter A Man So Grossly To His Face, You Should Consider Whether Or Not Your Flattery Is Worth His Having.

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

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

Never Trust Your Tongue When Your Heart Is Bitter.

There Is, Indeed, Nothing That So Much Seduces Reason From Vigilance, As The Thought Of Passing Life With An Amiable Woman.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Giving Him An Advantage To Which He Is Not Entitled.

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.

I Look Upon This As I Did Upon The Dictionary: It Is All Work, And My Inducement To It Is Not Love Or Desire Of Fame, But The Want Of Money, Which Is The Only Motive To Writing That I Know Of.

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

The Liberty Of Using Harmless Pleasure Will Not Be Disputed; But It Is Still To Be Examined What Pleasures Are Harmless.

Promise, Large Promise, Is The Soul Of An Advertisement.

Those That Have Done Nothing In Life, Are Not Qualified To Judge Of Those That Have Done Little

Nothing Is More Hopeless Than A Scheme Of Merriment.

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

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 World Will Never Be Long Without Some Good Reason To Hate The Unhappy; Their Real Faults Are Immediately Detected; And If Those Are Not Sufficient To Sink Them Into Infamy, An Individual Weight Of Calumny Will Be Super-added.

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

I Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.

Christianity Is The Highest Perfection Of Humanity.

Money Confounds Subordination.

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

He Was So Generally Civil, That Nobody Thanked Him For It.

A Man, Doubtful Of His Dinner, Or Trembling At A Creditor, Is Not Much Disposed To Abstracted Meditation, Or Remote Enquiries.

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

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.

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

Many Leave The Labours Of Half Their Life To Their Executors And To Chance, Because They Will Not Send Them Abroad Unfinished, And Are Unable To Finish Them, Having Prescribed To Themselves Such A Degree Of Exactness As Human Diligence Can Scarcely Ontain.

Those Authors Who Would Find Many Readers, Must Endeavour To Please While They Instruct.

Curiosity Is The Thirst Of The Soul.

Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.

Many Things Difficult To Design Prove Easy To Performance.

Many A Man Is Mad In Certain Instances, And Goes Through Life Without Having It Perceived. For Example, A Madness Has Seized A Person Of Supposing Himself Obliged Literally To Pray Continually; Had The Madness Turned The Opposite Way, And The Person Thought It A Crime Ever To Pray, It Might Not Improbably Have Continued Unobserved.

There Is No Being So Poor And So Contemptible, Who Does Not Think There Is Somebody Still Poorer, And Still More Contemptible.

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.

The Art Of The Writer, Like That Of The Player, Is Attained By Slow Degrees. The Power Of Distinguishing And Discriminating Comick Characters, Or Of Filling Tragedy With Poetical Images, Must Be The Gift Of Nature, Which No Instruction Nor Labour Can Supply; But The Art Of Dramatick Disposition, The Contexture Of The Scenes, The Involution Of The Plot, The Expedients Of Suspension, And The Strategems Of Surprise, Are To Be Learned By Practice.

I Will Take No More Physick, Not Even My Opiates; For I Have Prayed That I May Render Up My Soul To God Unclouded.

Solitude Is The Surest Nurse Of All Prurient Passions, And A Girl In The Hurry Of Preparation, Or Tumult Of Gaiety, Has Neither Inclination Nor Leisure To Let Tender Expressions Soften Or Sink Into Her Heart. The Ball, The Show, Are Not The Dangerous Places: No, 'tis The Private Friend, The Kind Consoler, The Companion Of The Easy Vacant Hour, Whose Compliance With Her Opinions Can Flatter Her Vanity, And Whose Conversation Can Sooth, Without Ever Stretching Her Mind, That Is The Lover To Be Feared: He Who Buzzes In Her Ear At Court, Or At The Opera, Must Be Contented To Buzz In Vain.

The Student Who Would Build His Knowledge On Solid Foundations, And Proceed By Just Degrees To The Pinnacles Of Truth, Is Directed By The Great Philosopher Of France To Begin By Doubting Of His Own Existence. In Like Manner, Whoever Would Complete Any Arduous And Intricate Enterprise, Should, As Soon As His Imagination Can Cool After The First Blaze Of Hope, Place Before His Own Eyes Every Possible Embarrassment That May Retard Or Defeat Him. He Should First Question The Probability Of Success, And Then Endeavour To Remove The Objections That He Has Raised.

Revenge Is An Act Of Passion; Vengeance Of Justice. Injuries Are Revenged; Crimes Are Avenged.

Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace.

We Go From Anticipation To Anticipation, Not From Satisfaction To Satisfaction.

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

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.

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

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.

The Task Of An Author Is, Either To Teach What Is Not Known, Or To Recommend Known Truths By His Manner Of Adorning Them; Either To Let New Light In Upon The Mind, And Open New Scenes To The Prospect, Or To Vary The Dress And Situation Of Common Objects, So As To Give Them Fresh Grace And More Powerful Attractions, To Spread Such Flowers Over The Regions Through Which The Intellect Has Already Made Its Progress, As May Tempt It To Return, And Take A Second View Of Things Hastily Passed Over, Or Negligently Regarded.

That The Happiness Of Man May Still Remain Imperfect, As Wants In This Place Are Easily Supplied, New Wants Likewise Are Easily Created; Every Man, In Surveying The Shops Of London, Sees Numberless Instruments And Conveniencies, Of Which, While He Did Not Know Them, He Never Felt The Need; And Yet, When Use Has Made Them Familiar, Wonders How Life Could Be Supported Without Them. Thus It Comes To Pass, That Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions; The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed, Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.

Idleness Is Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry. He That Neglects His Known Duty And Real Employment Naturally Endeavours To Crowd His Mind With Something That May Bar Out The Remembrance Of His Own Folly, And Does Any Thing But What He Ought To Do With Eager Diligence, That He May Keep Himself In His Own Favour.

Books, Says Lord Bacon, Can Never Teach Us The Use Of Books; The Student Must Learn By Commerce With Mankind To Reduce His Speculations To Practice. No Man Should Think So Highly Of Himself As To Think He Can Receive But Little Light From Books; No One So Meanly, As To Believe He Can Discover Nothing But What Is To Be Learned From Them.

His Most Frequent Ailment Was The Headache Which He Used To Relieve By Inhaling The Steam Of Coffee.

Games Are Good Or Bad As To Their Nature; All May Be Perverted.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

To Get A Name Can Happen But To Few. A Name, Even In The Most Commercial Nation, Is One Of The Few Things Which Cannot Be Bought . It Is The Free Gift Of Mankind, Which Must Be Deserved Before It Will Be Granted, And Is At Last Unwillingly Bestowed.

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

He That Embarks On The Voyage Of Life Will Always Wish To Advance Rather By The Impulse Of The Wind Than The Strokes Of The Oar; And Many Fold In Their Passage; While They Lie Waiting For The Gale.

It Requires But Little Acquaintance With The Heart To Know That Woman's First Wish Is To Be Handsome; And That, Consequently, The Readiest Method Of Obtaining Her Kindness Is To Praise Her Beauty.

We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable.

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.

None Of The Projects Or Designs Which Exercise The Mind Of Man Are Equally Subject To Obstructions And Disappointments With The Pursuit Of Fame.

Happiness Consists In The Multiplicity Of Agreeable Consciousness.

What Is The Reason That Women Servants ... Have Much Lower Wages Than Men Servants ... When In Fact Our Female House Servants Work Much Harder Than The Male?

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings.

Advice Is Offensive, Not Because It Lays Us Open To Unexpected Regret, Or Convicts Us Of Any Fault Which Had Escaped Our Notice, But Because It Shows Us That We Are Known To Others As Well As To Ourselves; And The Officious Monitor Is Persecuted With Hatred, Not Because His Accusation Is False, But Because He Assumes That Superiority Which We Are Not Willing To Grant Him, And Has Dared To Detect What We Desired To Conceal.

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

The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.

Such Is The Uncertainty Of Human Affairs, That Security And Despair Are Equal Follies; And As It Is Presumption And Arrogance To Anticipate Triumphs, It Is Weakness And Cowardice To Prog-nosticate Miscarriages.

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.

But, Perhaps, The Flatterer Is Not Often Detected; For An Honest Mind Is Not Apt To Suspect, And No One Exerts The Power Of Discernment With Much Vigour When Selflove Favors The Deceit.

It Is Unpleasing To Represent Our Affairs To Our Own Disadvantage; Yet It Is Necessary To Shew The Evils Which We Desire To Be Removed.

It Is Incident To Physicians, I Am Afraid, Beyond All Other Men, To Mistake Subsequence For Consequence.

He That Will Enjoy The Brightness Of Sunshine, Must Quit The Coolness Of The Shade.

There May Be Other Reasons For A Man's Not Speaking In Publick Than Want Of Resolution: He May Have Nothing To Say.

Those Writers Who Lie On The Watch For Novelty Can Have Little Hope Of Greatness; For Great Things Cannot Have Escaped Former Observation.

Of All The Griefs That Harass The Distress'd, Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest; Fate Never Wounds More Deep The Generous Heart, Than When A Blockhead's Insult Points The Dart.

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.

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.

Wit Will Never Make A Man Rich, But There Are Places Where Riches Will Always Make A Wit.

What Is Twice Read Is Commonly Better Remembered That What Is Transcribed.

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

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.

A Wise Man Will Make Haste To Forgive, Because He Knows The True Value Of Time, And Will Not Suffer It To Pass Away In Unnecessary Pain.

Applause Abates Diligence.

To See Helpless Infancy Stretching Out Her Hands, And Pouring Out Her Cries In Testimony Of Dependence, Without Any Powers To Alarm Jealousy, Or Any Guilt To Alienate Affection, Must Surely Awaken Tenderness In Every Human Mind; And Tenderness Once Excited Will Be Hourly Increased By The Natural Contagion Of Felicity, By The Repercussion Of Communicated Pleasure, By The Consciousness Of Dignity Of Benefaction.

The Power, Indeed, Of Every Individual Is Small, And The Consequence Of His Endeavours Imperceptible, In A General Prospect Of The World. Providence Has Given No Man Ability To Do Much, That Something Might Be Left For Every Man To Do. The Business Of Life Is Carried On By A General Co-operation; In Which The Part Of Any Single Man Can Be No More Distinguished, Than The Effect Of A Particular Drop When The Meadows Are Floated By A Summer Shower: Yet Every Drop Increases The Inundation, And Every Hand Adds To The Happiness Or Misery Of Mankind.

What A Strange Narrowness Of Mind Now Is That, To Think The Things We Have Not Known Are Better Than The Things We Have Known.

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.

No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

The Dependant Who Cultivates Delicacy In Himself Very Little Consults His Own Tranquillity.

The Happiest Conversation Is That Of Which Nothing Is Distinctly Remembered, But A General Effect Of Pleasing Impression.

Golf Is A Game In Which You Claim The Privileges Of Age, And Retain The Playthings Of Childhood.

I Do Not Wonder That, Where The Monastick Life Is Permitted, Every Order Finds Votaries, And Every Monastery Inhabitants. Men Will Submit To Any Rule, By Which They May Be Exempted From The Tyranny Of Caprice And Of Chance. They Are Glad To Supply By External Authority Their Own Want Of Constancy And Resolution, And Court The Government Of Others, When Long Experience Has Convinced Them Of Their Own Inability To Govern Themselves.

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

Knowledge Is More Than Equivalent To Force. The Master Of Mechanics Laughs At Strength.

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.

Man Alone Is Born Crying, Lives Complaining, And Dies Disappointed.

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.

The Misery Of Man Proceeds Not From Any Single Crush Of Overwhelming Evil, But From Small Vexations Continually Repeated.

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

Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, Possession By Disgust, And The Malicious Remark Of The Greek Epigrammatist On Marriage May Be Applied To Many Another Course Of Life, That Its Two Days Of Happiness Are The First And The Last

When We See Our Enemies And Friends Gliding Away Before Us, Let Us Not Forget That We Are Subject To The General Law Of Mortality, And Shall Soon Be Where Our Doom Will Be Fixed Forever.

The Best Part Of Every Author Is In General To Be Found In His Book, I Assure You.

Of Riches It Is Not Necessary To Write The Praise. Let It, However, Be Remembered That He Who Has Money To Spare Has It Always In His Power To Benefit Others, And Of Such Power A Good Man Must Always Be Desirous.

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

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow, But There Is Something In It So Like Virtue, That He Who Is Wholly Without It Cannot Be Loved.

Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

Bravery Has No Place Where It Can Avail Nothing.

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

It Is Better To Suffer Wrong Than To Do It, And Happier To Be Sometimes Cheated Than Not To Trust.

Spite And Ill-nature Are Among The Most Expensive Luxuries In Life.

Much Mischief Is Done In The World With Very Little Interest Or Design.

He That Condemns Himself To Compose On A Stated Day Will Often Bring To His Task Attention Dissipated, A Memory Embarrassed, An Imagination Overwhelmed, A Mind Distracted With Anxieties, A Body Languishing With Disease: He Will Labour On A Barren Topic Till It Is Too Late To Change It; Or, In The Ardour Of Invention, Diffuse His Thoughts Into Wild Exuberance, Which The Pressing Hour Of Publication Cannot Suffer Judgment To Examine Or Reduce.

Smoking Is A Shocking Thing - Blowing Smoke Out Of Our Mouths Into Other People's Mouths, Eyes, And Noses, And Having The Same Thing Done To Us.

To Dread No Eye And To Suspect No Tongue Is The Great Prerogative Of Innocence--an Exemption Granted Only To Invariable Virtue.

In All Evils Which Admit A Remedy, Impatience Is To Be Avoided, Because It Wastes That Time And Attention In Complaints, That, If Properly Applied Might Remove The Cause.

Attention And Respect Give Pleasure, However Late, Or However Useless. But They Are Not Useless, When They Are Late, It Is Reasonable To Rejoice, As The Day Declines, To Find That It Has Been Spent With The Approbation Of Mankind.

Pope Had Been Flattered Till He Thought Himself One Of The Moving Powers Of The System Of Life. When He Talked Of Laying Down His Pen, Those Who Sat Round Him Intreated And Implored; And Self-love Did Not Suffer Him To Suspect That They Went Away And Laughed.

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

The Trade Of Advertising Is Now So Near To Perfection That It Is Not Easy To Propose Any Improvement. But As Every Art Ought To Be Exercized In Due Subordination To The Public Good, I Cannot But Propose It As A Moral Question To These Masters Of The Public Ear, Whether They Do Not Sometimes Play Too Wantonly With Our Passions.

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

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.

The True Genius Is A Mind Of Large General Powers, Accidentally Determined To Some Particular Direction.

I Am Always Sorry When Any Language Is Lost, Because Languages Are The Pedigrees Of Nations.

...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.

There Is Scarcely Any Writer Who Has Not Celebrated The Happiness Of Rural Privacy, And Delighted Himself And His Reader With The Melody Of Birds, The Whisper Of Groves, And The Murmur Of Rivulets.

I Have All My Life Long Been Lying In Bed Till Noon; Yet I Tell All Young Men, And Tell Them With Great Sincerity, That Nobody Who Does Not Rise Early Will Ever Do Any Good.

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.

Pleasure That Is Obtained By Unreasonable And Unsuitable Cost Must Always End In Pain.

How Few Of His Friends' Houses Would A Man Choose To Be At When He Is Sick.

Where There Is No Difficulty There Is No Praise.

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

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

The Balls Of Sight Are So Formed, That One Man's Eyes Are Spectacles To Another, To Read His Heart With.

Life Is Short. The Sooner That A Man Begins To Enjoy His Wealth The Better.

A Minute Analysis Of Life At Once Destroys That Splendor Which Dazzles The Imagination. Whatsoever Grandeur Can Display, Or Luxury Enjoy, Is Procured By Offices Of Which The Mind Shrinks From The Contemplation. All The Delicacies Of The Table May Be Traced Back To The Shambles And The Dunghill; All Magnificence Of Building Was Hewn From The Quarry, And All The Pomp Of Ornament Dug From Among The Damps And Darkness Of The Mine.

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.

Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

Rags Will Always Make Their Appearance Where They Have A Right To Do It.

None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.

In Youth, It Is Common To Measure Right And Wrong By The Opinion Of The World, And In Age, To Act Without Any Measure But Interest, And To Lose Shame Without Substituting Virtue.

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.

Every One Should Consider Himself As Intrusted Not Only With His Own Conduct, But With That Of Others; And As Accountable, Not Only For The Duties Which He Neglects, Or The Crimes That He Commits, But For That Negligence And Irregularity Which He May Encourage Or Inculcate. Every Man, In Whatever Station, Has, Or Endeavours To Have His Followers, Admirers, And Imitators, And Has Therefore The Influence Of His Example To Watch With Care.

To Use Two Languages Familiarly And Without Contaminating One By The Other, Is Very Difficult; And To Use More Than Two Is Hardly To Be Hoped. The Prizes Which Some Have Received For Their Multiplicity Of Languages May Be Sufficient To Excite Industry, But Can Hardly Generate Confidence.

We Have Less Reason To Be Surprised Or Offended When We Find Others Differ From Us In Opinion, Because We Very Often Differ From Ourselves.

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

What Is Read Twice Is Usually Remembered More Than What Is Once Written.

Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.

For Gold The Hireling Judge Distorts The Laws.

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.

Of The Blessings Set Before You Make Your Choice, And Be Content. No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of The Spring: No Man Can, At The Same Time, Fill His Cup From The Source And From The Mouth Of The Nile.

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

The Faults Of A Writer Of Acknowledged Excellence Are More Dangerous, Because The Influence Of His Example Is More Extensive; And The Interest Of Learning Requires That They Should Be Discovered And Stigmatized, Before They Have The Sanction Of Antiquity Conferred Upon Them, And Become Precedents Of Indisputable Authority.

There Is No Observation More Frequently Made By Such As Employ Themselves In Surveying The Conduct Of Mankind, Than That Marriage, Though The Dictate Of Nature, And The Institution Of Providence, Is Yet Very Often The Cause Of Misery, And That Those Who Enter Into That State Can Seldom Forbear To Express Their Repentance, And Their Envy Of Those Whom Either Chance Or Caution Hath Withheld From It.

No One Will Persist Long In Helping Someone Who Will Not Help Themselves.

Helping Someone

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.

This Is My History; Like All Other Histories, A Narrative Of Misery.

People Need To Be Reminded More Often Than They Need To Be Instructed.

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

Human Happiness Has Always Its Abatements; The Brightest Sunshine Of Success Is Not Without A Cloud.

I Wish There Were Some Cure, Like The Lover's Leap, For All Heads Of Which Some Single Idea Has Obtained An Unreasonable And Irregular Possession.

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

No Man But A Blockhead Ever Wrote Except For Money.

There Is No Temper More Unpropitious To Interest Than Desultory Application And Unlimited Inquiry, By Which The Desires Are Held In A Perpetual Equipoise, And The Mind Fluctuates Between Different Purposes Without Determination.

The Present Time Is Seldom Able To Fill Desire Or Imagination With Immediate Enjoyment, And We Are Forced To Supply Its Deficiencies By Recollection Or Anticipation.

Those Who Will Not Take The Trouble To Think For Themselves, Have Always Somebody That Thinks For Them; And The Difficulty In Writing Is To Please Those From Whom Others Learn To Be Pleased.

People May Be Taken In Once, Who Imagine That An Author Is Greater In Private Life Than Other Men.

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

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

Good Breeding Consists In Having No Particular Mark Of Any Profession, But A General Elegance Of Manners.

We Love To Overlook The Boundaries Which We Do Not Wish To Pass.

No Man Should Attempt To Teach Others What He Has Never Learned Himself

The Business Of Life Summons Us Away From Useless Grief, And Calls Us To The Exercise Of Those Virtues Of Which We Are Lamenting Our Deprivation.

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

He That Shall Peruse The Political Pamphlets Of Any Past Reign Will Wonder Why They Were So Eagerly Read, Or So Loudly Praised.

There Are Few Minds To Which Tyranny Is Not Delightful.

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

No One Is Much Pleased With A Companion Who Does Not Increase, In Some Respect, Their Fondness For Themselves.

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.

Bounty Always Receives Part Of Its Value From The Manner In Which It Is Bestowed.

The Desire Of Advising Has A Very Extensive Prevalence; And, Since Advice Cannot Be Given But To Those That Will Hear It, A Patient Listener Is Necessary To The Accommodation Of All Those Who Desire To Be Confirmed In The Opinion Of Their Own Wisdom: A Patient Listener, However, Is Not Always To Be Had; The Present Age, Whatever Age Is Present, Is So Vitiated And Disordered, That Young People Are Readier To Talk Than To Attend, And Good Counsel Is Only Thrown Away Upon Those Who Are Full Of Their Own Perfections.

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, It Is Wrong To Stir Up Law-suits; But When Once It Is Certain That A Law-suit Is To Go On, There Is Nothing Wrong In A Lawyer's Endeavouring That He Shall Have The Benefit, Rather Than Another.

The Life Of A Conscientious Clergyman Is Not Easy. I Have Always Considered A Clergyman As The Father Of A Larger Family Than He Is Able To Maintain. I Would Rather Have Chancery Suits Upon My Hands Than The Cure Of Souls.

Truth, Like Beauty, Varies Its Fashions, And Is Best Recommended By Different Dresses To Different Minds; And He That Recalls The Attention Of Mankind To Any Part Of Learning Which Time Has Left Behind It, May Be Truly Said To Advance The Literatures Of His Own Age. As The Manners Of Nations Vary, New Topicks Of Persuasion Become Necessary, And New Combinations Of Imagery Are Produced; And He That Can Accommodate Himself To The Reigning Taste, May Always Have Readers Who Perhaps Would Not Have Looked Upon Better Performances.

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

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 Have No More Pleasure In Hearing A Man Attempting Wit And Failing, Than In Seeing A Man Trying To Leap Over A Ditch And Tumbling Into It

Life Is Barren Enough Surely With All Her Trappings; Let Us Be Therefore Cautious Of How We Strip Her.

Few Of Those Who Fill The World With Books, Have Any Pretensions To The Hope Either Of Pleasing Or Instructing. They Have Often No Other Task Than To Lay Two Books Before Them, Out Of Which They Compile A Third, Without Any New Material Of Their Own, And With Very Little Application Of Judgment To Those Which Former Authors Have Supplied.

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

It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.

Ease, A Neutral State Between Pain And Pleasure ... If It Is Not Rising Into Pleasure Will Be Falling Towards Pain.

Friendship, Compounded Of Esteem And Love, Derives From One Its Tenderness And Its Permanence From The Other.

Lost Friendship

All Violation Of Established Practice Implies In Its Own Nature A Rejection Of The Common Opinion, A Defiance Of Common Censure, And An Appeal From General Laws To Private Judgment: He, Therefore, Who Differs Form Others Without Apparent Advantage, Ought Not To Be Angry If His Arrogance Is Punished With Ridicule; If Those Whose Example He Superciliously Overlooks, Point Him Out To Derision, And Hoot Him Back Again Into The Common Road.

I Have Often Thought That There Has Rarely Passed A Life Of Which A Judicious And Faithful Narrative Would Not Be Useful; For Not Only Every Man Has, In The Mighty Mass Of The World, Great Numbers In The Same Condition With Himself, To Whom His Mistakes And Miscarriages, Escapes And Expedients, Would Be Of Immediate And Apparent Use; But There Is Such A Uniformity In The State Of Man, Considered Apart From Adventitious And Separable Decorations And Disguises, That There Is Scarce Any Possibility Of Good Or Ill But Is Common To Human Kind.

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.

Every Desire Is A Viper In The Bosom, Who While He Was Chill Was Harmless; But When Warmth Gave Him Strength, Exerted It In Poison.

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.

Books Are Faithful Repositories, Which May Be Awhile Neglected Or Forgotten; But When They Are Opened Again, Will Again Impart Their Instruction: Memory, Once Interrupted, Is Not To Be Recalled. Written Learning Is A Fixed Luminary, Which, After The Cloud That Had Hidden It Has Passed Away, Is Again Bright In Its Proper Station. Tradition Is But A Meteor, Which, If Once It Falls, Cannot Be Rekindled.

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Marion Zimmer Bradley

Mary Catherine Bateson

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