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

-Samuel Johnson

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Courage Is A Quality

Samuel Johnson

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

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To Be Flattered Is Grateful, Even When We Know That Our Praises Are Not Believed By Those Who Pronounce Them; For They Prove, At Least, Our Power, And Show That Our Favour Is Valued, Since It Is Purchased By The Meanness Of Falsehood.

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.

Words Are Daughters Of Earth But Ideas Are Sons Of Heaven.

That All Who Are Happy Are Equally Happy Is Not True. A Peasant And A Philosopher May Be Equally Satisfied, But Not Equally Happy. A Small Drinking Glass And A Large One May Be Equally Full, But The Large One Holds More Than The Small.

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

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

There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

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.

A Woman Of Fortune Being Used The Handling Of Money, Spends It Judiciously; But A Woman Who Gets The Command Of Money For The First Time Upon Her Marriage, Has Such A Gust In Spending It, That She Throws It Away With Great Profusion.

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

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

Nothing Has So Exposed Men Of Learning To Contempt And Ridicule As Their Ignorance Of Things Which Are Known To All But Themselves. Those Who Have Been Taught To Consider The Institutions Of The Schools As Giving The Last Perfection To Human Abilities Are Surprised To See Men Wrinkled With Study, Yet Wanting To Be Instructed In The Minute Circumstances Of Propriety, Or The Necessary Form Of Daily Transaction; And Quickly Shake Off Their Reverence For Modes Of Education Which They Find To Produce No Ability Above The Rest Of Mankind.

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

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

The Mere Power Of Saving What Is Already In Our Hands Must Be Of Easy Acquisition To Every Mind; And As The Example Of Lord Bacon May Show That The Highest Intellect Cannot Safely Neglect It, A Thousand Instances Every Day Prove That The Humblest May Practise It With Success.

Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.

It Is Better That Some Should Be Unhappy Rather Than That None Should Be Happy, Which Would Be The Case In A General State Of Equality.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil But Its Duty, Like That Of Other Passions, Is Not To Overbear Reason, But To Assist It. It Should Not Be Suffered To Tyrannize In The Imagination, To Raise Phantoms Of Horror, Or To Beset Life With Supernumerary Distresses.

I Am Not Yet So Lost In Lexicography, As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of The Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven. Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas: I Wish, However, That The Instrument Might Be Less Apt To Decay, And That Signs Might Be Permanent, Like The Things Which They Denote.

It Is Better To Live Rich Than To Die Rich.

The Mind Is Refrigerated By Interruption; The Thoughts Are Diverted From The Principle Subject; The Reader Is Weary, He Suspects Not Why; And At Last Throws Away The Book, Which He Has Too Diligently Studied.

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 The Bottle Discontent Seeks For Comfort, Cowardice For Courage, And Bashfulness For Confidence.

Between Falsehood And Useless Truth There Is Little Difference. As Gold Which He Cannot Spend Will Make No Man Rich, So Knowledge Which Cannot Apply Will Make No Man Wise.

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

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

To Write Is, Indeed, No Unpleasing Employment, When One Sentiment Readily Produces Another, And Both Ideas And Expressions Present Themselves At The First Summons; But Such Happiness, The Greatest Genius Does Not Always Obtain; And Common Writers Know It Only To Such A Degree, As To Credit Its Possibility. Composition Is, For The Most Part, An Effort Of Slow Diligence And Steady Perseverance, To Which The Mind Is Dragged By Necessity Or Resolution, And From Which The Attention Is Every Moment Starting To More Delightful Amusements.

Almost All Absurdity Of Conduct Arises From The Imitation Of Those Who We Cannot Resemble.

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

Life, However Short, Is Made Still Shorter By Waste Of Time.

Network. Anything Reticulated Or Decussated At Equal Distances, With Interstices Between The Intersections.

Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.

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

The World Is Seldom What It Seems; To Man, Who Dimly Sees, Realities Appear As Dreams, And Dreams Realities.

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

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. The Wits Of These Happy Days Have Discovered A Way To Fame, Which The Dull Caution Of Our Laborious Ancestors Durst Never Attempt; They Cut The Knots Of Sophistry, Which It Was Formerly The Business Of Years To Untie, Solve Difficulties By Sudden Irradiations Of Intelligence, And Comprehend Long Processes Of Argument By Immediate Intuition.

There Are Few Minds To Which Tyranny Is Not Delightful.

It Matters Not How A Man Dies, But How He Lives.

Prepare For Death, If Here At Night You Roam, And Sign Your Will Before You Sup From Home.

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

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

Nothing Is More Common Than To Find Men, Whose Works Are Now Totally Neglected, Mentioned With Praises By Their Contemporaries As The Oracles Of Their Age, And The Legislators Of Science.

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

Who Left Nothing Of Authorship Untouched, And Touched Nothing Which He Did Not Adorn. [lat., Qui Nullum Fere Scribendi Genus Non Tetigit; Nullum Quod Tetigit Non Ornavit.]

The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.

He That Has Too Much To Do Will Do Something Wrong.

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

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

Expectation Improperly Indulged In Must End In Disappointment.

How Can Children Credit The Assertions Of Parents, Which Their Own Eyes Show Them To Be False? Few Parents Act In Such A Manner As Much To Enforce Their Maxims By The Credit Of Their Lives

Modern Writers Are The Moons Of Literature; They Shine With Reflected Light, With Light Borrowed From The Ancients.

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.

In Life's Last Scene What Prodigies Surprise, Fears Of The Brave, And Follies Of The Wise! From Marlborough's Eyes The Streams Of Dotage Flow, And Swift Expires A Driveller And A Show.

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.

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

Most Men Are More Willing To Indulge In Easy Vices Than To Practise Laborious Virtues.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendour Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate; Those Soft Intervals Of Unbended Amusement, In Which A Man Shrinks To His Natural Dimensions, And Throws Aside The Ornaments Or Disguises Which He Feels In Privacy To Be Useless Incumbrances, And To Lose All Effect When They Become Familiar. To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labour Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.

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

When There Is No Hope, There Can Be No Endeavor.

Cruel With Guilt, And Daring With Despair, The Midnight Murderer Bursts The Faithless Bar; Invades The Sacred Hour Of Silent Rest And Leaves, Unseen, A Dagger In Your Breast.

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

The Excellence Of Aphorisms Consists Not So Much In The Expression Of Some Rare Or Abstruse Sentiment, As In The Comprehension Of Some Useful Truth In A Few Words.

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

Human Reason Borrowed Many Arts From The Instinct Of Animals.

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

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.

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

...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.

Deceit And Falsehood, Whatever Conveniences They May For A Time Promise Or Produce, Are, In The Sum Of Life, Obstacles To Happiness. Those Who Profit By The Cheat Distrust The Deceiver; And The Act By Which Kindness Was Sought Puts An End To Confidence.

In Questions Of Law Or Of Fact Conscience Is Very Often Confounded With Opinion. No Man's Conscience Can Tell Him The Rights Of Another Man; They Must Be Known By Rational Investigation Or Historical Inquiry.

Don't Tell Me Of Deception; A Lie Is A Lie, Whether It Be A Lie To The Eye Or A Lie To The Ear.

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

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

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

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

Deviation From Nature Is Deviation From Happiness.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

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

Surely, It Is Much Easier To Respect A Man Who Has Always Had Respect, Than To Respect A Man Who We Know Was Last Year No Better Than Ourselves, And Will Be No Better Next Year.

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

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.

No Knowledge Is Useless, With The Exception Of Heraldry.

A Man Ought To Read Just As Inclination Leads Him, For What He Reads As A Task Will Do Him Little Good.

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

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

The Chief Glory Of Every People Arises From Its Authors.

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

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

Those Who Attain Any Excellence, Commonly Spend Life In One Pursuit; For Excellence Is Not Often Gained Upon Easier Terms.

Knock The 't' Off The 'can't.'

The Only End Of Writing Is To Enable Readers Better To Enjoy Life Or Better To Endure It.

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

That Is The Happiest Conversation Where There Is No Competition, No Vanity, But A Calm, Quiet Interchange Of Sentiments...

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

In Writing, As In Life, Faults Are Endured Without Disgust When They Are Associated With Transcendent Merit, And May Be Sometimes Recommended To Weak Judgments By The Lustre Which They Obtain From Their Union With Excellence; But It Is The Business Of Those Who Presume To Superintend The Taste Or Morals Of Mankind To Separate Delusive Combinations, And Distinguish That Which May Be Praised From That Which Can Only Be Excused.

The Arguments For Purity Of Life Fail Of Their Due Influence, Not Because They Have Been Considered And Confuted, But Because They Have Been Passed Over Without Consideration.

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.

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

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

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

A Man Guilty Of Poverty Easily Believes Himself Suspected.

Gloomy Calm Of Idle Vacancy.

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing - It Only Hastens Fools To Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread.

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

If He Does Really Think That There Is No Distinction Between Virtue And Vice, Why, Sir, When He Leaves Our Houses Let Us Count Our Spoons.

The Process Is The Reality.

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

In Bed We Laugh, In Bed We Cry, And Born In Bed, In Bed We Die; The Near Approach A Bed May Show Of Human Bliss To Human Woe.

The Truly Strong And Sound Mind Is The Mind That Can Embrace Equally Great Things And Small.

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

Personal Knowledge

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

Patron: One Who Countenances, Supports Or Protects. Commonly A Wretch Who Supports With Insolence, And Is Repaid In Flattery.

All The Performances Of Human Art, At Which We Look With Praise Or Wonder, Are Instances Of The Resistless Force Of Perseverance.

A Man Should Be Careful Never To Tell Tales Of Himself To His Own Disadvantage. People May Be Amused At The Time, But They Will Be Remembered, And Brought Out Against Him Upon Some Subsequent Occasion.

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.

Every Other Enjoyment Malice May Destroy; Every Other Panegyric Envy May Withhold; But No Human Power Can Deprive The Boaster Of His Own Encomiums.

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 Trappings Of A Monarchy Would Set Up An Ordinary Commonwealth.

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.

When Any Anxiety Or Gloom Of The Mind Takes Hold Of You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaining; But Exert Yourselves To Hide It, And By Endeavoring To Hide It You Drive It Away.

Among Those Whose Reputation Is Exhausted In A Short Time By Its Own Luxuriance Are The Writers Who Take Advantage Of Present Incidents Or Characters Which Strongly Interest The Passions, And Engage Universal Attention. It Is Not Difficult To Obtain Readers, When We Discuss A Question Which Every One Is Desirous To Understand, Which Is Debated In Every Assembly, And Has Divided The Nation Into Parties; Or When We Display The Faults Or Virtues Of Him Whose Public Conduct Has Made Almost Every Man His Enemy Or His Friend.

God Himself, Sir, Does Not Propose To Judge A Man Until His Life Is Over. Why Should You And I?

A Coxcomb Is Ugly All Over With The Effectation Of A Fine Gentleman.

Advice, As It Always Gives A Temporary Appearance Of Superiority, Can Never Be Very Grateful, Even When It Is Most Necessary Or Most Judicious. But For The Same Reason Everyone Is Eager To Instruct His Neighbours. To Be Wise Or To Be Virtuous Is To Buy Dignity And Importance At A High Price; But When Nothing Is Necessary To Elevation But Detection Of The Follies Or Faults Of Others, No Man Is So Insensible To The Voice Of Fame As To Linger On The Ground.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

Christianity Is The Highest Perfection Of Humanity.

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

A Translator Is To Be Like His Author; It Is Not His Business To Excel Him.

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.

He Is A Benefactor Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into The Short Sentences, That May Be Easily Impressed On The Memory, And So Recur Habitually To The Mind.

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent.

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

Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

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.

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

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

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

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

Jesting, Often, Only Proves A Want Of Intellect.

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.

You Teach Your Daughters The Diameters Of The Planets And Wonder When You Are Done That They Do Not Delight In Your Company.

An Epithet Or Metaphor Drawn From Nature Ennobles Art; An Epithet Or Metaphor Drawn From Art Degrades Nature.

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

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.

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

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.

Of The Present State, Whatever It Be, We Feel And Are Forced To Confess The Misery; Yet When The Same State Is Again At A Distance, Imagination Paints It As Desirable.

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

There Is Not, Perhaps, To A Mind Well Instructed, A More Painful Occurrence, Than The Death Of One We Have Injured Without Reparation.

Human Condition

The Power Of Punishment Is To Silence, Not To Confute.

I Would Rather Be Attacked Than Unnoticed. For The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Author Is To Be Silent As To His Works.

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

It Seems To Be Remarkable That Death Increases Our Veneration For The Good, And Extenuates Our Hatred For The Bad.

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

The Work Of A Correct And Regular Writer Is A Garden Accurately Formed And Diligently Planted, Varied With Shades, And Scented With Flowers.

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

Ancient Travelers Guessed; Modern Travelers Measure.

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.

It Is Easy For A Man Who Sits Idle At Home, And Has Nobody To Please But Himself, To Ridicule Or Censure The Common Practices Of Mankind.

A Man Who Always Talks For Fame Never Can Be Pleasing. The Man Who Talks To Unburthen His Mind Is The Man To Delight You.

Nothing Is More Common Than For Men To Make Partial And Absurd Distinctions Between Vices Of Equal Enormity, And To Observe Some Of The Divine Commands With Great Scrupulousness, While They Violate Others, Equally Important, Without Any Concern, Or The Least Apparent Conciousness Of Guilt. Alas, It Is Only Wisdom Which Perceives This Tragedy.

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

Let Me Smile With The Wise, And Feed With The Rich.

Any Of Us Would Kill A Cow Rather Than Not Have Beef.

It Is In Refinement And Elegance That The Civilized Man Differs From The Savage.

In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.

Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.

The Wise Man Applauds He Who He Thinks Most Virtuous; The Rest Of The World Applauds The Wealthy.

If One Was To Think Constantly Of Death, The Business Of Life Would Stand Still

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.

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

Solitude Is Dangerous To Reason, Without Being Favourable To Virtue. Remember That The Solitary Mortal Is Certainly Luxurious, Probably Superstitious, And Possibly Mad.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

When Two Eglishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather.

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

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

John Wesley's Conversation Is Good, But He Is Never At Leisure. He Is Always Obliged To Go At A Certain Hour. This Is Very Disagreeable To A Man Who Loves To Fold His Legs And Have His Talk Out As I Do.

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

When Speculation Has Done Its Worst, Two And Two Still Make Four.

The Feeling Of Friendship Is Like That Of Being Comfortably Filled With Roast Beef; Love, Like Being Enlivened With Champagne.

I Live In The Crowd Of Jollity, Not So Much To Enjoy Company As To Shun Myself.

In A Man's Letters You Know, Madam, His Soul Lies Naked, His Letters Are Only The Mirrour Of His Breast.

Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.

Wine Gives Great Pleasure; And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. It Is A Good, Unless Counterbalanced By Evil.

That Observation Which Is Called Knowledge Of The World Will Be Found Much More Frequently To Make Men Cunning Than Good.

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

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

Wit Is That Which Has Been Often Thought, But Never Before Was Well Expressed.

Tediousness Is The Most Fatal Of All Faults.

There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness Than To Be Able To Look Back On A Life Usefully And Virtuously Employed, To Trace Our Own Progress In Existence, By Such Tokens As Excite Neither Shame Nor Sorrow.

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

The Specualtist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity; And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

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

The Resolution Of The Combat Is Seldom Equal To The Vehemence Of The Charge.

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

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment. It Is Commonly Observed, That Among Soldiers And Seamen, Though There Is Much Kindness, There Is Little Grief; They See Their Friend Fall Without Any Of That Lamentation Which Is Indulged In Security And Idleness, Because They Have No Leisure To Spare From The Care Of Themselves; And Whoever Shall Keep His Thoughts Equally Busy Will Find Himself Equally Unaffected With Irretrievable Losses.

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

Spring Is The Season Of Gaiety, And Winter Of Terror; In Spring The Heart Of Tranquility Dances To The Melody Of The Groves, And The Eye Of Benevolence Sparkles At The Sight Of Happiness And Plenty: In Winter, Compassion Melts At Universal Calamity, And The Tear Of Softness Starts At The Wailing Of Hunger And The Cries Of The Creation In Distress

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.

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Bernard Law Montgomery

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