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Fly Not Yet; 't Is Just The Hour When Pleasure, Like The Midnight Flower That Scorns The Eye Of Vulgar Light, Begins To Bloom For Sons Of Night And Maids Who Love The Moon.
-Charles Lamb
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Fly Not Yet; 't

Charles Lamb
Fly Not Yet; 't Is Just The Hour When Pleasure, Like The Midnight Flower That Scorns The Eye Of Vulgar Light, Begins To Bloom For Sons Of Night And Maids Who Love The Moon.
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Love
Flower
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How Sickness Enlarges The Dimensions Of A Man's Self To Himself! Supreme Selfishness Is Inculcated Upon Him As His Only Duty.
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No Work Is Worse Than Overwork; The Mind Preys On Itself,--the Most Unwholesome Of Food.
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When I Consider How Little Of A Rarity Children Are -- That Every Street And Blind Alley Swarms With Them -- That The Poorest People Commonly Have Them In Most Abundance -- That There Are Few Marriages That Are Not Blest With At Least One Of These Bargains -- How Often They Turn Out Ill, And Defeat The Fond Hopes Of Their Parents, Taking To Vicious Courses, Which End In Poverty, Disgrace, The Gallows, Etc. -- I Cannot For My Life Tell What Cause For Pride There Can Possibly Be In Having Them.
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I Can Scarce Bring Myself To Believe, That I Am Admitted To A Familiar Correspondence, And All The License Of Friendship, With A Man Who Writes Blank Verse Like Milton.
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Presents, I Often Say, Endear Absents.
To Be Sick Is To Enjoy Monarchical Prerogatives.
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(the Pig) Hath A Fair Sepulchre In The Grateful Stomach Of The Judicious Epicure - And For Such A Tomb Might Be Content To Die.
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As Down In The Sunless Retreats Of The Ocean Sweet Flowers Are Springing No Mortal Can See, So Deep In My Soul The Still Prayer Of Devotion, Unheard By The World, Rises Silent To Thee. As Still To The Star Of Its Worship, Though Clouded, The Needle Points Faithfully O'er The Dim Sea, So Dark When I Roam In This Wintry World Shrouded, The Hope Of My Spirit Turns Trembling To Thee.
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How I Like To Be Liked, And What I Do To Be Liked!
The Man Must Have A Rare Recipe For Melancholy, Who Can Be Dull In Fleet Street.
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A Presentation Copy, Reader,-if Haply You Are Yet Innocent Of Such Favours-is A Copy Of A Book Which Does Not Sell, Sent You By The Author.
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The Only True Time Which A Man Can Properly Call His Own, Is That Which He Has All To Himself; The Rest, Though In Some Sense He May Be Said To Live It, Is Other People's Time, Not His.
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I Have Passed All My Days In London, Until I Have Formed As Many And Intense Local Attachments As Any Of You Mountaineers Can Have Done With Dead Nature.
Attachment
Done
London
Our Appetites, Of One Or Another Kind, Are Excellent Spurs To Our Reason, Which Might Otherwise But Feebly Set About The Great Ends Of Preserving And Continuing The Species.
Spurs
Might
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A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature.
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I Am, In Plainer Words, A Bundle Of Prejudices - Made Up Of Likings And Dislikings.
Prejudice
Made
Bundles
We All Have Some Taste Or Other, Of Too Ancient A Date To Admit Of Our Remembering It Was An Acquired One.
Taste
Remember
Ancient
No Woman Dresses Below Herself From Mere Caprice.
Dresses
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Is The World All Grown Up? Is Childhood Dead? Or Is There Not In The Bosom Of The Wisest And The Best Some Of The Child's Heart Left, To Respond To Its Earliest Enchantments?
Children
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Our Spirits Grow Gray Before Our Hairs.
Hair
Enthusiasm
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Man Is A Gaming Animal. He Must Always Be Trying To Get The Better In Something Or Other.
Men
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I Have Something More To Do Than To Feel.
Feels
Books Which Are No Books.
Book
Oh Stay! Oh Stay! Joy So Seldom Weaves A Chain Like This To-night, That Oh 't Is Pain To Break Its Links So Soon.
Pain
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It Is Well If The Good Man Himself Does Not Feel His Devotions A Little Clouded, Those Foggy Sensuous Steams Mingling With And Polluting The Pure Altar Surface.
Men
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Separate From The Pleasure Of Your Company, I Don't Much Care If I Never See Another Mountain In My Life.
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I Love To Lose Myself In Other Men's Minds.... Books Think For Me.
Book
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We Are Nothing; Less Than Nothing, And Dreams. We Are Only What Might Have Been, And Must Wait Upon The Tedious Shores Of Lethe Millions Of Ages Before We Have Existence, And A Name.
Dream
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Trample Not On The Ruins Of A Man.
Men
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Your Absence Of Mind We Have Borne, Till Your Presence Of Body Came To Be Called In Question By It.
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Body
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The Most Mortifying Infirmity In Human Nature, To Feel In Ourselves, Or To Contemplate In Another, Is Perhaps Cowardice.
Anxiety
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We Gain Nothing By Being With Such As Ourselves. We Encourage One Another In Mediocrity. I Am Always Longing To Be With Men More Excellent Than Myself.
Men
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Dehortations From The Use Of Strong Liquors Have Been The Favourite Topic Of Sober Declaimers In All Ages, And Have Been Received With Abundance Of Applause By Water-drinking Critics. But With The Patient Himself, The Man That Is To Be Cured, Unfortunately Their Sound Has Seldom Prevailed.
Strong
Drinking
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A Pun Is Not Bound By The Laws Which Limit Nicer Wit. It Is A Pistol Let Off At The Ear; Not A Feather To Tickle The Intellect.
Law
Ears
Pistols
Brandy And Water Spoils Two Good Things.
Food
Two
Water
I Conceive Disgust At Those Impertinent And Misbecoming Familiarities, Inscribed Upon Your Ordinary Tombstones. Every Dead Man Must Take Upon Himself To Be Lecturing Me With His Odious Truism, That "such As He Now Is, I Must Shortly Be." Not So Shortly, Friend, Perhaps, As Thou Imaginest. In The Meantime I Am Alive. I Move About. I Am Worth Twenty Of Thee. Know Thy Betters!
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My Only Books Were Woman's Looks,- And Folly 's All They 've Taught Me.
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Looks
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Science Has Succeeded To Poetry, No Less In The Little Walks Of Children Than With Men. Is There No Possibility Of Averting This Sore Evil?
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Pain Is Life - The Sharper, The More Evidence Of Life.
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The Red-letter Days, Now Become, To All Intents And Purposes, Dead-letter Days.
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Farewell, Farewell To Thee, Araby's Daughter! Thus Warbled A Peri Beneath The Dark Sea.
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We Love To Chew The Cud Of A Foregone Vision; To Collect The Scattered Rays Of A Brighter Phantasm, Or Act Over Again, With Firmer Nerves, The Sadder Nocturnal Tragedies.
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A Babe Is Fed With Milk And Praise.
Childhood
Milk
Praise
I Counsel Thee, Shut Not Thy Heart, Nor Thy Library.
Heart
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A Poor Relation—is The Most Irrelevant Thing In Nature.
Family
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There Is A Pleasure In Affecting Affectation.
Pleasure
The Human Species, According To The Best Theory I Can Form Of It, Is Composed Of Two Distinct Races, The Men Who Borrow And The Men Who Lend.
Men
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Two
Here Cometh April Again, And As Far As I Can See The World Hath More Fools In It Than Ever.
Funny Inspirational
Spring
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For Thy Sake, Tobacco, I Would Do Anything But Die.
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Nothing Puzzles Me More Than Time And Space; And Yet Nothing Troubles Me Less, As I Never Think About Them.
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The Truant Fancy Was A Wanderer Ever.
Fancy
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Gluttony And Surfeiting Are No Proper Occasions For Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
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A Poor Relation Is The Most Irrelevant Thing In Nature, A Piece Of Non Pertinent Correspondence, An Odious Approximation, A Haunting Conscience, A Preposterous Shadow, Lengthening In The Noontide Of Our Prosperity.
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The Trumpet Does Not More Stun You By Its Loudness, Than A Whisper Teases You By Its Provoking Inaudibility.
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No One Ever Regarded The First Of January With Indifference. It Is That From Which All Date Their Time, And Count Upon What Is Left. It Is The Nativity Of Our Common Adam.
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I Am In Love With The Green Earth.
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Who Has Not Felt How Sadly Sweet The Dream Of Home, The Dream Of Home, Steals O'er The Heart, Too Soon To Fleet, When Far O'er Sea Or Land We Roam?
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As Half In Shade And Half In Sun This World Along Its Path Advances, May That Side The Sun 's Upon Be All That E'er Shall Meet Thy Glances!
Half
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The Pilasters Reaching Down Were Adorned With A Glistering Substance (i Know Not What) Under Glass (as It Seemed), Resembling - A Homely Fancy, But I Judged It To Be Sugar-candy; Yet To My Raised Imagination, Divested Of Its Homelier Qualities, It Appeared A Glorified Candy.
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To Sigh, Yet Feel No Pain; To Weep, Yet Scarce Know Why; To Sport An Hour With Beauty's Chain, Then Throw It Idly By.
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Let Us Live For The Beauty Of Our Own Reality.
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I Am In Love With This Green Earth.
Love
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We Are Nothing; Less Than Nothing, And Dreams. We Are Only What Might Have Been.
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This World Is All A Fleeting Show, For Man's Illusion Given The Smiles Of Joy, The Tears Of Woe, Deceitful Shine, Deceitful Flow, Theres Nothing True But Heaven.
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Shining
A Man Cannot Have A Pure Mind Who Refuses Apple Dumplings.
Men
Apples
Mind
Dr Parr...asked Him, How He Had Acquired His Power Of Smoking At Such A Rate? Lamb Replied, 'i Toiled After It, Sir, As Some Men Toil After Virtue.'
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When True Hearts Lie Wither'd And Fond Ones Are Flown, Oh, Who Would Inhabit This Bleak World Alone?
Lying
Heart
World
Not Childhood Alone, But The Young Man Till Thirty, Never Feels Practically That He Is Mortal.
Men
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Fragility
I Have Been Trying All My Life To Like Scotchmen, And Am Obliged To Desist From The Experiment In Despair.
Despair
Trying
Scottish
How Often You Are Irresistibly Drawn To A Plain, Unassuming Woman, Whose Soft Silvery Tones Render Her Positively Attractive! In The Social Circle, How Pleasant It Is To Hear A Woman Talk In That Low Key Which Always Characterizes The True Lady. In The Sanctuary Of Home, How Such A Voice Soothes The Fretful Child And Cheers The Weary Husband!
Cheer
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I Always Arrive Late At The Office, But I Make Up For It By Leaving Early.
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Hilarious
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Dream Not ... Of Having Tasted All The Grandeur And Wildness Of Fancy Till You Have Gone Mad!
Dream
Mad
Gone
May Be The Truth Is, That One Pipe Is Wholesome, Two Pipes Toothsome, Three Pipes Noisome, Four Pipes Fulsome, Five Pipes Quarrelsome; And That's The Some On't.
Two
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Surely It Is A Matter Of Joy, That Your Faith In Jesus Has Been Preserved; The Comforter That Should Relieve You Is Not Far From You. But As You Are A Christian, In The Name Of That Saviour, Who Was Filled With Bitterness And Made Druken With Wormwood, I Conjre You To Have Recourse In Frequent Prayer To 'his God And Your God,' The God Of Mercies, And Father Of All Comfort. Your Poor Father Is, I Hope, Almost Senseless Of The Calamity; The Unconscious Instrument Of Divine Providence Knows It Not, And Your Mother Is In Heaven.
Christian
Mother
Jesus
Not Many Sounds In Life, And I Include All Urban And All Rural Sounds, Exceed In Interest A Knock At The Door.
Doors
Sound
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A Presentation Copy...is A Copy Of A Book Whoch Does Not Sell, Sent You By The Author, With His Foolish Autograph At The Beginning Of It; For Which, If A Stranger, He Only Demands Your Friendship; If A Brother Author, He Expects From You A Book Of Yours, Which Does Not Sell, In Return.
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Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate.
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I Am Determined That My Children Shall Be Brought Up In Their Father's Religion, If They Can Find Out What It Is.
Religious
Children
Father
A Garden Was The Primitive Prison, Till Man With Promethean Felicity And Boldness, Luckily Sinned Himself Out Of It.
Men
Garden
Evil
When Twilight Dews Are Falling Soft Upon The Rosy Sea, Love, I Watch The Star Whose Beam So Oft Has Lighted Me To Thee, Love.
Love
Stars
Fall
From A Poor Man, Poor In Time, I Was Suddenly Lifted Up Into A Vast Revenue; I Could See No End Of My Possessions; I Wanted Some Steward, Or Judicious Bailiff, To Manage My Estates In Time For Me.
Men
Poor
Ends
I Hate The Man Who Eats Without Knowing What He’s Eating. I Doubt His Taste In More Important Things.
Hate
Men
Knowing
Oh Call It By Some Better Name, For Friendship Sounds Too Cold.
Friendship
Names
Sound
Shut Not Thy Purse-strings Always Against Painted Distress. Act A Charity Sometimes. When A Poor Creature (outwardly And Visibly Such) Comes Before Thee, Do Not Stay To Inquire Whether The "seven Small Children," In Whose Name He Implores Thy Assistance, Have A Veritable Existence. Rake Not Into The Bowels Of Unwelcome Truth, To Save A Halfpenny. It Is Good To Believe Him.
Children
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Cultivate Simplicity, Coleridge.
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The Teller Of A Mirthful Tale Has Latitude Allowed Him. We Are Content With Less Than Absolute Truth.
Truth
Latitude And Longitude
Tales
A Miser Is Sometimes A Grand Personification Of Fear. He Has A Fine Horror Of Poverty; And He Is Not Content To Keep Want From The Door, Or At Arm's Length, But He Places It, By Heaping Wealth Upon Wealth, At A Sublime Distance!
Distance
Doors
Sublime
Newspapers Always Excite Curiosity. No One Ever Puts One Down Without The Feeling Of Disappointment.
Disappointment
Feelings
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The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls The Soul Of Music Shed, Now Hangs As Mute On Tara's Walls As If That Soul Were Fled. So Sleeps The Pride Of Former Days, So Glory's Thrill Is O'er; And Hearts That Once Beat High For Praise Now Feel That Pulse No More.
Music
Wall
Heart
Clap An Extinguisher Upon Your Irony If You Are Unhappily Blessed With A Vein Of It.
Blessed
Veins
Irony
How Sickness Enlarges The Dimension Of A Man’s Self To Himself!
Cancer
Men
Self
O Money, Money, How Blindly Thou Hast Been Worshipped, And How Stupidly Abused! Thou Are Health And Liberty And Strength, And He That Has Thee May Rattle His Pockets At The Foul Fiend!
Money
Liberty
Pockets
Oft In The Stilly Night, Ere Slumber's Chain Has Bound Me, Fond Memory Brings The Light Of Other Days Around Me; The Smiles, The Tears, Of Boyhood's Years, The Words Of Love Then Spoken; The Eyes That Shone Now Dimmed And Gone, The Cheerful Hearts Now Broken.
Love
Memories
Heart
Asparagus Inspires Gentle Thoughts.
Food
Inspire
Cooking
The Good Things Of Life Are Not To Be Had Singly, But Come To Us With A Mixture; Like A School-boy's Holiday, With A Task Affixed To The Tail Of It.
School
Holiday
Boys
Books Think For Me. I Can Read Anything Which I Call A Book.
Book
Thinking
I Can Read
How Convalescence Shrinks A Man Back To His Pristine Stature! Where Is Now The Space, Which He Occupied So Lately, In His Own, In The Family's Eye?
Eye
Men
Space
The Measure Of Choosing Well, Is, Whether A Man Likes And Finds Good In What He Has Chosen.
Men
Likes
Wells
When Thus The Heart Is In A Vein Of Tender Thought, The Simplest Strain Can Touch It With Peculiar Power.
Heart
Power
Peculiar
I'd Like To Grow Very Old As Slowly As Possible.
Age
Aging
Grows
If There Be A Regal Solitude, It Is A Sick-bed. How The Patient Lords It There!
Sick
Solitude
Bed
Mother's Love Grows By Giving.
Family
Mom
Mother
The English Writer, Charles Lamb, Said One Day: "i Hate That Man." "but You Don't Know Him." "of Course, I Don't," Said Lamb. "do You Think I Could Possibly Hate A Man I Know?"
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Men
Thinking
Summer, As My Friend Coleridge Waggishly Writes, Has Set In With Its Usual Severity.
Summer
Writing
Usual
Oh, The Pleasure Of Eating My Dinner Alone!
Dining Alone
Dinner
Eating
Every Commonplace Or Trite Observation Is Not A Truism.
Observation
Truism
Commonplace
The Greatest Pleasure I Know, Is To Do A Good Action By Stealth, And To Have It Found Out By Accident.
Character
Deeds Done
Charity
There Is Not In The Wide World A Valley So Sweet As That Vale In Whose Bosom The Bright Waters Meet.
Sweet
Water
Valleys
I Am Accounted By Some People As A Good Man. How Cheap That Character Is Acquired! Pay Your Debts, Don't Borrow Money, Nor Twist Your Kitten's Neck Off, Nor Disturb A Congregation, Etc., Your Business Is Done. I Know Things Of Myself, Which Would Make Every Friend I Have Fly Me As A Plague Patient.
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Character
Men
And When Once The Young Heart Of A Maiden Is Stolen, The Maiden Herself Will Steal After It Soon.
Heart
Stealing
Stolen
Cards Are War, In Disguise Of A Sport.
Sports
War
Games
A Laxity Pervades The Popular Use Of Words.
Use
Riches Are Chiefly Good Because They Give Us Time.
Life
Success
Giving
I Hate A Man Who Swallows [his Food], Affecting Not To Know What He Is Eating. I Suspect His Taste In Higher Matters.
Hate
Men
Matter
I Toiled After It, Sir, As Some Men Toil After Virtue.
Men
Smoking
Toil
Not If I Know Myself At All.
Knowledge
Knows
Ifs
Is It A Stale Remark To Say That I Have Constantly Found The Interest Excited At A Playhouse To Bear An Exact Inverse Proportion To The Price Paid For Admission?
Acting
Bears
Excited
Shut Not Thy Purse-strings Always Against Painted Distress.
Charity
Purses
Philanthropy
This Is The Magnanimity Of Authorship, When A Writer Having A Topic Presented To Him, Fruitful Of Beauties For Common Minds, Waives His Privilege, And Trusts To The Judicious Few For Understanding The Reason Of His Abstinence.
Understanding
Mind
Topics
Shakespeare Is One Of The Last Books One Should Like To Give Up, Perhaps The One Just Before The Dying Service In A Large Prayer Book.
Prayer
Giving Up
Book
Philanthropy, Like Charity, Must Begin At Home.
Home
Charity
Philanthropy
No Eye To Watch, And No Tongue To Wound Us, All Earth Forgot, And All Heaven Around Us.
Eye
Heaven
Watches
Think What You Would Have Been Now, If Instead Of Being Fed With Tales And Old Wives' Fables In Childhood, You Had Been Crammed With Geography And Natural History!
Thinking
Wife
Childhood
Thus, When The Lamp That Lighted The Traveller At First Goes Out, He Feels Awhile Benighted, And Looks Around In Fear And Doubt. But Soon, The Prospect Clearing, By Cloudless Starlight On He Treads, And Thinks No Lamp So Cheering As That Light Which Heaven Sheds.
Cheer
Fear
Thinking
Gone Before To That Unknown And Silent Shore.
Silence
Gone
Silent
This Very Night I Am Going To Leave Off Tobacco! Surely There Must Be Some Other World In Which This Unconquerable Purpose Shall Be Realised.
Night
Other Worlds
Smoking
I Even Think That, Sentimentally, I Am Disposed To Harmony. But Organically I Am Incapable Of A Tune.
Music
Thinking
Tunes
The Beggar Wears All Colors Fearing None.
Fear
Color
Beggar
Oh, Breathe Not His Name! Let It Sleep In The Shade, Where Cold And Unhonour'd His Relics Are Laid
Sleep
Names
Shade
Why Are We Never Quite At Ease In The Presence Of A Schoolmaster? Because We Are Conscious That He Is Not Quite At His Ease In Ours. He Is Awkward, And Out Of Place In The Society Of His Equals. He Comes Like Gulliver From Among His Little People, And He Cannot Fit The Stature Of His Understanding To Yours.
Education
Teacher
Teaching
His Voice Was The Most Obnoxious Squeak I Ever Was Tormented With.
Sarcastic
Voice
Obnoxious
Literature Is A Bad Crutch, But A Good Walking-stick.
Walking Sticks
Literature
Crutches
Take All The Pleasures Of All The Spheres, And Multiply Each Through Endless Years,- One Minute Of Heaven Is Worth Them All.
Years
Heaven
Spheres
Time Partially Reconciles Us To Anything. I Gradually Became Content--doggedly Contented, As Wild Animals In Cages.
Animal
Cages
Wild Animal
Satire Does Not Look Pretty Upon A Tombstone.
Tombstone
Doe
Looks
There Are Like To Be Short Graces Where The Devil Plays Host.
Play
Grace
Devil
Judge Not Man By His Outward Manifestation Of Faith; For Some There Are Who Tremblingly Reach Out Shaking Hands To The Guidance Of Faith; Others Who Stoutly Venture In The Dark Their Human Confidence, Their Leader, Which They Mistake For Faith; Some Whose Hope Totters Upon Crutches; Others Who Stalk Into Futurity Upon Stilts. The Difference Is Chiefly Constitutional With Them.
Faith
Mistake
Dark
Milton Almost Requires A Solemn Service Of Music To Be Played Before You Enter Upon Him. But He Brings His Music, To Which Who Listen Had Need Bring Docile Thoughts And Purged Ears.
Reading
Needs
Ears
An Album Is A Garden, Not For Show Planted, But Use; Where Wholesome Herbs Should Grow.
Garden
Albums
Use
I Conceive Disgust At These Impertinent And Misbecoming Familiarities Inscribed Upon Your Ordinary Tombstone.
Tombstone
Ordinary
Disgusting
Beholding Heaven, And Feeling Hell.
Heaven
Feelings
Hell
Oh, Ever Thus, From Childhood's Hour, I 've Seen My Fondest Hopes Decay; I Never Loved A Tree Or Flower But 't Was The First To Fade Away. I Never Nurs'd A Dear Gazelle, To Glad Me With Its Soft Black Eye, But When It Came To Know Me Well And Love Me, It Was Sure To Die.
Love
Hope
Flower
I Have Done All That I Came Into This World To Do. I Have Worked Task Work, And Have The Rest Of The Day To Myself.
Tasks
Done
World
What Have I Gained By Health? Intolerable Dullness. What By Mode Meals? A Total Blank.
Health
Meals
Blank
Half As Sober As A Judge.
Judging
Half
Sober
Coleridge Declares That A Man Cannot Have A Good Conscience Who Refuses Apple Dumplings, And I Confess That I Am Of The Same Opinion.
Men
Apples
Opinion
Man Is A Gaming Animal.
Animal
Men
Gambling
She Unbent Her Mind Afterwards - Over A Book.
Book
Mind
I Know That A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature?but The Prettier The Kind Of A Thing Is, The More Desirable It Is That It Should Be Pretty Of Its Kind.
Sweet
Children
Kind
Be Not Frightened At The Hard Words "imposition," "imposture;" Give And Ask No Questions. Cast Thy Bread Upon The Waters. Some Have, Unawares, Entertained Angels.
Angel
Giving
Water
I Cannot Sit And Think; Books Think For Me.
Book
Reading
Thinking
I Like You And Your Book, Ingenious Hone! In Whose Capacious All-embracing Leaves The Very Marrow Of Tradition 's Shown; And All That History, Much That Fiction Weaves.
I Like You
Book
Historical
What A Place To Be In Is An Old Library! It Seems As Though All The Souls Of All The Writers That Have Bequeathed Their Labours To These Bodleians Were Reposing Here As In Some Dormitory, Or Middle State. I Do Not Want To Handle, To Profane The Leaves, Their Winding-sheets. I Could As Soon Dislodge A Shade. I Seem To Inhale Learning, Walking Amid Their Foliage; And The Odor Of Their Old Moth-scented Coverings Is Fragrant As The First Bloom Of The Sciential Apples Which Grew Amid The Happy Orchard.
Apples
Soul
Library
We Grow Gray In Our Spirit Long Before We Grow Gray In Our Hair.
Hair
Long
Age
A Laugh Is Worth A Hundred Groans In Any Market.
Laughter
Laughing
Hundred
To Be Thankful For What We Grasp Exceeding Our Proportion Is To Add Hypocrisy To Injustice.
Hypocrisy
Being Thankful
Add
A Persian's Heaven Is Eas'ly Made: 't Is But Black Eyes And Lemonade.
Eye
Heaven
Black
Were I Diogenes, I Would Not Move Out Of A Kilderkin Into A Hogshead, Though The First Had Had Nothing But Small Beer In It, And The Second Reeked Claret.
Moving
Home
Beer
Riddle Of Destiny, Who Can Show What Thy Short Visit Meant, Or Know What Thy Errand Here Below?
Destiny
Errands
Riddle
We Are Ashamed At The Sight Of A Monkey--somehow As We Are Shy Of Poor Relations.
Sight
Shy
Monkeys
The Light That Lies In Woman's Eyes.
Lying
Eye
Light
Rags, Which Are The Reproach Of Poverty, Are The Beggar's Robes, And Graceful Insignia Of His Profession, His Tenure, His Full Dress, The Suit In Which He Is Expected To Show Himself In Public.
Rags
Dresses
Poverty
Ceremony Is An Invention To Take Off The Uneasy Feeling Which We Derive From Knowing Ourselves To Be Less The Object Of Love And Esteem With A Fellow-creature Than Some Other Person Is. It Endeavours To Make Up, By Superior Attentions In Little Points, For That Invidious Preference Which It Is Forced To Deny In The Greater.
Knowing
Feelings
Attention
New Year's Day Is Every Man's Birthday.
Birthday
New Year
Holiday
A Book Reads The Better Which Is Our Own, And Has Been So Long Known To Us, That We Know The Topography Of Its Blots, And Dog's Ears, And Can Trace The Dirt In It To Having Read It At Tea With Buttered Muffins.
Dog
Book
Reading
Positively, The Best Thing A Man Can Have To Do, Is Nothing, And Next To That Perhaps — Good Works.
Men
Next
Good Work
How Some They Have Died, And Some They Have Left Me, And Some Are Taken From Me; All Are Departed; All, All Are Gone, The Old Familiar Faces.
Taken
Departed
Gone
We Do Not Go To The Theatre Like Our Ancestors, To Escape From The Pressure Of Reality, So Much As To Confirm Our Experience Of It.
Reality
Theatre
Pressure
For With G. D., To Be Absent From The Body Is Sometimes (not To Speak Profanely) To Be Present With The Lord.
Body
Sometimes
Speak
Tis The Privilege Of Friendship To Talk Nonsense, And To Have Nonsense Respected.
Friendship
Inspiring
Funny Best Friend
Sassafras Wood Boiled Down To A Kind Of Tea, And Tempered With An Infusion Of Milk And Sugar Hath To Some A Delicacy Beyond The China Luxury.
Luxury
Tea
Delicacy
It Is Rather An Unpleasant Fact, That The Ugliest And Awkwardest Of Brute Animals Have The Greatest Resemblance To Man: The Monkey And The Bear. The Monkey Is Ugly Too (so We Think) Because He Is Like Man--as The Bear Is Awkward, Because The Cumbrous Action Of Its Huge Paws Seems To Be A Preposterous Imitation Of The Motions Of Human Hands. Men And Apes Are The Only Animals That Have Hairs On The Under Eye-lid. Let Kings Know This.
Kings
Eye
Thinking
He Has Left Off Reading Altogether, To The Great Improvement Of His Originality.
Book
Reading
Originality
The Going Away Of Friends Does Not Make The Remainder More Precious. It Takes So Much From Them As There Was A Common Link. A. B. And C. Make A Party. A. Dies. B. Not Only Loses A. But All A.'s Part In C. C. Loses A.'s Part In B., And So The Alphabet Sickens By Subtraction Of Interchangeables.
Friends
Party
Going Away
The True Poet Dreams Being Awake.
Dream
Poetry
Poet
A Man May Do Very Well With A Very Little Knowledge, And Scarce Be Found Out In Mixed Company; Everybody Is So Much More Ready To Produce His Own, Than To Call For A Display Of Your Acquisitions.
Knowledge
Men
Acquisition
If Dirt Were Trumps, What Hands You Would Hold!
Hands
Dirt
Trump
Oh For A Tongue To Curse The Slave Whose Treason, Like A Deadly Blight, Comes O'er The Councils Of The Brave, And Blasts Them In Their Hour Of Might!
Bravery
Might
Tongue
In The Negro Countenance You Will Often Meet With Strong Traits Of Benignity. I Have Felt Yearnings Of Tenderness Towards Some Of These Faces.
Strong
Faces
Yearning
The Muses Were Dumb While Apollo Lectured.
Silence
Dumb
Apollo
It Is With Some Violation Of The Imagination That We Conceive Of An Actor Belonging To The Relations Of Private Life, So Closely Do We Identify These Persons In Our Mind With The Characters Which They Assume Upon The Stage.
Character
Imagination
Mind
Merit, God Knows, Is Very Little Rewarded.
Littles
Merit
God Knows
Opinions Is A Species Of Property - I Am Always Desirous Of Sharing.
Opinion
Species
Property
It Is Good To Love The Unknown.
Love
English Physicians Kill You, The French Let You Die.
Physicians
Dies
Books Of Quick Interest, That Hurry On For Incidents Are For The Eye To Glide Over Only. It Will Not Do To Read Them Out. I Could Never Listen To Even The Better Kind Of Modern Novels Without Extreme Irksomeness.
Book
Eye
Modern Novel
I Know That A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature, Not Even Excepting The Delicate Creatures Which Bear Them.
Sweet
Children
Bears
There Is Absolutely No Such Thing As Reading But By A Candle. We Have Tried The Affectation Of A Book At Noon-day In Gardens, And In Sultry Arbours, But It Was Labor Thrown Away. Those Gay Motes In The Beam Come About You, Hovering And Teasing, Like So Many Coquets, That Will Have You All To Their Self, And Are Jealous Of Your Abstractions. By The Midnight Taper, The Writers Digests His Meditations. By The Same Light We Must Approach To Their Perusal, If We Would Catch The Flame, The Odour.
Book
Reading
Jealous
Man, While He Loves, Is Never Quite Depraved.
Love
Men
Never Quit
A Flow'ret Crushed In The Bud, A Nameless Piece Of Babyhood, Was In Her Cradle-coffin Lying; Extinct, With Scarce The Sense Of Dying
Lying
Dying
Coffins
't Is Sweet To Think That Where'er We Rove We Are Sure To Find Something Blissful And Dear; And That When We 're Far From The Lips We Love, We 've But To Make Love To The Lips We Are Near.
Love
Sweet
Thinking
Anything Awful Makes Me Laugh. I Misbehaved Once At A Funeral.
Laughing
Funeral
Awful
Those Evening Bells! Those Evening Bells! How Many A Tale Their Music Tells Of Youth And Home, And That Sweet Time When Last I Heard Their Soothing Chime!
Sweet
Time
Home
My Theory Is To Enjoy Life, But My Practice Is Against It.
Practice
Enjoy Life
Theory
When I Am Not Walking, I Am Reading. I Cannot Sit And Think.
Reading
Thinking
Walking
In Some Respects The Better A Book Is, The Less It Demands From The Binding.
Book
Demand
Binding
Whose Wit In The Combat, As Gentle As Bright, Ne'er Carried A Heart-stain Away On Its Blade.
Heart
Blades
Stains
Men Marry For Fortune, And Sometimes To Please Their Fancy; But, Much Oftener Than Is Suspected, They Consider What The World Will Say Of It--how Such A Woman In Their Friends' Eyes Will Look At The Head Of A Table. Hence We See So Many Insipid Beauties Made Wives Of, That Could Not Have Struck The Particular Fancy Of Any Man That Had Any Fancy At All.
Eye
Men
Wife
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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