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Human Experience, Which Is Constantly Contradicting Theory, Is The Great Test Of Truth. A System, Built Upon The Discoveries Of A Great Many Minds, Is Always Of More Strength, Than What Is Produced By The Mere Workings Of Any One Mind, Which, Of Itself, Can Do Very Little. There Is Not So Poor A Book In The World That Would Not Be A Prodigious Effort Were It Wrought Out Entirely By A Single Mind, Without The Aid Of Prior Investigators.

-Samuel Johnson

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Human Experience, Which Is

Samuel Johnson

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Human Experience, Which Is Constantly Contradicting Theory, Is The Great Test Of Truth. A System, Built Upon The Discoveries Of A Great Many Minds, Is Always Of More Strength, Than What Is Produced By The Mere Workings Of Any One Mind, Which, Of Itself, Can Do Very Little. There Is Not So Poor A Book In The World That Would Not Be A Prodigious Effort Were It Wrought Out Entirely By A Single Mind, Without The Aid Of Prior Investigators.

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Towering Is The Confidence Of Twenty-one.

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

The Commodiousness Of Money Is Indeed Great; But There Are Some Advantages Which Money Cannot Buy, And Which Therefore No Wise Man Will By The Love Of Money Be Tempted To Forego.

So Different Are The Colors Of Life, As We Look Forward To The Future, Or Backward To The Past; And So Different The Opinions And Sentiments Which This Contrariety Of Appearance Naturally Produces, That The Conversation Of The Old And Young Ends Generally With Contempt Or Pity On Either Side.

The Happiness Of Building Lasted But A Little While, For Though I Love To Spend, I Hate To Be Cheated; And I Soon Found, That To Build Is To Be Robbed.

He That Reads And Grows No Wiser Seldom Suspects His Own Deficiency, But Complains Of Hard Words And Obscure Sentences, And Asks Why Books Are Written Which Cannot Be Understood.

To Tell Your Own Secrets Is Generally Folly, But That Folly Is Without Guilt; To Communicate Those With Which We Are Intrusted Is Always Treachery, And Treachery For The Most Part Combined With Folly.

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.

Differences, We Know, Are Never So Effectually Laid Asleep As By Some Common Calamity; An Enemy Unites All To Whom He Threatens Danger.

Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money; Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured; But Thousands And Millions Are Of Small Avail To Alleviate The Protracted Tortures Of The Gout, To Repair The Broken Organs Of Sense, Or Resuscitate The Powers Of Digestion. Poverty Is, Indeed, An Evil From Which We Naturally Fly, But Let Us Not Run From One Enemy To Another, Nor Take Shelter In The Arms Of Sickness.

The Real Satisfaction Which Praise Can Afford, Is When What Is Repeated Aloud Agrees With The Whispers Of Conscience, By Showing Us That We Have Not Endeavored To Deserve Well In Vain.

If Your Determination Is Fixed, I Do Not Counsel You To Despair. Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill. Great Works Are Performed Not By Strength, But Perseverance.

No Man Is Much Regarded By The Rest Of The World. He That Considers How Little He Dwells Upon The Condition Of Others, Will Learn How Little The Attention Of Others Is Attracted By Himself. While We See Multitudes Passing Before Us, Of Whom Perhaps Not One Appears To Deserve Our Notice Or Excites Our Sympathy, We Should Remember, That We Likewise Are Lost In The Same Throng, That The Eye Which Happens To Glance Upon Us Is Turned In A Moment On Him That Follows Us, And That The Utmost Which We Can Reasonably Hope Or Fear Is To Fill A Vacant Hour With Prattle, And Be Forgotten.

Shakespeare Never Had More Than 6 Lines Together Without A Fault.

It Is Generally Allowed, That No Man Ever Found The Happiness Of Possession Proportionate To That Expectation Which Incited His Desire, And Invigorated His Pursuit; Nor Has Any Man Found The Evils Of Life So Formidable In Reality, As They Were Described To Him By His Own Imagination; Every Species Of Distress Brings With It Some Peculiar Supports, Some Unforeseen Means Of Resisting, Or Powers Of Enduring.

Melancholy, Indeed, Should Be Diverted By Every Means But Drinking.

Questioning Is Not The Mode Of Conversation Among Gentlemen.

He Was Dull In A New Way, And That Made Many Think Him Great.

Still We Love The Evil We Do, Until We Suffer It.

Avarice Is Always Poor.

Ignorance Is Mere Privation By Which Nothing Can Be Produced: It Is A Vacuity In Which The Soul Sits Motionless And Torpid For Want Of Attraction: And, Without Knowing Why, We Always Rejoice When We Learn, And Grieve When We Forget.

The Truth Is That The Spectators Are Always In Their Senses, And Know, From The First Act To The Last, That The Stage Is Only A Stage, And That The Players Are Only Players.

No Man Can Perform So Little As Not To Have Reason To Congratulate Himself On His Merits, When He Beholds The Multitude That Live In Total Idleness, And Have Never Yet Endeavoured To Be Useful.

Wine Gives A Man Nothing... It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

Never Mind The Use--do It!

No Man Reads A Book Of Science From Pure Inclination. The Books That We Do Read With Pleasure Are Light Compositions, Which Contain A Quick Succession Of Events.

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

It Would Add Much To Human Happiness, If An Art Could Be Taught Of Forgetting All Of Which The Remembrance Is At Once Useless And Afflictive, That The Mind Might Perform Its Functions Without Encumbrance, And The Past Might No Longer Encroach Upon The Present.

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

If Pleasure Was Not Followed By Pain, Who Would Forbear It?

I Will Be Conquered; I Will Not Capitulate.

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.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself.

Those Who Have No Power To Judge Of Past Times But By Their Own, Should Always Doubt Their Conclusions

Surely Nothing Is More Reproachful To A Being Endowed With Reason, Than To Resign Its Powers To The Influence Of The Air, And Live In Dependence On The Weather And The Wind, For The Only Blessings Which Nature Has Put Into Our Power, Tranquillity And Benevolence. To Look Up To The Sky For The Nutriment Of Our Bodies, Is The Condition Of Nature; To Call Upon The Sun For Peace And Gaiety, Or Deprecate The Clouds Lest Sorrow Should Overwhelm Us, Is The Cowardice Of Idleness, And The Idolatry Of Folly.

There Are Minds So Impatient Of Inferiority That Their Gratitude Is A Species Of Revenge, And They Return Benefits, Not Because Recompense Is A Pleasure, But Because Obligation Is A Pain.

About Things On Which The Public Thinks Long It Commonly Attains To Think Right.

Persius Has Justly Observed, That Knowledge Is Nothing To Him Who Is Not Known By Others To Possess It: To The Scholar Himself It Is Nothing With Respect Either To Honour Or Advantage, For The World Cannot Reward Those Qualities Which Are Concealed From It; With Respect To Others It Is Nothing, Because It Affords No Help To Ignorance Or Errour.

Had I Learned To Fiddle, I Should Have Done Nothing Else.

Ignorance Cannot Always Be Inferred From Inaccuracy; Knowledge Is Not Always Present.

Of Him That Hopes To Be Forgiven It Is Indispensably Required That He Forgive. It Is, Therefore, Superfluous To Urge Any Other Motive. On This Great Duty Eternity Is Suspended, And To Him That Refuses To Practise It, The Throne Of Mercy Is Inaccessible, And The Saviour Of The World Has Been Born In Vain.

You Despise A Man For Avarice; But You Do Not Hate Him.

Many Useful And Valuable Books Lie Buried In Shops And Libraries, Unknown And Unexamined, Unless Some Lucky Compiler Opens Them By Chance, And Finds An Easy Spoil Of Wit And Learning.

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.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

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

Their Origin Is Commonly Unknown; For The Practice Often Continues When The Cause Has Ceased, And Concerning Superstitious Ceremonies It Is In Vain To Conjecture; For What Reason Did Not Dictate, Reason Cannot Explain.

Never Speak Of A Man In His Own Presence. It Is Always Indelicate, And May Be Offensive .

As To The Christian Religion, Besides The Strong Evidence Which We Have For It, There Is A Balance In Its Favor From The Number Of Great Men Who Have Been Convinced Of Its Truth After A Serious Consideration Of The Question. Grotius Was An Acute Man, A Lawyer, A Man Accustomed To Examine Evidence, And He Was Convinced. Grotius Was Not A Recluse, But A Man Of The World, Who Certainly Had No Bias On The Side Of Religion. Sir Isaac Newton Set Out An Infidel, And Came To Be A Very Firm Believer.

To Fix The Thoughts By Writing, And Subject Them To Frequent Examinations And Reviews, Is The Best Method Of Enabling The Mind To Detect Its Own Sophisms, And Keep It On Guard Against The Fallacies Which It Practices On Others

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.

Criticism Is A Study By Which Men Grow Important And Formidable At Very Small Expense. The Power Of Invention Has Been Conferred By Nature Upon Few, And The Labour Of Learning Those Sciences Which May, By Mere Labour, Be Obtained, Is Too Great To Be Willingly Endured; But Every Man Can Exert Some Judgment As He Has Upon The Works Of Others; And He Whom Nature Has Made Weak, And Idleness Keeps Ignorant, May Yet Support His Vanity By The Name Of Critic.

Life Is Not Long, And Too Much Of It Must Not Pass In Idle Deliberation How It Shall Be Spent.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity. It Becomes Cheap As It Becomes Vulgar, And Will No Longer Raise Expectation Or Animate Enterprise.

Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.

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

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

No Cause More Frequently Produces Bashfulness Than Too High An Opinion Of Our Own Importance. He That Imagines An Assembly Filled With His Merit, Panting With Expectation, And Hushed With Attention, Easily Terrifies Himself With The Dread Of Disappointing Them, And Strains His Imagination In Pursuit Of Something That May Vindicate The Veracity Of Fame, And Show That His Reputation Was Not Gained By Chance.

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.

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

The Mathematicians Are Well Acquainted With The Difference Between Pure Science, Which Has Only To Do With Ideas, And The Application Of Its Laws To The Use Of Life, In Which They Are Constrained To Submit To The Imperfections Of Matter And The Influence Of Accidents.

I Am Always For Getting A Boy Forward In His Learning, For That Is Sure Good. I Would Let Him At First Read Any English Book Which Happens To Engage His Attention; Because You Have Done A Great Deal When You Have Brought Him To Have Entertainment From A Book. He'll Get Better Books Afterwards.

Every Period Of Life Is Obliged To Borrow Its Happiness From Time To Come.

Then With No Throbs Of Fiery Pain, No Cold Gradations Of Decay, Death Broke At Once The Vital Chain, And Freed His Soul The Nearest Way.

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

We Owe To Memory Not Only The Increase Of Our Knowledge, And Our Progress In Rational Inquiries, But Many Other Intellectual Pleasures

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.

As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.

While Grief Is Fresh, Every Attempt To Divert Only Irritates. You Must Wait Till It Be Digested, And Then Amusement Will Dissipate The Remains Of It.

Depend Upon It That If A Man Talks Of His Misfortunes There Is Something In Them That Is Not Disagreeable To Him; For Where There Is Nothing But Pure Misery There Never Is Any Recourse To The Mention Of It.

Care That Is Once Enter'd Into The Breast Will Have The Whole Possession Ere It Rest.

We Suffer Equal Pain From The Pertinacious Adhesion Of Unwelcome Images, As From The Evanescence Of Those Which Are Pleasing And Useful.

I Am Far From Any Intention To Limit Curiosity, Or Confine The Labours Of Learning To Arts Of Immediate And Necessary Use. It Is Only From The Various Essays Of Experimental Industry, And The Vague Excursions Of Mind Set Upon Discovery, That Any Advancement Of Knowledge Can Be Expected; And Though Many Must Be Disappointed In Their Labours, Yet They Are Not To Be Charged With Having Spent Their Time In Vain; Their Example Contributed To Inspire Emulation, And Their Miscarriage Taught Others The Way To Success.

It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.

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

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

Lost Friendship

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

Civilized Nations

I Soon Found That Wit, Like Every Other Power, Has Its Boundaries; That Its Success Depends Upon The Aptitude Of Others To Receive Impressions; And That As Some Bodies, Indissoluble By Heat, Can Set The Furnace And Crucible At Defiance, There Are Min

All Severity That Does Not Tend To Increase Good, Or Prevent Evil, Is Idle.

Philosophers There Are Who Try To Make Themselves Believe That This Life Is Happy; But They Believe It Only While They Are Saying It, And Never Yet Produced Conviction In A Single Mind.

Large Offers And Sturdy Rejections Are Among The Most Common Topics Of Falsehood.

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

What Provokes Your Risibility, Sir? Have I Said Anything That You Understand? Then I Ask Pardon Of The Rest Of The Company.

You Are Much Surer That You Are Doing Good When You Pay Money To Those Who Work, As The Recompense Of Their Labor, Than When You Give Money Merely In Charity.

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.

Political Liberty Is Only Good Insofar As It Produces Private Liberty.

Being Married To Those Sleepy-souled Women Is Just Like Playing At Cards For Nothing: No Passion Is Excited And The Time Is Filled Up. I Do Not, However, Envy A Fellow One Of Those Honeysuckle Wives For My Part, As They Are But Creepers At Best And Commonly Destroy The Tree They So Tenderly Cling About.

Religion Informs Us That Misery And Sin Were Produced Together. The Depravation Of Human Will Was Followed By A Disorder Of The Harmony Of Nature; And By That Providence Which Often Places Antidotes In The Neighborhood Of Poisons, Vice Was Checked By Misery, Lest It Should Swell To Universal And Unlimited Dominion.

Few Faults Of Style, Whether Real Or Imaginary, Excite The Malignity Of A More Numerous Class Of Readers, Than The Use Of Hard Words.

Milton, Madam, Was A Genius That Could Cut A Colossus From A Rock; But Could Not Carve Heads Upon Cherry-stones.

Example Is Always More Efficacious Than Precept.

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

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

Nothing Can Be Truly Great Which Is Not Right.

Domestic Discord Is Not Inevitably And Fatally Necessary; But Yet It Is Not Easy To Avoid.

He That Applauds Him Who Does Not Deserve Praise, Is Endeavoring To Deceive The Public; He That Hisses In Malice Or Sport, Is An Oppressor And A Robber.

The Desires Of Man Increase With His Acquisitions.

Irresolution And Mutability Are Often The Faults Of Men Whose Views Are Wide, And Whose Imagination Is Vigorous And Excursive.

The Booksellers Are Generous Liberal-minded Men.

No Man But A Blockhead Ever Wrote Except For Money.

Mankind Have A Great Aversion To Intellectual Labor; But Even Supposing Knowledge To Be Easily Attainable, More People Would Be Content To Be Ignorant Than Would Take Even A Little Trouble To Acquire It.

The Ambition Of Superior Sensibility And Superior Eloquence Disposes The Lovers Of Arts To Receive Rapture At One Time, And Communicate It At Another; And Each Labors First To Impose Upon Himself And Then To Propagate The Imposture.

To Be Idle And To Be Poor Have Always Been Reproaches, And Therefore Every Man Endeavors With His Utmost Care To Hide His Poverty From Others, And His Idleness From Himself.

Assertion Is Not Argument; To Contradict The Statement Of An Opponent Is Not Proof That You Are Correct.

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

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

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

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

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

A Man Who Exposes Himself When He Is Intoxicated, Has Not The Art Of Getting Drunk.

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

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

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.

So Scanty Is Our Present Allowance Of Happiness That In Many Situations Life Could Scarcely Be Supported If Hope Were Not Allowed To Relieve The Present Hour By Pleasures Borrowed From The Future.

To Revenge Reasonable Incredulity By Refusing Evidence, Is A Degree Of Insolence With Which The World Is Not Yet Acquainted; And Stubborn Audacity Is The Last Refuge Of Guilt.

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

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

Superfluous Lags The Veteran On The Stage, Till Pitying Nature Signs The Last Release, And Bids Afflicted Worth Retire To Peace.

I Have Always Said The First Whig Was The Devil.

Such Are The Vicissitudes Of The World, Through All Its Parts, That Day And Night, Labor And Rest, Hurry And Retirement, Endear Each Other; Such Are The Changes That Keep The Mind In Action: We Desire, We Pursue, We Obtain, We Are Satiated; We Desire Something Else And Begin A New Pursuit.

To Excite Opposition And Inflame Malevolence Is The Unhappy Privilege Of Courage Made Arrogant By Consciousness Of Strength.

No Estimate Is More In Danger Of Erroneous Calculations Than Those By Which A Man Computes The Force Of His Own Genius.

He Who Does Not Mind His Belly, Will Hardly Mind Anything Else.

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.

He That Has Once Concluded It Lawful To Resist Power, When It Wants Merit, Will Soon Find A Want Of Merit, To Justify His Resistance To Power.

I Deny The Lawfulness Of Telling A Lie To A Sick Man For Fear Of Alarming Him; You Have No Business With Consequences, You Are To Tell The Truth.

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

Life Is A Pill Which None Of Us Can Bear To Swallow Without Gilding.

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

He That Would Travel For The Entertainment Of Others, Should Remember That The Great Object Of Remark Is Human Life. Every Nation Has Something Peculiar In Its Manufactures, Its Works Of Genius, Its Medicines, Its Agriculture, Its Customs, And Its Policy. He Only Is A Useful Traveller, Who Brings Home Something By Which His Country May Be Benefited; Who Procures Some Supply Of Want, Or Some Mitigation Of Evil, Which May Enable His Readers To Compare Their Condition With That Of Others, To Improve It Whenever It Is Worse, And Whenever It Is Better To Enjoy It.

Happiness Consists In The Multiplicity Of Agreeable Consciousness.

I Also Admit, That There Are Some Sluggish Men Who Are Improved By Drinking; As There Are Fruits Which Are Not Good Till They Are Rotten.

An Age That Melts In Unperceiv'd Decay, And Glides In Modest Innocence Away.

Many Of Our Miseries Are Merely Comparative: We Are Often Made Unhappy, Not By The Presence Of Any Real Evil, But By The Absence Of Some Fictitious Good; Of Something Which Is Not Required By Any Real Want Of Nature, Which Has Not In Itself Any Power Of Gratification, And Which Neither Reason Nor Fancy Would Have Prompted Us To Wish, Did We Not See It In The Possession Of Others.

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

Since Every Man Is Obliged To Promote Happiness And Virtue, He Should Be Careful Not To Mislead Unwary Minds, By Appearing To Set Too High A Value Upon Things By Which No Real Excellence Is Conferred.

I Advised Chambers, And Would Advise Every Young Man Beginning To Compose, To Do It As Fast As He Can, To Get A Habit Of Having His Mind To Start Promptly; It Is So Much More Difficult To Improve In Speed Than In Accuracy.

Reason And Truth Will Prevail At Last

Truth Will Prevail

There Prevails Among Men Of Letters, An Opinion, That All Appearance Of Science Is Particularly Hateful To Women; And That Therefore Whoever Desires To Be Well Received In Female Assemblies, Must Qualify Himself By A Total Rejection Of All That Is Serious, Rational, Or Important; Must Consider Argument Or Criticism As Perpetually Interdicted; And Devote All His Attention To Trifles, And All His Eloquence To Compliment.

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

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

Slander Is The Revenge Of A Coward, And Dissimulation Of His Defense.

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

He Who Would Bring Home The Wealth Of The Indies Must Carry The Wealth Of The Indies With Him.

He That Wishes To See His Country Robbed Of Its Rights Cannot Be A Patriot.

The Perfect Day For Quitting Is Not Real. It Will Never Come, So Might As Well Start Today

Every Human Being Whose Mind Is Not Debauched, Will Be Willing To Give All That He Has To Get Knowledge.

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

That We Must All Die, We Always Knew, I Wish I Had Sooner Remembred It.

Quotation Is A Good Thing, There Is A Community Of Thought In It.

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

There Is Something In Obstinacy Which Differs From Every Other Passion. Whenever It Fails, It Never Recovers, But Either Breaks Like Iron, Or Crumbles Sulkily Away, Like A Fractured Arch. Most Other Passions Have Their Periods Of Fatigue And Rest, Their Sufferings And Their Cure; But Obstinacy Has No Resource, And The First Wound Is Mortal.

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

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

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

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

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

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

Books Without The Knowledge Of Life Are Useless.

That Friendship May Be At Once Fond And Lasting, There Must Not Only Be Equal Virtue On Each Part, But Virtue Of The Same Kind; Not Only The Same End Must Be Proposed, But The Same Means Must Be Approved By Both.

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

Sir, If A Man Has A Mind To Prance, He Must Study At Christ Church And All Souls.

Silence Propagates Itself, And The Longer Talk Has Been Suspended, The More Difficult It Is To Find Anything To Say.

I Am Willing To Love All Of Mankind, Except An American.

Except During The Nine Months Before He Draws His First Breath, No Man Manages His Affairs As Well As A Tree. We Are Inclined To Believe Those Whom We Do Not Know Because They Have Never Deceived Us.

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

What Is Said Upon A Subject Is Gathered From An Hundred People.

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

Friendship Is Seldom Lasting But Between Equals, Or Where The Superiority On One Side Is Reduced By Some Equivalent Advantage On The Other.

Of A Thousand Shavers, Two Do Not Shave So Much Alike As Not To Be Distinguished.

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

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

The Man Who Is Asked By An Author What He Thinks Of His Work Is Put To The Torture And Is Not Obliged To Speak The Truth.

In Traveling, A Man Must Carry Knowledge With Him, If He Would Bring Home Knowledge.

A Man May Write At Any Time, If He Will Set Himself Doggedly To It.

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

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.

Power Is Not Sufficient Evidence Of Truth.

Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last; And Perhaps Always Predominates In Proportion To The Strength Of The Contemplative Faculties. He Who Easily Comprehends All That Is Before Him, And Soon Exhausts Any Single Subject, Is Always Eager For New Inquiries; And In Proportion As The Intellectual Eye Takes In A Wider Prospect, It Must Be Gratified With Variety, By More Rapid Flights And Bolder Excursions.

There May Be Community Of Material Possessions, But There Can Never Be Community Of Love Or Esteem.

People In General Do Not Willingly Read If They Have Anything Else To Amuse Them.

The Really Happy Woman Is The One Who Can Enjoy The Scenery When She Has To Take A Detour. Happiness Is Not A State To Arrive At, But Rather A Manner Of Traveling.

Present Opportunities Are Neglected, And Attainable Good Is Slighted, By Minds Busied In Extensive Ranges And Intent Upon Future Advantages.

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

To Talk In Public, To Think In Solitude, To Read And To Hear, To Inquire And Answer Inquiries, Is The Business Of The Scholar

I Do Not Envy A Clergyman's Life As An Easy Life, Nor Do I Envy The Clergyman Who Makes It An Easy Life.

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

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.

It Is Very Natural For Young Men To Be Vehement, Acrimonious And Severe. For As They Seldom Comprehend At Once All The Consequences Of A Position, Or Perceive The Difficulties By Which Cooler And More Experienced Reasoners Are Restrained From Confidence, They Form Their Conclusions With Great Precipitance. Seeing Nothing That Can Darken Or Embarrass The Question, They Expect To Find Their Own Opinion Universally Prevalent, And Are Inclined To Impute Uncertainty And Hesitation To Want Of Honesty, Rather Than Of Knowledge.

No Man Can Enjoy Happiness Without Thinking That He Enjoys It.

When Female Minds Are Embittered By Age Or Solitude, Their Malignity Is Generally Exerted In A Rigorous And Spiteful Superintendence Of Domestic Trifles.

Men Who Could Willingly Resign The Luxuries And Sensual Pleasures Of A Large Fortune Cannot Consent To Live Without The Grandeur And The Homage.

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

A Cow Is A Very Good Animal In The Field; But We Turn Her Out Of A Garden.

Those Who Have Any Intention Of Deviating From The Beaten Roads Of Life, And Acquiring A Reputation Superior To Names Hourly Swept Away By Time Among The Refuse Of Fame, Should Add To Their Reason And Their Spirit The Power Of Persisting In Their Pur

The Present Is Never A Happy State To Any Human Being.

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

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.

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