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I Do Not Wonder That, Where The Monastick Life Is Permitted, Every Order Finds Votaries, And Every Monastery Inhabitants. Men Will Submit To Any Rule, By Which They May Be Exempted From The Tyranny Of Caprice And Of Chance. They Are Glad To Supply By External Authority Their Own Want Of Constancy And Resolution, And Court The Government Of Others, When Long Experience Has Convinced Them Of Their Own Inability To Govern Themselves.

-Samuel Johnson

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I Do Not Wonder

Samuel Johnson

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I Do Not Wonder That, Where The Monastick Life Is Permitted, Every Order Finds Votaries, And Every Monastery Inhabitants. Men Will Submit To Any Rule, By Which They May Be Exempted From The Tyranny Of Caprice And Of Chance. They Are Glad To Supply By External Authority Their Own Want Of Constancy And Resolution, And Court The Government Of Others, When Long Experience Has Convinced Them Of Their Own Inability To Govern Themselves.

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I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.

Nature Has Given Women So Much Power That The Law Has Very Wisely Given Them Little.

Those Who Will Not Take The Trouble To Think For Themselves, Have Always Somebody That Thinks For Them; And The Difficulty In Writing Is To Please Those From Whom Others Learn To Be Pleased.

Men Have Been Wise In Many Different Modes; But They Have Always Laughed The Same Way.

It Is One Of The Maxims Of The Civil Law, That Definitions Are Hazardous.

The Belief Of Immortality Is Impressed Upon All Men, And All Men Act Under An Impression Of It, However They May Talk, And Though, Perhaps, They May Be Scarcely Sensible Of It.

Governors Being Accustomed To Hear Of More Crimes Than They Can Punish, And More Wrongs Than They Can Redress, Set Themselves At Ease By Indiscriminate Negligence, And Presently Forget The Request When They Lose Sight Of The Petitioner.

Every Man Has A Lurking Wish To Appear Considerable In His Native Place.

Change Is Not Made Without Inconvenience.

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A Wise Man Is Cured Of Ambition By Ambition Itself; His Aim Is So Exalted That Riches, Office, Fortune And Favour Cannot Satisfy Him.

"uisce Beatha" Is A Compounded Distilled Spirit Being Drawn On Aromatics, And The Irish Sort Is Particularly Distinguished For Its Pleasant And Mild Flavour.

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

Prejudice Is A Great Time-saver. You Can Form Opinions Without Having To Get The Facts. Prejudice Not Being Founded On Reason Cannot Be Removed By Argument.

When A Language Begins To Teem With Books, It Is Tending To Refinement; As Those Who Undertake To Teach Others Must Have Undergone Some Labour In Improving Themselves, They Set A Proportionate Value On Their Own Thoughts, And Wish To Enforce Them By Efficacious Expressions; Speech Becomes Embodied And Permanent; Different Modes And Phrases Are Compared, And The Best Obtains An Establishment. By Degrees One Age Improves Upon Another.

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

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

More Is Learned In A Public Than In A Private School, From Emulation. There Is The Collision Of Mind With Mind, Or The Radiation Of Many Minds Pointing To One Center.

I Know Not Any Crime So Great That A Man Could Contrive To Commit As Poisoning The Sources Of Eternal Truth.

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

Love Is The Wisdom Of The Fool And The Folly Of The Wise.

Instead Of Rating The Man By His Performances, We Rate Too Frequently The Performances By The Man.

The Gloomy And The Resentful Are Always Found Among Those Who Have Nothing To Do Or Who Do Nothing.

Where There Is No Difficulty There Is No Praise.

No Man Is Without Some Quality, By The Due Application Of Which He Might Deserve Well Of The World; And Whoever He Be That Has But Little In His Power Should Be In Haste To Do That Little, Lest He Be Confounded With Him That Can Do Nothing.

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

That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause Awhile From Letters, To Be Wise.

Life, To Be Worthy Of A Rational Being, Must Be Always In Progression; We Must Always Purpose To Do More Or Better Than In Time Past.

Solitude Is The Surest Nurse Of All Prurient Passions, And A Girl In The Hurry Of Preparation, Or Tumult Of Gaiety, Has Neither Inclination Nor Leisure To Let Tender Expressions Soften Or Sink Into Her Heart. The Ball, The Show, Are Not The Dangerous Places: No, 'tis The Private Friend, The Kind Consoler, The Companion Of The Easy Vacant Hour, Whose Compliance With Her Opinions Can Flatter Her Vanity, And Whose Conversation Can Sooth, Without Ever Stretching Her Mind, That Is The Lover To Be Feared: He Who Buzzes In Her Ear At Court, Or At The Opera, Must Be Contented To Buzz In Vain.

Nobody Can Write The Life Of A Man But Those Who Have Eat And Drunk And Lived In Social Intercourse With Him.

Nothing Is More Hopeless Than A Scheme Of Merriment.

We Are Not Here To Sell A Parcel Of Boilers And Vats, But The Potentiality Of Growing Rich Beyond The Dreams Of Avarice.

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.

If We Require More Perfection From Women Than From Ourselves, It Is Doing Them Honor.

Sir, Sorrow Is Inherent In Humanity. As You Cannot Judge Two And Two To Be Either Five, Or Three, But Certainly Four, So, When Comparing A Worse Present State With A Better Which Is Past, You Cannot But Feel Sorrow. It Is Not Cured By Reason, But By The Incursion Of Present Objects, Which Bear Out The Past.

The Applause Of A Single Human Being Is Of Great Consequence.

Corneille Is To Shakespeare As A Clipped Hedge Is To A Forest.

There Are Innumerable Questions To Which The Inquisitive Mind Can In This State Receive No Answer: Why Do You And I Exist? Why Was This World Created? Since It Was To Be Created, Why Was It Not Created Sooner?

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

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

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

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

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow, But There Is Something In It So Like Virtue, That He Who Is Wholly Without It Cannot Be Loved.

The Authors That In Any Nation Last From Age To Age Are Very Few, Because There Are Very Few That Have Any Other Claim To Notice Than That They Catch Hold On Present Curiosity, And Gratify Some Accidental Desire, Or Produce Some Temporary Conveniency.

Truth, Sir, Is A Cow Which Will Yield Such People No More Milk, And So They Are Gone To Milk The Bull.

Such Is The Emptiness Of Human Enjoyment That We Are Always Impatient Of The Present. Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, And Possession By Disgust.

The Majority Of A Society Is The True Definition Of The Public.

Sorrow Is The Mere Rust Of The Soul. Activity Will Cleanse And Brighten It.

A Country Is In A Bad State, Which Is Governed Only By Laws; Because A Thousand Things Occur For Which Laws Cannot Provide, And Where Authority Ought To Interpose.

"i Fly From Pleasure," Said The Prince, "because Pleasure Has Ceased To Please; I Am Lonely Because I Am Miserable, And Am Unwilling To Cloud With My Presence The Happiness Of Others."

It Is The Just Doom Of Laziness And Gluttony To Be Inactive Without Ease And Drowsy Without Tranquility.

Every Man Naturally Persuades Himself That He Can Keep His Resolutions, Nor Is He Convinced Of His Imbecility But By Length Of Time And Frequency Of Experiment.

When We See Our Enemies And Friends Gliding Away Before Us, Let Us Not Forget That We Are Subject To The General Law Of Mortality, And Shall Soon Be Where Our Doom Will Be Fixed Forever.

Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy, Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly; The One Completes A Villain, The Other Only Finishes A Fop.

What Is Read Twice Is Usually Remembered More Than What Is Once Written.

He Who Aspires To Be A Serious Wine Drinker Must Drink Claret.

Pope Had Been Flattered Till He Thought Himself One Of The Moving Powers Of The System Of Life. When He Talked Of Laying Down His Pen, Those Who Sat Round Him Intreated And Implored; And Self-love Did Not Suffer Him To Suspect That They Went Away And Laughed.

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

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

There Is Always Something A Woman Will Prefer To The Truth.

Such Seems To Be The Disposition Of Man, That Whatever Makes A Distinction Produces Rivalry.

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

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

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

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Are Always Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel. Pity Is Acquired And Improved By The Cultivation Of Reason. We May Have Uneasy Sensations From Seeing A Creature In Distress, Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

Leave To Heaven The Measure And The Choice.

Faction Seldom Leaves A Man Honest, However It Might Find Him.

If Misery Be The Effect Of Virtue, It Ought To Be Reverenced; If Of Ill-fortune, To Be Pitied; And If Of Vice, Not To Be Insulted, Because It Is Perhaps Itself A Punishment Adequate To The Crime By Which It Was Produced.

Among Many Parallels Which Men Of Imagination Have Drawn Between The Natural And Moral State Of The World, It Has Been Observed That Happiness As Well As Virtue Consists In Mediocrity.

To Purchase Heaven Has Gold The Power? Can Gold Remove The Mortal Hour? In Life Can Love Be Bought With Gold? Are Friendship's Pleasures To Be Sold? No--all That's Worth A Wish--a Thought, Fair Virtue Gives Unbribed, Unbought. Cease Then On Trash Thy Hopes To Bind, Let Nobler Views Engage Thy Mind.

Sir, He [bolingbroke] Was A Scoundrel And A Coward: A Scoundrel For Charging A Blunderbuss Against Religion And Morality; A Coward, Because He Had Not Resolution To Fire It Off Himself, But Left Half A Crown To A Beggarly Scotsman To Draw The Trigger At His Death.

Poverty Is Often Concealed In Splendor, And Often In Extravagance. It Is The Task Of Many People To Conceal Their Neediness From Others. Consequently They Support Themselves By Temporary Means, And Everyday Is Lost In Contriving For Tomorrow.

Bounty Always Receives Part Of Its Value From The Manner In Which It Is Bestowed.

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

Many A Man Is Mad In Certain Instances, And Goes Through Life Without Having It Perceived. For Example, A Madness Has Seized A Person Of Supposing Himself Obliged Literally To Pray Continually; Had The Madness Turned The Opposite Way, And The Person Thought It A Crime Ever To Pray, It Might Not Improbably Have Continued Unobserved.

Sir, I Have No Objection To A Man's Drinking Wine, If He Can Do It In Moderation. I Found Myself Apt To Go To Excess In It, And Therefore, After Having Been For Some Time Without It, On Account Of Illness, I Thought It Better Not To Return To It. Every Man Is To Judge For Himself, According To The Effects Which He Experiences.

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

Happiness," Said He, "must Be Something Solid And Permanent, Without Fear And Without Uncertainty.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

In My Early Years I Read Very Hard. It Is A Sad Reflection, But A True One, That I Knew Almost As Much At Eighteen As I Do Now.

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

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

He That Never Thinks Can Never Be Wise.

The Present Time Is Seldom Able To Fill Desire Or Imagination With Immediate Enjoyment, And We Are Forced To Supply Its Deficiencies By Recollection Or Anticipation.

It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.

Sorrow Is A Kind Of Rust Of The Soul, Which Every New Idea Contributes In Its Passage To Scour Away. It Is The Putrefaction Of Stagnant Life, And Is Remedied By Exercise And Motion.

No Man Is Obliged To Do As Much As He Can Do. A Man Is To Have Part Of His Life To Himself.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought.

Of All The Griefs That Harass The Distress'd, Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest; Fate Never Wounds More Deep The Generous Heart, Than When A Blockhead's Insult Points The Dart.

I Have Always Considered It As Treason Against The Great Republic Of Human Nature, To Make Any Man's Virtues The Means Of Deceiving Him.

Good Sense Alone Is A Sedate And Quiescent Quality, Which Manages Its Possessions Well, But Does Not Increase Them; It Collects Few Materials For Its Own Operations, And Preserves Safety, But Never Gains Supremacy.

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

Where Necessity Ends, Desire And Curiosity Begin; And No Sooner Are We Supplied With Everything Nature Can Demand Than We Sit Down To Contrive Artificial Appetites.

By Writing, You Learn To Write.

You Raise Your Voice When You Should Reinforce Your Argument.

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.

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

Those Who Suppress Freedom Always Do So In The Name Of Law And Order." - John V. Lindsay "no Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.

There Is A Frightful Interval Between The Seed And The Timber.

Misfortunes Should Always Be Expected.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

Cunning Has Effect From The Credulity Of Others, Rather Than From The Abilities Of Those Who Are Cunning. It Requires No Extraordinary Talents To Lie And Deceive.

Where Grief Is Fresh, Any Attempt To Divert It Only Irritates.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

A Man Who Uses A Great Many Words To Express His Meaning Is Like A Bad Marksman Who, Instead Of Aiming A Single Stone At An Object, Takes Up A Handful And Throws At It In Hopes He May Hit.

Among The Many Inconsistencies Which Folly Produces Or Infirmity Suffers In The Human Mind, There Has Often Been Observed A Manifest And Striking Contrariety Between The Life Of An Author And His Writings... Those Whom The Appearance Of Virtue Or The Evidence Of Genius Has Tempted To A Nearer Knowledge Of The Writer, In Whose Performances They May Be Found, Have Indeed Had Frequent Reason To Repent Their Curiosity.

Fly-fishing May Be A Very Pleasant Amusement; But Angling Or Float Fishing I Can Only Compare To A Stick And A String, With A Worm At One End And A Fool At The Other.

Spite And Ill-nature Are Among The Most Expensive Luxuries In Life.

He Who Attempts To Do All Will Waste His Life In Doing Little.

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal.

Sir, I Did Not Count Your Glasses Of Wine, Why Should You Number Up My Cups Of Tea?

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

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

The Majority Have No Other Reason For Their Opinions Than That They Are The Fashion.

Trust As Little As You Can To Report, And Examine All You Can By Your Own Senses.

Invention Is Almost The Only Literary Labour Which Blindness Cannot Obstruct.

A Newswriter Is A Man Without Virtue, Who Lies At Home For His Own Profit.

Long Customs Are Not Easily Broken; He That Attempts To Change The Course Of His Own Life Very Often Labors In Vain; And How Shall We Do That For Others, Which We Are Seldom Able To Do For Ourselves.

The Eye Of The Mind, Like That Of The Body, Can Only Extend Its View To New Objects, By Losing Sight Of Those Which Are Now Before It.

As To Precedents, To Be Sure They Will Increase In Course Of Time; But The More Precedents There Are, The Less Occasion Is There For Law; That Is To Say, The Less Occasion Is There For Investigating Principles.

Men Are Most Powerfully Affected By Those Evils Which Themselves Feel, Or Which Appear Before Their Own Eyes.

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.

It May Be No Less Dangerous To Claim, On Certain Occasions, Too Little Than Too Much. There Is Something Captivating In Spirit And Intrepidity, To Which We Often Yield As To A Resistless Power; Nor Can We Often Yield As To A Resistless Power; Nor Can He Reasonably Expect The Confidence Of Others Who Too Apparently Distrusts Himself.

Keeping Accounts, Sir, Is Of No Use When A Man Is Spending His Own Money, And Has Nobody To Whom He Is To Account. You Won't Eat Less Beef Today Because You Have Written Down What It Cost Yesterday.

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

A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.

For Patience, Sov'reign O'er Transmuted Ill.

Our Supple Tribes Repress Their Patriot Throats, And Ask No Questions But The Price Of Votes.

Our Minds Should Not Be Empty Because If They Are Not Preoccupied By Good, Evil Will Break In Upon Them.

To Read, Write, And Converse In Due Proportions, Is, Therefore, The Business Of A Man Of Letters.

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

Other Things May Be Seized By Might, Or Purchased With Money, But Knowledge Is To Be Gained Only By Study, And Study To Be Prosecuted Only In Retirement.

All Unnecessary Vows Are Folly, Because They Suppose A Prescience Of The Future, Which Has Not Been Given Us.

It Is Wonderful To Think How Men Of Very Large Estates Not Only Spend Their Yearly Income, But Are Often Actually In Want Of Money. It Is Clear, They Have Not Value For What They Spend.

Some Read For Style, And Some For Argument: One Has Little Care About The Sentiment, He Observes Only How It Is Expressed; Another Regards Not The Conclusion, But Is Diligent To Mark How It Is Inferred; They Read For Other Purposes Than The Attainment Of Practical Knowledge; And Are No More Likely To Grow Wise By An Examination Of A Treatise Of Moral Prudence, Than An Architect To Inflame His Devotion By Considering Attentively The Proportions Of A Temple.

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.

...a Common Observation, That Few Are Mended By Imprisonment, And That He, Whose Crimes Have Made Confinement Necessary, Seldom Makes Any Other Use Of His Enlargement, Than To Do, With Greater Cunning, What He Did Before With Less.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

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

Few Things Are So Liberally Bestowed, Or Squandered With So Little Effect, As Good Advice.

How Is It That We Hear The Loudest Yelps For Liberty Among The Drivers Of Negroes?

Diligence In Employments Of Less Consequence Is The Most Successful Introduction To Greater Enterprises.

A Small Country Town Is Not The Place In Which One Would Choose To Quarrel With A Wife; Every Human Being In Such Places Is A Spy.

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.

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

All The Arguments Which Are Brought To Represent Poverty As No Evil Show It Evidently To Be A Great Evil.

A Man Had Rather Have A Hundred Lies Told Of Him Than One Truth Which He Does Not Wish Should Be Told.

Hoc Age ['do This'] Is The Great Rule, Whether You Are Serious Or Merry; Whether ... Learning Science Or Duty From A Folio, Or Floating On The Thames. Intentions Must Be Gathered From Acts.

In The Description Of Night In Macbeth, The Beetle And The Bat Detract From The General Idea Of Darkness - Inspissated Gloom.

A Contempt Of The Monuments And The Wisdom Of The Past, May Be Justly Reckoned One Of The Reigning Follies Of These Days, To Which Pride And Idleness Have Equally Contributed.

Labor's Face Is Wrinkled With The Wind, And Swarthy With The Sun.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure, That Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure! Still To Ourselves In Every Place Consigned, Our Own Felicity We Make Or Find. With Secret Course, Which No Loud Storms Annoy, Glides The Smooth Current Of Domestic Joy.

Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

I Am Very Fond Of The Company Of Ladies. I Like Their Beauty, I Like Their Delicacy, I Like Their Vivacity, And I Like Their Silence.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak

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

We Are Unreasonably Desirous To Separate The Goods Of Life From Those Evils Which Providence Has Connected With Them, And To Catch Advantages Without Paying The Price At Which They Are Offered To Us. Every Man Wishes To Be Rich, But Very Few Have The Powers Necessary To Raise A Sudden Fortune, Either By New Discoveries, Or By Superiority Of Skill In Any Necessary Employment; And Among Lower Understandings Many Want The Firmness And Industry Requisite To Regular Gain And Gradual Acquisitions.

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

A Man With A Good Coat Upon His Back Meets With A Better Reception Than He Who Has A Bad One.

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.

It Is Indeed Certain, That Whoever Attempts Any Common Topick, Will Find Unexpected Coincidences Of His Thoughts With Those Of Other Writers; Nor Can The Nicest Judgment Always Distinguish Accidental Similitude From Artful Imitation.

There Is Nothing Which Has Yet Been Contrived By Man, By Which So Much Happiness Is Produced As By A Good Tavern.

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society, And After We Have Done That, We May Attend Wholly To The Salvation Of Our Own Souls.

I Hate Mankind, For I Think Myself One Of The Best Of Them, And I Know How Bad I Am.

Idleness And Timidity Often Despair Without Being Overcome, And Forbear Attempts For Fear Of Being Defeated; And We May Promote The Invigoration Of Faint Endeavors, By Showing What Has Already Been Performed.

No Money Is Better Spent Than What Is Laid Out For Domestic Satisfaction.

An Author Places Himself Uncalled Before The Tribunal Of Criticism And Solicits Fame At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

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

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

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

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

Falsehood Always Endeavors To Copy The Mien And Attitude Of Truth.

There Will Always Be A Part, And Always A Very Large Part Of Every Community, That Have No Care But For Themselves, And Whose Care For Themselves Reaches Little Further Than Impatience Of Immediate Pain, And Eagerness For The Nearest Good.

Every Man, However Hopeless His Pretensions May Appear, Has Some Project By Which He Hopes To Rise To Reputation; Some Art By Which He Imagines That The Attention Of The World Will Be Attracted; Some Quality, Good Or Bad, Which Discriminates Him From The Common Herd Of Mortals, And By Which Others May Be Persuaded To Love, Or Compelled To Fear Him.

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

The Whole Of Life Is But Keeping Away The Thoughts Of Death.

Thoughts Of Death

The Duty Of Criticism Is Neither To Depreciate Nor Dignify By Partial Representations, But To Hold Out The Light Of Reason, Whatever It May Discover; And To Promulgate The Determinations Of Truth, Whatever She Shall Dictate

He That Floats Lazily Down The Stream, In Pursuit Of Something Borne Along By The Same Current, Will Find Himself Indeed Moved Forward; But Unless He Lays His Hand To The Oar, And Increases His Speed By His Own Labour, Must Be Always At The Same Distance From That Which He Is Following.

The Gratification Of Curiosity Rather Frees Us From Uneasiness Than Confers Pleasure; We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction. Curiosity Is The Thirst Of The Soul; It Inflames And Torments Us, And Makes Us Taste Every Thing With Joy, However Otherwise Insipid, By Which It May Be Quenched.

No Evil Is Insupportable But That Which Is Accompanied With Consciousness Of Wrong.

Let Us Take A Patriot, Where We Can Meet Him; And, That We May Not Flatter Ourselves By False Appearances, Distinguish Those Marks Which Are Certain, From Those Which May Deceive; For A Man May Have The External Appearance Of A Patriot, Without The Constituent Qualities; As False Coins Have Often Lustre, Though They Want Weight.

Apologies Are Seldom Of Any Use.

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

People Need To Be Reminded More Often Than They Need To Be Instructed.

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

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

To Neglect At Any Time Preparation For Death Is To Sleep On Our Post At A Siege; To Omit It In Old Age Is To Sleep At An Attack.

No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of Spring.

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

All Violation Of Established Practice Implies In Its Own Nature A Rejection Of The Common Opinion, A Defiance Of Common Censure, And An Appeal From General Laws To Private Judgment: He, Therefore, Who Differs Form Others Without Apparent Advantage, Ought Not To Be Angry If His Arrogance Is Punished With Ridicule; If Those Whose Example He Superciliously Overlooks, Point Him Out To Derision, And Hoot Him Back Again Into The Common Road.

Unintelligible Language Is A Lantern Without A Light.

...it Will Not Always Happen That The Success Of A Poet Is Proportionate To His Labor.

As Every Writer Has His Use, Every Writer Ought To Have His Patrons; And Since No Man, However High He May Now Stand, Can Be Certain That He Shall Not Be Soon Thrown Down From His Elevation By Criticism Or Caprice, The Common Interest Of Learning Requires That Her Sons Should Cease From Intestine Hostilities, And, Instead Of Sacrificing Each Other To Malice And Contempt, Endeavour To Avert Persecution From The Meanest Of Their Fraternity.

Read The Book You Do Honestly Feel A Wish And Curiosity To Read.

To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity.

The Public Pleasures Of Far The Greater Part Of Mankind Are Counterfeit.

What Signifies Protesting So Against Flattery When A Person Speaks Well Of One, It Must Either Be True Or False, You Know If True, Let Us Rejoice In His Good Opinion If He Lies, It Is A Proof At Least That He Loves More To Please Me, Than To Sit S

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

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

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John D. MacDonald

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