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By The Consultation Of Books, Whether Of Dead Or Living Authors, Many Temptations To Petulance And Opposition, Which Occur In Oral Conferences, Are Avoided. An Author Cannot Obtrude His Service Unasked, Nor Can Be Often Suspected Of Any Malignant Intention To Insult His Readers With His Knowledge Or His Wit. Yet So Prevalent Is The Habit Of Comparing Ourselves With Others, While They Remain Within The Reach Of Our Passions, That Books Are Seldom Read With Complete Impartiality, But By Those From Whom The Writer Is Placed At Such A Distance That His Life Or Death Is Indifferent.

-Samuel Johnson

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By The Consultation Of

Samuel Johnson

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By The Consultation Of Books, Whether Of Dead Or Living Authors, Many Temptations To Petulance And Opposition, Which Occur In Oral Conferences, Are Avoided. An Author Cannot Obtrude His Service Unasked, Nor Can Be Often Suspected Of Any Malignant Intention To Insult His Readers With His Knowledge Or His Wit. Yet So Prevalent Is The Habit Of Comparing Ourselves With Others, While They Remain Within The Reach Of Our Passions, That Books Are Seldom Read With Complete Impartiality, But By Those From Whom The Writer Is Placed At Such A Distance That His Life Or Death Is Indifferent.

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So Many Objections May Be Made To Everything, That Nothing Can Overcome Them But The Necessity Of Doing Something.

We Seldom Learn The True Want Of What We Have Till It Is Discovered That We Can Have No More.

We Have Now Learned That Rashness And Imprudence Will Not Be Deterred From Taking Credit; Let Us Try Whether Fraud And Avarice May Be More Easily Restrained From Giving It.

Wine Makes A Man Better Pleased With Himself. I Do Not Say That It Makes Him More Pleasing To Others.

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

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

Sir, I Think All Christians, Whether Papists Or Protestants, Agree In The Essential Articles, And That Their Differences Are Trivial, And Rather Political Than Religious.

Riches Seldom Make Their Owners Rich.

In This Work Are Exhibited, In A Very High Degree, The Two Most Engaging Powers Of An Author. New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.

Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.

No Man Likes To Live Under The Eye Of Perpetual Disapprobation.

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

Questioning Is Not The Mode Of Conversation Among Gentlemen.

I Have Found Men To Be More Kind Than I Expected, And Less Just.

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

When The Original Is Well Chosen And Judiciously Copied, The Imitator Often Arrives At Excellence Which He Could Never Have Attained Without Direction; For Few Are Formed With Abilities To Discover New Possibilities Of Excellence, And To Distinguish Themselves By Means Never Tried Before.

Suspicion Is Very Often A Useless Pain.

Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions. The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.

Self Improvement

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

To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.

Rain Is Good For Vegetables, And For The Animals Who Eat Those Vegetables, And For The Animals Who Eat Those Animals.

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.

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

A Certain Amount Of Distrust Is Wholesome, But Not So Much Of Others As Of Ourselves; Neither Vanity Not Conceit Can Exist In The Same Atmosphere With It.

Wealth Is Nothing In Itself; It Is Not Useful But When It Departs From Us.

A Thousand Years May Elapse Before There Shall Appear Another Man With A Power Of Versification Equal To That Of Pope.

When People Find A Man Of The Most Distinguished Abilities As A Writer Their Inferior While He Is With Them, It Must Be Highly Gratifying To Them.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

Little Would Be Wanting To The Happiness Of Life, If Every Man Could Conform To The Right As Soon As He Was Shown It.

Dishonor Waits On Perfidy. A Man Should Blush To Think A Falsehood; It Is The Crime Of Cowards.

Works Of Imagination Excel By Their Allurement And Delight; By Their Power Of Attracting And Detaining The Attention. That Book Is Good In Vain Which The Reader Throws Away. He Only Is The Master Who Keeps The Mind In Pleasing Captivity; Whose Pages Are Perused With Eagerness, And In Hope Of New Pleasure Are Perused Again; And Whose Conclusion Is Perceived With An Eye Of Sorrow, Such As The Traveller Casts Upon Departing Day.

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

I Have Protracted My Work Till Most Of Those Whom I Wished To Please Have Sunk Into The Grave, And Success And Miscarriage Are Empty Sounds: I Therefore Dismiss It With Frigid Tranquillity, Having Little To Fear Or Hope From Censure Or From Praise.

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.

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

A Man's Mind Grows Narrow In A Narrow Place.

There Is Nothing More Dreadful To An Author Than Neglect; Compared With Which Reproach, Hatred, And Opposition Are Names Of Happiness; Yet This Worst, This Meanest Fate, Every One Who Dares To Write Has Reason To Fear.

New Arts Are Long In The World Before Poets Describe Them; For They Borrow Everything From Their Predecessors, And Commonly Derive Very Little From Nature Or From Life.

Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money, Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured.

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

It Is Wonderful When A Calculation Is Made, How Little The Mind Is Actually Employed In The Discharge Of Any Profession.

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

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

But To The Particular Species Of Excellence Men Are Directed, Not By An Ascendant Planet Or Predominating Humour, But By The First Book Which They Read, Some Early Conversation Which They Heard, Or Some Accident Which Excited Ardour And Emulation.

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

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

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

On Sir Joshua Reynolds's Observing That The Real Character Of A Man Was Found Out By His Amusements. Yes, Sir, No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

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.

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

Men Are Like Stone Jugs - You May Lug Them Where You Like By The Ears.

It Is Wonderful What A Difference Learning Makes Upon People Even In The Common Intercourse Of Life, Which Does Not Appear To Be Much Connected With It.

Gloomy Calm Of Idle Vacancy.

Cowardice Encroaches Fast Upon Such As Spend Their Lives In Company Of Persons Higher Than Themselves.

Men Know That Women Are An Overmatch For Them, And Therefore They Choose The Weakest Or The Most Ignorant. If They Did Not Think So, They Never Could Be Afraid Of Women Knowing As Much As Themselves.

To Grieve For Evils Is Often Wrong; But It Is Much More Wrong To Grieve Without Them. All Sorrow That Lasts Longer Than Its Cause Is Morbid, And Should Be Shaken Off As An Attack Of Melancholy, As The Forerunner Of A Greater Evil Than Poverty Or Pain.

No Man, However Enslaved To His Appetites, Or Hurried By His Passions, Can, While He Preserves His Intellects Unimpaired, Please Himself With Promoting The Corruption Of Others. He Whose Merit Has Enlarged His Influence Would Surely Wish To Exert It For The Benefit Of Mankind. Yet Such Will Be The Effect Of His Reputation, While He Suffers Himself To Indulge In Any Favourite Fault, That They Who Have No Hope To Reach His Excellence Will Catch At His Failings, And His Virtues Will Be Cited To Justify The Copiers Of His Vices.

The Mental Disease Of The Present Generation Is Impatience Of Study, Contempt Of The Great Masters Of Ancient Wisdom, And A Disposition To Rely Wholly Upon Unassisted Genius And Natural Sagacity.

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.

When Once The Forms Of Civility Are Violated, There Remains Little Hope Of Return To Kindness Or Decency.

You Cannot Give Me An Instance Of Any Man Who Is Permitted To Lay Out His Own Time Contriving Not To Have Tedious Hours.

Year Chases Year, Decay Pursues Decay, Still Drops Some Joy From With'ring Life Away; New Forms Arise, And Diff'rent Views Engage

The Hostility Perpetually Exercised Between One Man And Another, Is Caused By The Desire Of Many For That Which Only Few Can Possess. Every Man Would Be Rich, Powerful, And Famous; Yet Fame, Power, And Riches, Are Only The Names Of Relative Conditions, Which Imply The Obscurity, Dependence, And Poverty Of Greater Numbers.

Providence Has Fixed The Limits Of Human Enjoyment By Immovable Boundaries, And Has Set Different Gratifications At Such A Distance From Each Other, That No Art Or Power Can Bring Them Together. This Great Law It Is The Business Of Every Rational Being To Understand, That Life May Not Pass Away In An Attempt To Make Contradictions Consistent, To Combine Opposite Qualities, And To Unite Things Which The Nature Of Their Being Must Always Keep Asunder.

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.

Every Man Who Attacks My Belief, Diminishes In Some Degree My Confidence In It, And Therefore Makes Me Uneasy; And I Am Angry With Him Who Makes Me Uneasy.

No Man Hates Him At Whom He Can Laugh.

No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance.

As I Know More Of Mankind I Expect Less Of Them, And Am Ready Now To Call A Man A Good Man Upon Easier Terms Than I Was Formerly.

Admiration And Love Are Like Being Intoxicated With Champagne; Judgment And Friendship Are Like Being Enlivened.

That Man Is Never Happy For The Present Is So True, That All His Relief From Unhappiness Is Only Forgetting Himself For A Little While. Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

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

Memory Is Like All Other Human Powers, With Which No Man Can Be Satisfied Who Measures Them By What He Can Conceive, Or By What He Can Desire.

Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

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

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.

A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make One Book.

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

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity; The Next Is, To Strive, And Deserve To Conquer: But He Whose Life Has Passed Without A Contest, And Who Can Boast Neither Success Nor Merit, Can Survey Himself Only As A Useless Filler Of Existence; Ad If He Is Content With His Own Character, Must Owe His Satisfaction To Insensibility.

There Seems To Be A Strange Affectation In Authors Of Appearing To Have Done Everything By Chance.

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.

The Love Of Retirement Has In All Ages Adhered Closely To Those Minds Which Have Been Most Enlarged By Knowledge, Or Elevated By Genius. Those Who Enjoyed Everything Generally Supposed To Confer Happiness Have Been Forced To Seek It In The Shades Of Privacy.

Norway, Too, Has Noble Prospects; And Lapland Is Remarkable For Prodigious Noble Wild Prospects. But, Sir, Let Me Tell You, The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England!

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous.

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

Nothing Is Difficult, When Gain And Honour Unite Their Influence.

To Exact Of Every Man Who Writes That He Should Say Something New, Would Be To Reduce Authors To A Small Number; To Oblige The Most Fertile Genius To Say Only What Is New, Would Be To Contract His Volumes To A Few Pages. Yet, Surely, There Ought To Be Some Bounds To Repetition; Libraries Ought No More To Be Heaped For Ever With The Same Thoughts Differently Expressed, Than With The Same Books Differently Decorated.

Integrity Without Knowledge Is Weak And Useless, And Knowledge Without Integrity Is Dangerous And Dreadful.

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.

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.

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

I Wish You Would Add An Index Rerum, That When The Reader Recollects Any Incident He May Easily Find It.

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

Books Without The Knowledge Of Life Are Useless.

Affectation Is To Be Always Distinguished From Hypocrisy As Being The Art Of Counterfeiting Those Qualities, Which We Might With Innocence And Safety, Be Known To Want. Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy; Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly.

Vanity Is So Frequently The Apparent Motive Of Advice, That We, For The Most Part, Summon Our Powers To Oppose It Without Any Very Accurate Inquiry Whether It Is Right.

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.

Order Is A Lovely Nymph, The Child Of Beauty And Wisdom; Her Attendants Are Comfort, Neatness, And Activity; Her Abode Is The Valley Of Happiness: She Is Always To Be Found When Sought For, And Never Appears So Lovely As When Contrasted With Her Opponent, Disorder.

The Mischief Of Flattery Is, Not That It Persuades Any Man That He Is What He Is Not, But That It Suppresses The Influence Of Honest Ambition, By Raising An Opinion That Honour May Be Gained Without The Toil Of Merit.

No Man Can Fall Into Contempt But Those Who Deserve It.

Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries, But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.

Civilized Nations

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City, After A Distant Prospect. Remotely, We See Nothing But Spires Of Temples And Turrets Of Palaces, And Imagine It The Residence Of Splendour, Grandeur, And Magnificence; But When We Have Passed The Gates, We Find It Perplexed With Narrow Passages, Disgraced With Despicable Cottages, Embarrassed With Obstructions, And Clouded With Smoke.

Oats. A Grain, Which In England Is Generally Given To Horses, But In Scotland Supports The People.

Lectures Were Once Useful; But Now When All Can Read, And Books Are So Numerous, Lectures Are Unnecessary.

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.

Nothing Is More Common Than Mutual Dislike, Where Mutual Approbation Is Particularly Expected.

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

When A Man Is Tried Of London, He Is Tired Of Life.

He That Accepts Protection, Stipulates Obedience.

Censure Is Willingly Indulged, Because It Always Implies Some Superiority: Men Please Themselves With Imagining That They Have Made A Deeper Search, Or Wider Survey Than Others, And Detected Faults And Follies Which Escape Vulgar Observation.

Allow Children To Be Happy In Their Own Way, For What Better Way Will They Find?

Those Who Have Past Much Of Their Lives In This Great City, Look Upon Its Opulence And Its Multitudes, Its Extent And Variety, With Cold Indifference; But An Inhabitant Of The Remoter Parts Of The Kingdom Is Immediately Distinguished By A Kind Of Dissipated Curiosity, A Busy Endeavour To Divide His Attention Amongst A Thousand Objects, And A Wild Confusion Of Astonishment And Alarm.

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.

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

All Theory Is Against Free Will; All Experience Is For It.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

The Certainty That Life Cannot Be Long, And The Probability That It Will Be Much Shorter Than Nature Allows, Ought To Awaken Every Man To The Active Prosecution Of Whatever He Is Desirous To Perform. It Is True, That No Diligence Can Ascertain Success; Death May Intercept The Swiftest Career; But He Who Is Cut Off In The Execution Of An Honest Undertaking Has At Least The Honour Of Falling In His Rank, And Has Fought The Battle, Though He Missed The Victory.

Procrastination

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

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

All This [wealth] Excludes But One Evil, Poverty.

There Is No Kind Of Idleness By Which We Are So Easily Seduced As That Which Dignifies Itself By The Appearance Of Business.

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

They That Have Grown Old In A Single State Are Generally Found To Be Morose, Fretful And Captious; Tenacious Of Their Own Practices And Maxims; Soon Offended By Contradiction Or Negligence; And Impatient Of Any Association But With Those That Will Watch Their Nod, And Submit Themselves To Unlimited Authority.

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

As All Error Is Meanness, It Is Incumbent On Every Man Who Consults His Own Dignity, To Retract It As Soon As He Discovers It.

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.

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

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition.

The Charm Of London Is That You Are Never Glad Or Sorry For Ten Minutes Together; In The Country You Are One Or The Other For Weeks.

The Advice That Is Wanted Is Commonly Not Welcome And That Which Is Not Wanted, Evidently An Effrontery.

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.

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

Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.

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.

The Business Of The Biographer Is Often To Pass Slightly Over Those Performances And Incidents Which Produce Vulgar Greatness, To Lead The Thoughts Into Domestic Privacies, And Display The Minute Details Of Daily Life, Were Exterior Appendages Are Cast Aside, And Men Excel Each Other Only By Prudence And Virtue.

Few Men Survey Themselves With So Much Severity As Not To Admit Prejudices In Their Own Favor.

A Man May Be So Much Of Everything That He Is Nothing Of Anything.

No Wonder, Sir, That He Is Vain; A Man Who Is Perpetually Flattered In Every Mode That Can Be Conceived. So Many Bellows Have Blown The Fire, That One Wonders He Is Not By This Time Become A Cinder.

The Prospect Of Penury In Age Is So Gloomy And Terrifying That Every Man Who Looks Before Him Must Resolve To Avoid It; And It Must Be Avoided Generally By The Science Of Sparing.

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.

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

Pour Forth Thy Fervors For A Healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, And A Will Resigned

Let Us Be Quick To Repent Of Injuries While Repentance May Not Be A Barren Anguish.

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.

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

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.

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

The Church Does Not Superstitiously Observe Days, Merely As Days, But As Memorials Of Important Facts. Christmas Might Be Kept As Well Upon One Day Of The Year As Another; But There Should Be A Stated Day For Commemorating The Birth Of Our Saviour, Because There Is Danger That What May Be Done On Any Day, Will Be Neglected.

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

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

Lost Friendship

Many Need No Other Provocation To Enmity Than That They Find Themselves Excelled.

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.

He That Would Travel For The Entertainment Of Others Should Remember That The Great Object Of Remark Is Human Life.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

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

When The Desire Of Wealth Is Taking Hold Of The Heart, Let Us Look Round And See How It Operates Upon Than Whose Industry Or Fortune Has Obtained It. When We Find Them Oppressed With Their Own Abundance, Luxurious Without Pleasure, Idle Without Ease, Impatient And Querulous In Themselves, And Despised Or Hated By The Rest Of Mankind, We Shall Soon Be Convinced That If The Real Wants Of Our Condition Are Satisfied, There Remains Little To Be Sought With Solicitude Or Desired With Eagerness.

Every State Of Society Is As Luxurious As It Can Be. Men Always Take The Best They Can Get.

Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not For Man.

My Diseases Are An Asthma And A Dropsy And, What Is Less Curable, Seventy-five.

As Any Custom Is Disused, The Words That Expressed It Must Perish With It; As Any Opinion Grows Popular, It Will Innovate Speech In The Same Proportion As It Alters Practice.

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

We Seldom Require More To The Happiness Of The Present Hour Than To Surpass Him That Stands Next Before Us.

Locke, Whom There Is No Reason To Suspect Of Being A Favorer Of Idleness Or Libertinism, Has Advanced That Whoever Hopes To Employ Any Part Of His Time With Efficacy And Vigor Must Allow Some Of It To Pass With Trifles.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; And As The Noblest Mien Or Most Graceful Action Would Be Degraded And Obscured By A Garb Appropriated To The Gross Employments Of Rusticks Or Mechanics, So The Most Heroick Sentiments Will Lose Their Efficacy

We Love To Expect, And When Expectation Is Either Disappointed Or Gratified, We Want To Be Again Expecting.

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

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.

Oratory Is The Power Of Beating Down Your Adversary's Arguments And Putting Better In Their Place.

It Is Not Often That Any Man Can Have So Much Knowledge Of Another, As Is Necessary To Make Instruction Useful.

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

A Man Who Both Spends And Saves Money Is The Happiest Man, Because He Has Both Enjoyments.

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

For Who Is Pleased With Himself.

Age Is Rarely Despised But When It Is, Contemptible.

Change Is Not Made Without Inconvenience.

Project Management

The Uncertainty Of Death Is, In Effect, The Great Support Of The Whole System Of Life.

All To Whom Want Is Terrible, Upon Whatever Principle, Ought To Think Themselves Obliged To Learn The Sage Maxims Of Our Parsimonious Ancestors, And Attain The Salutary Arts Of Contracting Expense; For Without Economy None Can Be Rich, And With It Few Can Be Poor.

Piety Practiced In Solitude, Like The Flower That Blooms In The Desert, May Give Its Fragrance To The Winds Of Heaven, And Delight Those Unbodied Spirits That Survey The Works Of God And The Actions Of Men; But It Bestows No Assistance Upon Earthly Beings, And However Free From Taints Of Impurity, Yet Wants The Sacred Splendor Of Beneficence.

Of All Noises, I Think Music Is The Least Disagreeable.

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.

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

If A Man Is In Doubt Whether It Would Be Better For Him To Expose Himself To Martyrdom Or Not, He Should Not Do It. He Must Be Convinced That He Has A Delegation From Heaven.

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.

Tears Are Often To Be Found Where There Is Little Sorrow, And The Deepest Sorrow Without Any Tears.

He That Is Much Flattered Soon Learns To Flatter Himself.

Don't, Sir, Accustom Yourself To Use Big Words For Little Matters.

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.

Authors And Lovers Always Suffer Some Infatuation, From Which Only Absence Can Set Them Free.

He That Is Warm For Truth, And Fearless In Its Defense, Performs One Of The Duties Of A Good Man; He Strenghtens His Own Conviction, And Guards Others From Delusion; But Steadiness Of Belief, And Boldness Of Profession, Are Yet Only Part Of The Form Of Godliness.

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

Sorrow Is Properly That State Of The Mind In Which Our Desires Are Fixed Upon The Past Without Looking Forward To The Future.

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.

There Can Be No Friendship Without Confidence, And No Confidence Without Integrity.

Justice Is Indispensably And Universally Necessary, And What Is Necessary Must Always Be Limited, Uniform, And Distinct

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.

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