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Great Souls By Instinct To Each Other Turn, Demand Alliance, And In Friendship Burn.

-Joseph Addison

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Great Souls By Instinct

Joseph Addison

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Great Souls By Instinct To Each Other Turn, Demand Alliance, And In Friendship Burn.

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Lost Friendship

More From Joseph Addison

Eternity! Thou Pleasing, Dreadful Thought.

Time Management

Though We Seem Grieved At The Shortness Of Life In General, We Are Wishing Every Period Of It At An End. The Minor Longs To Be At Age, Then To Be A Man Of Business, Then To Make Up An Estate, Then To Arrive At Honors, Then To Retire.

I Always Rejoice When I See A Tribunal Filled With A Man Of An Upright And Inflexible Temper, Who In The Execution Of His Country's Laws Can Overcome All Private Fear, Resentment, Solicitation, And Even Pity Itself.

Of All The Diversions Of Life, There Is None So Proper To Fill Up Its Empty Spaces As The Reading Of Useful And Entertaining Authors.

Good Nature Is More Agreeable In Conversation Than Wit And Gives A Certain Air To The Countenance Which Is More Amiable Than Beauty.

Young Men Soon Give, And Soon Forget, Affronts; Old Age Is Slow In Both.

That Fine Part Of Our Construction, The Eye, Seems As Much The Receptacle And Seat Of Our Passions As The Mind Itself; And At Least It Is The Outward Portal To Introduce Them To The House Within, Or Rather The Common Thoroughfare To Let Our Affections Pass In And Out.

Marriage Enlarges The Scene Of Our Happiness And Miseries. A Marriage Of Love Is Pleasant; A Marriage Of Interest, Easy; And A Marriage Where Both Meet, Happy. A Happy Marriage Has In It All The Pleasures Of Friendship, All The Enjoyments Of Sense And Reason, And, Indeed, All The Sweets Of Life.

It Is Certain That There Is No Other Passion Which Does Produce Such Contrary Effects In So Great A Degree. But This May Be Said For Love, That If You Strike It Out Of The Soul, Life Would Be Insipid, And Our Being But Half Animated.

Love Is A Second Life.

Life Is Not Long Enough For A Coquette To Play All Her Tricks In.

Half The Misery Of Human Life Might Be Extinguished If Men Would Alleviate The General Curse They Lie Under By Mutual Offices Of Compassion, Benevolence, And Humanity.

The Care Of Our National Commerce Redounds More To The Riches And Prosperity Of The Public Than Any Other Act Of Government.

For Ever Singing As They Shine, The Hand That Made Us Is Divine.

To Be Perfectly Just Is An Attribute Of The Divine Nature; To Be So To The Utmost Of Our Abilities, Is The Glory Of Man.

Misery And Ignorance Are Always The Cause Of Great Evils. Misery Is Easily Excited To Anger, And Ignorance Soon Yields To Perfidious Counsels.

Nothing, Says Longinus, Can Be Great, The Contempt Of Which Is Great.

Blesses His Stars And Thinks It Luxury.

I Am Very Much Concerned When I See Young Gentlemen Of Fortune And Quality So Wholly Set Upon Pleasures And Diversions, That They Neglect All Those Improvements In Wisdom And Knowledge Which May Make Them Easy To Themselves And Useful To The World.

O Ye Powers That Search The Heart Of Man, And Weigh His Inmost Thoughts, If I Have Done Amiss, Impute It Not! The Best May Err, But You Are Good.

Irregularity And Want Of Method Are Only Supportable In Men Of Great Learning Or Genius, Who Are Often Too Full To Be Exact, And Therefore They Choose To Throw Down Their Pearls In Heaps Before The Reader, Rather Than Be At The Pains Of Stringing Them.

Good Nature Will Always Supply The Absence Of Beauty; But Beauty Cannot Supply The Absence Of Good Nature.

In The Loss Of An Object We Do Not Proportion Our Grief To The Real Value It Bears, But To The Value Our Fancies Set Upon It.

There Is Not A More Pleasing Exercise Of The Mind Than Gratitude. It Is Accompanied With Such An Inward Satisfaction That The Duty Is Sufficiently Rewarded By The Performance

What Sculpture Is To A Block Of Marble, Education Is To The Human Soul.

It Is Indeed Very Possible, That The Persons We Laugh At May In The Main Of Their Characters Be Much Wiser Men Than Our Selves; But If They Would Have Us Laugh At Them, They Must Fall Short Of Us In Those Respects Which Stir Up This Passion.

It Is Pleasant To See A Notorious Profligate Seized With A Concern For Religion, And Converting His Spleen Into Zeal.

I... Recommend To Every One Of My Readers, The Keeping A Journal Of Their Lives For One Week, And Setting Down Punctually Their Whole Series Of Employments During That Space Of Time. This Kind Of Self-examination Would Give Them A True State Of Themselves, And Incline Them To Consider Seriously What They Are About. One Day Would Rectifie The Omissions Of Another, And Make A Man Weigh All Those Indifferent Actions, Which, Though They Are Easily Forgotten, Must Certainly Be Accounted For.

Should The Whole Frame Of Nature Round Him Break, In Ruin And Confusion Hurled, He, Unconcerned, Would Hear The Mighty Crack, And Stand Secure Amidst A Falling World.

When A Man Becomes Familiar With His Goddess, She Quickly Sinks Into A Woman.

The Only Way Therefore To Try A Piece Of Wit, Is To Translate It Into A Different Language: If It Bears The Test You May Pronounceit True; But If It Vanishes In The Experiment You May Conclude It To Have Been A Punn.

Unbounded Courage And Compassion Join'd, Tempering Each Other In The Victor's Mind, Alternately Proclaim Him Good And Great, And Make The Hero And The Man Complete.

Were I To Prescribe A Rule For Drinking, It Should Be Formed Upon A Saying Quoted By Sir William Temple: The First Glass For Myself, The Second For My Friends, The Third For Good Humor, And The Fourth For Mine Enemies.

Mirth Is Like A Flash Of Lightning, That Breaks Through A Gloom Of Clouds, And Glitters For A Moment; Cheerfulness Keeps Up A Kind Of Daylight In The Mind, And Fills It With A Steady And Perpetual Serenity.

Love Is A Second Life; It Grows Into The Soul, Warms Every Vein, And Beats In Every Pulse.

I Have Often Wondered That Learning Is Not Thought A Proper Ingredient In The Education Of A Woman Of Quality Or Fortune. Since They Have The Same Improvable Minds As The Male Part Of Their Species.

A Brother's Sufferings Claim A Brother's Pity.

I Believe That Everyone, Some Time Or Other, Dreams That He Is Reading Papers, Books, Or Letters; In Which Case The Invention Prompts So Readily That The Mind Is Imposed Upon, And Mistakes Its Own Suggestions For The Composition Of Another.

It Is A Melancholy Consideration That There Should Be Several Among Us So Hardened And Deluded As To Think An Oath A Proper Subject For A Jest; And To Make This, Which Is One Of The Most Solemn Acts Of Religion, An Occasion Of Mirth. Yet Such Is The Depravation Of Our Manners At Present, That Nothing Is More Frequent Than To Hear Profligate Men Ridiculing, To The Best Of Their Abilities, These Sacred Pledges Of Their Duty And Allegiance; And Endeavouring To Be Witty Upon Themselves, For Daring To Prevaricate With God And Man.

A Vast Space Naturally Raises In My Thoughts The Idea Of An Almighty Being.

Our Delight In Any Particular Study, Art, Or Science Rises And Improves In Proportion To The Application Which We Bestow Upon It. Thus, What Was At First An Exercise Becomes At Length An Entertainment.

A Cheerful Temper, Joined With Innocence Will Make Beauty Attractive, Knowledge Delightful, And Wit Good-natured.

When I Consider The Question, Whether There Are Such Persons In The World As Those We Call Witches? My Mind Is Divided Between The Two Opposite Opinions; Or Rather I Believe In General That There Is, And Has Been Such A Thing As Witchcraft; But At The Same Time Can Give No Credit To Any Particular Instance Of It.

A Contented Mind Is The Greatest Blessing A Man Can Enjoy In This World; And If In The Present Life His Happiness Arises From The Subduing Of His Desires, It Will Arise In The Next From The Gratification Of Them.

I Never Knew A Critic Who Made It His Business To Lash The Faults Of Other Writers That Was Not Guilty Of Greater Himself--as The Hangman Is Generally A Worse Malefactor Than The Criminal That Suffers By His Hand.

The Utmost Extent Of Man's Knowledge, Is To Know That He Knows Nothing.

Justice Is An Unassailable Fortress, Built On The Brow Of A Mountain Which Cannot Be Overthrown By The Violence Of Torrents, Nor Demolished By The Force Of Armies.

Suspicion Is Not Less An Enemy To Virtue Than To Happiness; He That Is Already Corrupt Is Naturally Suspicious, And He That Becomes Suspicious Will Quickly Be Corrupt.

The First Race Of Mankind Used To Dispute, As Our Ordinary People Do Now-a-days, In A Kind Of Wild Logic, Uncultivated By Rule Of Art.

Gold Is A Wonderful Clearer Of The Understanding; It Dissipates Every Doubt And Scruple In An Instant.

Music Religious Heat Inspires, It Wakes The Soul, And Lifts It High, And Wings It With Sublime Desires, And Fits It To Bespeak The Deity.

The Gloomy Months Of November, When The People Of England Hang And Drown Themselves.

Reading Is To The Mind What Exercise Is To The Body.

One Would Wonder To Hear Skeptical Men Disputing For The Reason Of Animals, And Telling Us It Is Only Our Pride And Prejudices That Will Not Allow Them The Use Of That Faculty. Reason Shows Itself In All Occurrences Of Life; Whereas The Brute Makes No Discovery Of Such A Talent, But In What Immediately Regards His Own Preservation, Or The Continuance Of His Species. Animals In Their Generation Are Wiser Than The Sons Of Men; But Their Wisdom Is Confined To A Few Particulars, And Lies In A Very Narrow Compass. Take A Brute Out Of His Instinct, And You Find Him Wholly Deprived Of Understanding.

The Gods In Bounty Work Up Storms About Us, That Give Mankind Occasion To Exert Their Hidden Strength, And Throw Our Into Practice Virtues That Shun The Day, And Lie Concealed In The Smooth Seasons And The Calms Of Life.

How Is It Possible For Those Who Are Men Of Honor In Their Persons, Thus To Become Notorious Liars In Their Party

Soon As The Evening Shades Prevail, The Moon Takes Up The Wondrous Tale, And Nightly To The Listening Earth Repeats The Story Of Her Birth.

There Is Not, In My Opinion, Anything More Mysterious In Nature Than This Instinct In Animals, Which Thus Rise Above Reason, And Yet Fall Infinitely Short Of It.

Content Has A Kindly Influence On The Soul Of Man, In Respect Of Every Being To Whom He Stands Related. It Extinguishes All Murmuring, Repining, And Ingratitude Toward That Being Who Has Allotted Us Our Part To Act In The World. It Destroys All Inordinate Ambition; Gives Sweetness To The Conversation, And Serenity To All The Thoughts; And If It Does Not Bring Riches, It Does The Same Thing By Banishing The Desire Of Them.

Yet Then From All My Grief, O Lord, Thy Mercy Set Me Free, Whilst In The Confidence Of Pray'r My Soul Took Hold On Thee.

Our Disputants Put Me In Mind Of The Cuttlefish That, When He Is Unable To Extricate Himself, Blackens The Water About Him Till He Becomes Invisible.

No Man Writes A Book Without Meaning Something, Though He May Not Have The Faculty Of Writing Consequentially And Expressing His Meaning.

Were A Man's Sorrows And Disquietudes Summed Up At The End Of His Life, It Would Generally Be Found That He Had Suffered More From The Apprehension Of Such Evils As Never Happened To Him Than From Those Evils Which Had Really Befallen Him.

An Ostentatious Man Will Rather Relate A Blunder Or An Absurdity He Has Committed, Than Be Debarred From Talking Of His Own Dear Person.

A Man's First Care Should Be To Avoid The Reproaches Of His Own Heart; His Next, To Escape The Censures Of The World: If The Last Interferes With The Former, It Ought To Be Entirely Neglected; But Otherwise There Cannot Be A Greater Satisfaction To An Honest Mind, Than To See Those Approbations Which It Gives Itself Seconded By The Applauses Of The Public.

Men Who Profess A State Of Neutrality In Times Of Public Danger, Desert The Common Interest Of Their Fellow Subjects; And Act With Independence To That Constitution Into Which They Are Incorporated. The Safety Of The Whole Requires Our Joint Endeavours. When This Is At Stake, The Indifferent Are Not Properly A Part Of The Community; Or Rather Are Like Dead Limbs, Which Are An Encumbrance To The Body, Instead Of Being Of Use To It.

Pedantry In Learning Is Like Hypocrisy Inn Religion--a Form Of Knowledge Without The Power Of It.

There Is Nothing More Requisite In Business Than Despatch.

Decision Making

A Source Of Cheerfulness To A Good Mind Is The Consideration Of That Being On Whom We Have Our Dependence, And In Whom, Though We Behold Him As Yet But In The First Faint Discoveries Of His Perfections, We See Everything That We Can Imagine As Great Glorious, Or Amiable. We Find Ourselves Everywhere Upheld By His Goodness And Surrounded By An Immensity Of Love And Mercy.

Antidotes Are What You Take To Prevent Dotes.

Waning Moons Their Settled Periods Keep, To Swell The Billows And Ferment The Deep.

A True Critic Ought To Dwell Rather Upon Excellencies Than Imperfections

On You, My Lord, With Anxious Fear I Wait, And From Your Judgment Must Expect My Fate.

The Productions Of A Great Genius, With Many Lapses And Inadvertences, Are Infinitely Preferable To The Works Of An Inferior Kind Of Author Which Are Scrupulously Exact, And Conformable To All The Rules Of Correct Writing.

I Should Think Myself A Very Bad Woman, If I Had Done What I Do For A Farthing Less.

What Can Be Nobler Than The Idea It Gives Us Of The Supreme Being?

Books Are The Legacies That A Great Genius Leaves To Mankind

If We Hope For What We Are Not Likely To Possess, We Act And Think In Vain, And Make Life A Greater Dream And Shadow Than It Really Is.

Mere Bashfulness Without Merit Is Awkwardness.

A Just And Reasonable Modesty Does Not Only Recommend Eloquence, But Sets Off Every Great Talent Which A Man Can Be Possessed Of.

Reading Is To The Mind, What Exercise Is To The Body. As By The One, Health Is Preserved, Strengthened, And Invigorated: By The Other, Virtue (which Is The Health Of The Mind) Is Kept Alive, Cherished, And Confirmed.

Mere Bashfulness Without Merit Is Awkward; And Merit Without Modesty, Insolent. But Modest Merit Has A Double Claim To Acceptance, And Generally Meets With As Many Patrons As Beholders.

My Heart Leaps At The Trumpet's Voice.

Wit Is The Fetching Of Congruity Out Of Incongruity.

A Cloudy Day Or A Little Sunshine Have As Great An Influence On Many Constitutions As The Most Recent Blessings Or Misfortunes.

Nothing Makes Men Sharper Than Want.

One Should Take Good Care Not To Grow Too Wise For So Great A Pleasure Of Life As Laughter.

Irresolution On The Schemes Of Life Which Offer Themselves To Our Choice, And Inconstancy In Pursuing Them, Are The Greatest Causes Of All Our Unhappiness.

Guard Thy Heart On This Weak Side, Where Most Our Nature Fails.

There Is No Kind Of False Wit Which Has Been So Recommended By The Practice Of All Ages, As That Which Consists In A Jingle Of Words, And Is Comprehended Under The General Name Of Punning.

Mysterious Love, Uncertain Treasure, Hast Thou More Of Pain Or Pleasure! Endless Torments Dwell About Thee: Yet Who Would Live, And Live Without Thee!

In Private Conversation Between Intimate Friends, The Wisest Men Very Often Talk Like The Weakest : For Indeed The Talking With A Friend Is Nothing Else But Thinking Aloud.

There Is Nothing Which One Regards So Much With An Eye Of Mirth And Pity As Innocence When It Has In It A Dash Of Folly.

Love, Anger, Pride And Avarice All Visibly Move In Those Little Orbs.

My Death And Life, My Bane And Antidote, Are Both Before Me.

The Most Exquisite Words And Finest Strokes Of An Author Are Those Which Very Often Appear The Most Doubtful And Exceptionable To A Man Who Wants A Relish For Polite Learning; And They Are Those Which A Sour Undistinguishing Critic Generally Attacks With The Greatest Violence.

Nature Delights In The Most Plain And Simple Diet.

It Is Of Unspeakable Advantage To Possess Our Minds With An Habitual Good Intention, And To Aim All Our Thoughts, Words, And Actions At Some Laudable End.

Good Intentions

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good.

Though There Is A Benevolence Due To All Mankind, None Can Question But A Superior Degree Of It Is To Be Paid To A Father, A Wife, Or Child. In The Same Manner, Though Our Love Should Reach To The Whole Species, A Greater Proportion Of It Should Exert Itself Towards That Community In Which Providence Has Placed Us. This Is Our Proper Sphere Of Action, The Province Allotted Us For The Exercise Of Our Civil Virtues, And In Which Alone We Have Opportunities Of Expressing Our Goodwill To Mankind.

An Idol May Be Undeified By Many Accidental Causes. Marriage, In Particular, Is A Kind Of Counter Apotheosis, As A Deification Inverted. When A Man Becomes Familiar With His Goddess She Quickly Sinks Into A Woman.

To Be Exempt From The Passions With Which Others Are Tormented, Is The Only Pleasing Solitude.

Pleasing Others

The Moral Perfections Of The Deity, The More Attentively, We Consider, The More Perfectly Still Shall We Know Them.

Nothing Is More Amiable Than True Modesty, And Nothing More Contemptible Than The False. The One Guards Virtue, The Other Betrays It.

Charity Is The Perfection And Ornament Of Religion.

Knavery Is Ever Suspicious Of Knavery.

Husband A Lie, And Trump It Up In Some Extraordinary Emergency.

I Would Have Every Zealous Man Examine His Heart Thoroughly, And I Believe He Will Often Find That What Be Calls A Zeal For His Religion Is Either Pride, Interest, Or Ill-repute.

The Pride Of Woman, Natural To Her, Never Sleeps Until Modesty Is Gone.

Sir Francis Bacon Observed That A Well-written Book, Compared With Its Rivals And Antagonists, Is Like Moses' Serpent, That Immediately Swallowed Up And Devoured Those Of The Egyptians.

There Is Not So Variable A Thing In Nature As A Lady's Head-dress.

I Always Rejoice When I See A Tribunal Filled With A Man Of An Upright And Inflexible Temper, Who In The Execution Of His Country's Laws Can Overcome All Private Fear, Resentment, Solicitation, And Even Pity It Self. Whatever Passion Enters Into A Sentence Or Decision, So Far Will There Be In It A Tincture Of Injustice. In Short, Justice Discards Party, Friendship, Kindred, And Is Therefore Always Represented As Blind, That We May Suppose Her Thoughts Are Wholly Intent On The Equity Of A Cause, Without Being Diverted Or Prejudiced By Objects Foreign To It.

Great Souls By Instinct To Each Other Turn, Demand Alliance, And In Friendship Burn.

Lost Friendship

The English Writers Of Tragedy Are Possessed With A Notion, That When They Represent A Virtuous Or Innocent Person In Distress, They Ought Not To Leave Him Till They Have Delivered Him Out Of His Troubles, Or Made Him Triumph Over His Enemies.

Innocent Person

Those Marriages Generally Abound Most With Love And Constancy, That Are Preceded By A Long Courtship.

Persons In Great Stations Have Seldom Their True Character Drawn Till Several Years After Their Death. Their Personal Friendships And Enmities Must Cease, And The Parties They Were Engaged In Be At An End, Before Their Faults Or Their Virtues Can Have Justice Done Them. When Writers Have The Least Opportunities Of Knowing The Truth, They Are In The Best Disposition To Tell It.

The Schoolboy Counts The Time Till The Return Of The Holidays; The Minor Longs To Be Of Age; The Lover Is Impatient Till He Is Married.

Nothing That Is Not A Real Crime Makes A Man Appear So Contemptible And Little In The Eyes Of The World As Inconsistency, Especially When It Regards Religion Or Party. In Either Of These Cases, Though A Man Perhaps Does But His Duty In Changing His Side, He Not Only Makes Himself Hated By Those He Left, But Is Seldom Heartily Esteemed By Those He Comes Over To.

If I Can In Any Way Contribute To The Diversion Or Improvement Of The Country In Which I Live, I Shall Leave It, When I Am Summoned Out Of It, With The Secret Satisfaction Of Thinking That I Have Not Lived In Vain.

Music Can Noble Hints Impart, Engender Fury, Kindle Love, With Unsuspected Eloquence Can Move, And Manage All The Man With Secret Art.

If You Wish To Succeed In Life, Make Perseverance Your Bosom Friend, Experience Your Wise Counselor, Caution Your Elder Brother, And Hope Your Guardian Genius.

One Would Think That The Larger The Company Is In Which We Are Engaged, The Greater Variety Of Thoughts And Subjects Would Be Started Into Discourse; But, Instead Of This We Find That Conversation Is Never So Much Straightened And Confined, As In Numerous Assemblies.

Devotion, When It Does Not Lie Under The Check Of Reason, Is Apt To Degenerate Into Enthusiasm.

That He Delights In The Misery Of Others No Man Will Confess, And Yet What Other Motive Can Make A Father Cruel?

Health And Cheerfulness Naturally Beget Each Other.

I Have Always Preferred Cheerfulness To Mirth. The Latter I Consider As An Act, The Former As A Habit Of Mind. Mirth Is Short And Transient, Cheerfulness Fixed And Permanent.

What An Absurd Thing It Is To Pass Over All The Valuable Parts Of A Man, And Fix Our Attention On His Infirmities.

We See No Where The Pernicious Effects Of Luxury On A Republic More Than In That Of The Ancient Romans, Who Immediately Found Itself Poor As Soon As This Vice Got Footing Among Them, Though They Were Possessed Of All The Riches In The World.

It Happened Very Providentially, To The Honor Of The Christian Religion, That It Did Not Take Its Rise In The Dark Illiterate Ages Of The World, But At A Time When Arts And Sciences Were At Their Height.

It Has Been Said In Praise Of Some Men, That They Could Take Whole Hours Together Upon Anything; But It Must Be Owned To The Honor Of The Other Sex That There Are Many Among Them Who Can Talk Whole Hours Together Upon Nothing. I Have Known A Woman Branch Out Into A Long Extempore Dissertation On The Edging Of A Petticoat, And Chide Her Servant For Breaking A China Cup, In All The Figures Of Rhetoric.

There Is No Defence Against Reproach, But Obscurity; It Is A Kind Of Concomitant To Greatness, As Satires And Invectives Were An Essential Part Of A Roman Triumph.

Advertisements Are Of Great Use To The Vulgar. First Of All, As They Are Instruments Of Ambition. A Man That Is By No Means Big Enough For The Gazette, May Easily Creep Into The Advertisements; By Which Means We Often See An Apothecary In The Same Paper Of News With A Plenipotentiary, Or A Running Footman With An Ambassador.

They Were A People So Primitive They Did Not Know How To Get Money, Except By Working For It.

It Is Ridiculous For Any Man To Criticize On The Works Of Another, Who Has Not Distinguished Himself By His Own Performances.

Admiration Is A Very Short-lived Passion, That Immediately Decays Upon Growing Familiar With Its Object.

Admiration And Respect

A Money-lender--he Serves You In The Present Tense; He Lends You In The Conditional Mood; Keeps You In The Conjunctive; And Ruins You In The Future.

When A Man Is Made Up Wholly Of The Dove, Without The Least Grain Of The Serpent In His Composition, He Becomes Ridiculous In Many Circumstances Of Life, And Very Often Discredits His Best Actions.

We Find That Good And Evil Happen Alike To All Men On This Side Of The Grave; And As The Principle Design Of Tragedy Is To Raise Commiseration And Terror In The Minds Of The Audience, We Shall Defeat This Great End, If We Always Make Virtue And Innocence Happy And Successful.

Why, A Spirit Is Such A Little, Little Thing, That I Have Heard Man, Who Was A Great Scholar, Say That He'll Dance Ye A Hornpipe Upon The Point Of A Needle.

A Soul Exasperated In Ills, Falls Out With Everything, Its Friend, Itself.

When I Behold A Fashionable Table Set Out In All Its Magnificence, I Fancy That I See Gouts And Dropsies, Fevers And Lethargies, With Other Innumerable Distempers Lying In Ambuscade Among The Dishes. Nature Delights In The Most Plain And Simple Diet. Every Animal But Man Keeps To One Dish. Herbs Are The Food Of This Species, Fish Of That, And Flesh Of A Third. Man Falls Upon Everything That Comes In His Way; Not The Smallest Fruit Or Excrescence Of The Earth, Scarce A Berry Or A Mushroom Can Escape Him.

The First Of All Virtues Is Innocence; The Next Is Modesty. If We Banish Modesty Out Of The World, She Carries Away With Her Half The Virtue That Is In It.

Female Virtues Are Of A Domestick Turn. The Family Is The Proper Province For Private Women To Shine In. If They Must Be Showing Their Zeal For The Publick, Let It Not Be Against Those Who Are Perhaps Of The Same Family, Or At Least Of The Same Religion Or Nation, But Against Those Who Are The Open, Professed, Undoubted Enemies Of Their Faith, Liberty, And Country.

What Can That Man Fear Who Takes Care To Please A Being That Is Able To Crush All His Adversaries?

There Are No More Useful Members In A Commonwealth Than Merchants. They Knit Mankind Together In A Mutual Intercourse Of Good Offices, Distribute The Gifts Of Nature, Find Work For The Poor, And Wealth To The Rich, And Magnificence To The Great.

Round-heads And Wooden-shoes Are Standing Jokes.

Must One Rash Word, The Infirmity Of Age, Throw Down The Merit Of My Better Years?

Those Who Were Skillful In Anatomy Among The Ancients, Concluded From The Outward And Inward Make Of An Human Body, That It Was The Work Of A Being Transcendently Wise And Powerful. As The World Grew More Enlightened In This Art, Their Discoveries Gave Them Fresh Opportunities Of Admiring The Conduct Of Providence In The Formation Of An Human Body.

It Must Be So,-plato, Thou Reasonest Well! Else Whence This Pleasing Hope, This Fond Desire, This Longing After Immortality? Or Whence This Secret Dread And Inward Horror Of Falling Into Naught? Why Shrinks The Soul Back On Herself, And Startles At Destruction? 't Is The Divinity That Stirs Within Us; 't Is Heaven Itself That Points Out An Hereafter, And Intimates Eternity To Man. Eternity! Thou Pleasing, Dreadful Thought!

From Social Intercourse Are Derived Some Of The Highest Enjoyments Of Life; Where There Is A Free Interchange Of Sentiments The Mind Acquires New Ideas, And By Frequent Exercise Of Its Powers, The Understanding Gains Fresh Vigor.

It Generally Takes Its Rise Either From An Ill-will To Mankind, A Private Inclination To Make Ourselves Esteemed, An Ostentation Of Wit, And Vanity Of Being Thought In The Secrets Of The World; Or From A Desire Of Gratifying Any Of These Dispositions Of Mind In Those Persons With Whom We Converse.

The Woman That Deliberates Is Lost.

What Sunshine Is To Flowers, Smiles Are To Humanity. These Are But Trifles, To Be Sure; But Scattered Along Life's Pathway, The Good They Do Is Inconceivable.

There Is A Sort Of Economy In Providence That One Shall Excel Where Another Is Defective, In Order To Make Men More Useful To Each Other, And Mix Them In Society.

Poverty Palls The Most Generous Spirits; It Cows Industry, And Casts Resolution Itself Into Despair.

Generous Spirit

Words, When Well Chosen, Have So Great A Force In Them, That A Description Often Gives Us More Lively Ideas Than The Sight Of Things Themselves.

'tis Liberty That Crowns Britannia's Isle, And Makes Her Barren Rocks And Her Bleak Mountains Smile... 'tis Britain's Care To Watch O'er Europe's Fate, And Hold In Balance Each Contending State, To Threaten Bold Presumptuous Kings With War, And Answer Her Afflicted Neighbours' Prayer... Soon As Her Fleets Appear Their Terrors Cease.

Arguments Out Of A Pretty Mouth Are Unanswerable.

Some Virtues Are Only Seen In Affliction And Others Only In Prosperity.

There Is No Greater Sign Of A General Decay Of Virtue In A Nation, Than A Want Of Zeal In Its Inhabitants For The Good Of Their Country.

It Must Be So, Plato, Thou Reason'st Well!

A Contemplation Of God's Works, A Generous Concern For The Good Of Mankind, And The Unfeigned Exercise Of Humility Only, Denominate Men Great And Glorious.

A Perfect Tragedy Is The Noblest Production Of Human Nature.

Nations With Nations Mix'd Confus'dly Die, And Lost In One Promiscuous Carnage Lie.

Plutarch Says Very Finely That A Man Should Not Allow Himself To Hate Even His Enemies.

Conspiracies No Sooner Should Be Formed Than Executed.

One Would Fancy That The Zealots In Atheism Would Be Exempt From The Single Fault Which Seems To Grow Out Of The Imprudent Fervor Of Religion. But So It Is, That Irreligion Is Propagated With As Much Fierceness And Contention, Wrath And Indignation, As If The Safety Of Mankind Depended Upon It.

The Ungrown Glories Of His Beamy Hair.

Others Proclaim The Infirmities Of A Great Man With Satisfaction And Complacence, If They Discover None Of The Like In Themselves.

Reason Shows Itself In All Occurrences Of Life; Whereas The Brute Makes No Discovery Of Such A Talent, But In What Immediately Regards His Own Preservation Or The Continuance Of His Species.

It Is Odd To Consider The Connection Between Despotism And Barbarity, And How The Making One Person More Than Man Makes The Rest Less.

The Obedience Of Children To Their Parents Is The Basis Of All Government, And Set Forth As The Measure Of That Obedience Which Weowe To Those Whom Providence Hath Placed Over Us.

The Discreet Man Finds Out The Talents Of Those He Converses With, And Knows How To Apply Them To Proper Uses. Accordingly, If We Look Into Particular Communities And Divisions Of Men, We May Observe That It Is The Discreet Man, Not The Witty, Nor The Learned, Nor The Brave, Who Guides The Conversation, And Gives Measures To The Society.

What I Spent I Lost; What I Possessed Is Left To Others; What I Gave Away Remains With Me.

Good Nature, And Evenness Of Temper, Will Give You An Easie Companion For Life; Vertue And Good Sense, An Agreeable Friend; Love And Constancy, A Good Wife Or Husband. Where We Meet One Person With All These Accomplishments, We Find An Hundred Without Any One Of Them.

The Dawn Is Overcast, The Morning Lowers, And Heavily In Clouds Brings On The Day, The Great, The Important Day, Big With The Fate Of Cato And Of Rome.

But In All Despotic Governments, Though A Particular Prince May Favour Arts And Letter, There Is A Natural Degeneracy Of Mankind.

Marriage Enlarges The Scene Of Our Happiness And Miseries.

Among The Several Kinds Of Beauty, The Eye Takes Most Delight In Colors.

My Voice Is Still For War.

It Is The Duty Of All Who Make Philosophy The Entertainment Of Their Lives, To Turn Their Thoughts To Practical Schemes For The Good Of Society, And Not Pass Away Their Time In Fruitless Searches, Which Tend Rather To The Ostentation Of Knowledge Than The Service Of Life.

The Moral Virtues, Without Religion Are But Cold, Lifeless, And Insipid; It Is Only Religion Which Opens The Mind To Great Conceptions, Fills It With The Most Sublime Ideas, And Warms The Soul With More Than Sensual Pleasures.

Adulterers, In The First Stages Of The Church, Were Excommunicated Forever, And Unqualified All Their Lives For Bearing A Part In Christian Assemblies, Notwithstanding They Might Seek It With Tears, And All The Appearances Of The Most Unfeigned Repentance.

No Oppression Is So Heavy Or Lasting As That Which Is Inflicted By The Perversion And Exorbitance Of Legal Authority.

Our Sight Is The Most Perfect And Most Delightful Of All Our Senses. It Fills The Mind With The Largest Variety Of Ideas, Converses With Its Objects At The Greatest Distance, And Continues The Longest In Action Without Being Tired Or Satiated With Its Proper Enjoyments.

Music, When Thus Applied, Raises Noble Hints In The Mind Of The Hearer, And Fills It With Great Conceptions. It Strengthens Devotion, And Advances Praise Into Rapture.

If Men, Who In Their Hearts Are Friends To A Government, Forbear Giving It Their Utmost Assistance Against Its Enemies, They Put It In The Power Of A Few Desperate Men To Ruin The Welfare Of Those Who Are Much Superior To Them In Strength, Number, And Interest.

The Religious Man Fears, The Man Of Honor Scorns, To Do An Ill Action.

Exercise Ferments The Humors, Casts Them Into Their Proper Channels, Throws Off Redundancies, And Helps Nature In Those Secret Distributions, Without Which The Body Cannot Subsist In Its Vigor, Nor The Soul Act With Cheerfulness.

Nature In Her Whole Drama Never Drew Such A Part; She Has Sometimes Made A Fool, But A Coxcomb Is Always Of A Man's Own Making.

The Soul, Considered With Its Creator, Is Like One Of Those Mathematical Lines That May Draw Nearer To Another For All Eternity Without A Possibility Of Touching It; And Can There Be A Thought So Transporting As To Consider Ourselves In These Perpetual Approaches To Him, Who Is Not Only The Standard Of Perfection, But Of Happiness?

I Have But Nine-pence In Ready Money, But I Can Draw For A Thousand Pounds.

Virgil Has Very Finely Touched Upon The Female Passion For Dress And Shows, In The Character Of Camilla; Who Though She Seems To Have Shaken Off All The Other Weaknesses Of Her Sex, Is Still Described As A Woman In This Particular.

I Shall Endeavor To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality.

Amidst The Soft Variety I'm Lost.

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good. When Vice Prevails, And Impious Men Bear Sway, The Post Of Honoris A Private Station.

There Is No Society Or Conversation To Be Kept Up In The World Without Good-nature, Or Something Which Must Bear Its Appearance And Supply Its Place. For This Reason Mankind Have Been Forced To Invent A Kind Of Artificial Humanity, Which Is What We Express By The Word Good-breeding.

Supposing All The Great Points Of Atheism Were Formed Into A Kind Of Creed, I Would Fain Ask Whether It Would Not Require An Infinite Greater Measure Of Faith Than Any Set Of Articles Which They So Violently Oppose.

Plutarch Has Written An Essay On The Benefits Which A Man May Receive From His Enemies; And Among The Good Fruits Of Enmity, Mentions This In Particular, That By The Reproaches Which It Casts Upon Us, We See The Worst Side Of Ourselves.

No One Is More Cherished In This World Than Someone Who Lightens The Burden Of Another. Thank You.

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