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I Would Advise You, Sir, To Study Algebra, If You Are Not An Adept Already In It: Your Head Would Get Less Muddy, And You Will Leave Off Tormenting Your Neighbours About Paper And Packthread, While We All Live Together In A World That Is Bursting With Sin And Sorrow.

-Samuel Johnson

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I Would Advise You,

Samuel Johnson

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I Would Advise You, Sir, To Study Algebra, If You Are Not An Adept Already In It: Your Head Would Get Less Muddy, And You Will Leave Off Tormenting Your Neighbours About Paper And Packthread, While We All Live Together In A World That Is Bursting With Sin And Sorrow.

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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.

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

His Scorn Of The Great Is Repeated Too Often To Be Real; No Man Thinks Much Of That Which He Despises.

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

To Prevent Evil Is The Great End Of Government, The End For Which Vigilance And Severity Are Properly Employed.

Pain Is Less Subject Than Pleasure To Careless Expression.

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

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

Wine Gives A Man Nothing. It Neither Gives Him Knowledge Nor Wit; It Only Animates A Man, And Enables Him To Bring Out What A Dread Of The Company Has Repressed. It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

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

Attack Is The Reaction. I Never Think I Have Hit Hard Unless It Rebounds.

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.

When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

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

Life Of Ages, Richly Poured, Love Of God Unspent And Free, Flowing In The Prophet's Word And The People's Liberty! Never Was To Chosen Race That Unstinted Tide Confined; Thine Is Every Time And Place, Fountain Sweet Of Heart And Mind!

The Misery Of Man Proceeds Not From Any Single Crush Of Overwhelming Evil, But From Small Vexations Continually Repeated.

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

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

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

In His Comic Scenes, Shakespeare Seems To Produce, Without Labor, What No Labor Can Improve.

What Ever The Motive For The Insult, It Is Always Best To Overlook It; For Folly Doesn't Deserve Resentment, And Malice Is Punished By Neglect.

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.

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

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.

Distance Has The Same Effect On The Mind As On The Eye.

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

Every Government Is Perpetually Degenerating Towards Corruption, From Which It Must Be Rescued At Certain Periods By The Resuscitation Of Its First Principles, And The Re-establishment Of Its Original Constitution.

Much Is Due To Those Who First Broke The Way To Knowledge, And Left Only To Their Successors The Task Of Smoothing It.

There Are Some Works Which The Authors Must Consign Unpublished To Posterity, However Uncertain Be The Event, However Hopeless Be The Trust. He That Writes The History Of His Own Times, If He Adhere Steadily To Truth, Will Write That Which His Own Times Will Not Easily Endure. He Must Be Content To Reposite His Book Till All Private Passions Shall Cease, And Love And Hatred Give Way To Curiosity.

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

Every Other Author May Aspire To Praise; The Lexicographer Can Only Hope To Escape Reproach.

Being Reproached For Giving To An Unworthy Person, Aristotle Said, I Did Not Give It To The Man, But To Humanity.

Men Are Like Stone Jugs - You May Lug Them Where You Like By The Ears.

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.

He That Embarks On The Voyage Of Life Will Always Wish To Advance Rather By The Impulse Of The Wind Than The Strokes Of The Oar; And Many Fold In Their Passage; While They Lie Waiting For The Gale.

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.

Hope Itself Is A Species Of Happiness, And, Perhaps, The Chief Happiness Which This World Affords; But, Like All Other Pleasures Immoderately Enjoyed, The Excesses Of Hope Must Be Expiated By Pain.

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

The Highest Panegyric, Therefore, That Private Virtue Can Receive, Is The Praise Of Servants.

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

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

No One Will Persist Long In Helping Someone Who Will Not Help Themselves.

Helping Someone

Every Man That Has Felt Pain Knows How Little All Other Comforts Can Gladden Him To Whom Health Is Denied. Yet Who Is There Does Not Sometimes Hazard It For The Enjoyment Of An Hour?

A Voyage To The Moon, However Romantick And Absurd The Scheme May Now Appear, Since The Properties Of Air Have Been Better Understood, Seemed Highly Probable To Many Of The Aspiring Wits In The Last Century

There Is Less Flogging In Our Great Schools Than Formerly-but Then Less Is Learned There; So What The Boys Get At One End They Lose At The Other.

Officious, Innocent, Sincere, Of Every Friendless Name The Friend.

It Is Scarcely Credible To What Degree Discernment May Be Dazzled By The Mist Of Pride, And Wisdom Infatuated By The Intoxication Of Flattery.

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

Gaiety Is To Good-humor As Animal Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance. The One Overpowers Weak Spirits, The Other Recreates And Revives Them. Gaiety Seldom Fails To Give Some Pain; Good-humor Boasts No Faculties Which Every One Does Not Believe In His Own Power, And Pleases Principally By Not Offending.

Madam, Before You Flatter A Man So Grossly To His Face, You Should Consider Whether Or Not Your Flattery Is Worth His Having.

One Of The Aged Greatest Miseries Is That They Cannot Easily Find A Companion Able To Share The Memories Of The Past.

Ease, A Neutral State Between Pain And Pleasure ... If It Is Not Rising Into Pleasure Will Be Falling Towards Pain.

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

The Reciprocal Civility Of Authors Is One Of The Most Risible Scenes In The Farce Of Life.

Truth Has No Gradations; Nothing Which Admits Of Increase Can Be So Much What It Is, As Truth Is Truth. There May Be A Strange Thing, And A Thing More Strange. But If A Proposition Be True, There Can Be None More True.

A Book Should Teach Us To Enjoy Life, Or To Endure It.

Sir, I Do Not Call A Gamester A Dishonest Man; But I Call Him An Unsociable Man, An Unprofitable Man. Gaming Is A Mode Of Transferring Property Without Producing Any Intermediate Good.

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Sickness And Captivity Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable.

It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.

Do Not Discourage Your Children From Hoarding, If They Have A Taste To It; Whoever Lays Up His Penny Rather Than Part With It For A Cake, At Least Is Not The Slave Of Gross Appetite; And Shows Besides A Preference Always To Be Esteemed, Of The Future To The Present Moment.

The Art Of The Writer, Like That Of The Player, Is Attained By Slow Degrees. The Power Of Distinguishing And Discriminating Comick Characters, Or Of Filling Tragedy With Poetical Images, Must Be The Gift Of Nature, Which No Instruction Nor Labour Can Supply; But The Art Of Dramatick Disposition, The Contexture Of The Scenes, The Involution Of The Plot, The Expedients Of Suspension, And The Strategems Of Surprise, Are To Be Learned By Practice.

Ladies, Stock And Tend Your Hive, Trifle Not At Thirty-five; For, Howe'er We Boast And Strive, Life Declines From Thirty-five; He That Ever Hopes To Thrive Must Begin By Thirty-five.

Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill.

Of Those That Spin Out Trifles And Die Without A Memorial, Many Flatter Themselves With High Opinions Of Their Own Importance, And Imagine That They Are Every Day Adding Some Improvement To Human Life.

Ye Who Listen With Credulity To The Whispers Of Fancy, And Pursue With Eagerness The Phantoms Of Hope; Who Expect That Age Will Perform The Promises Of Youth, And That The Deficiencies Of The Present Day Will Be Supplied By The Morrow, - Attend To The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia.

Learn That The Present Hour Alone Is Man's.

A Man Who Both Spends And Saves Money Is The Happiest Man, Because He Has Both Enjoyments.

I Believe Marriages Would In General Be As Happy, And Often More So, If They Were All Made By The Lord Chancellor, Upon A Due Consideration Of The Characters And Circumstances, Without The Parties Having Any Choice In The Matter.

Whosoever Shall Look Heedfully Upon Those Who Are Eminent For Their Riches Will Not Think Their Condition Such As That He Should Hazard His Quiet, And Much Less His Virtue, To Obtain It, For All That Great Wealth Generally Gives Above A Moderate Fortune Is More Room For The Freaks Of Caprice, And More Privilege For Ignorance And Vice, A Quicker Succession Of Flatteries, And A Larger Circle Of Voluptuousness.

The Greatest Part Of A Writer's Time Is Spent In Reading In Order To Write. A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make A Book.

Criticism, As It Was First Instituted By Aristotle, Was Meant As A Standard Of Judging Well.

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

Truth, Like Beauty, Varies Its Fashions, And Is Best Recommended By Different Dresses To Different Minds; And He That Recalls The Attention Of Mankind To Any Part Of Learning Which Time Has Left Behind It, May Be Truly Said To Advance The Literatures Of His Own Age. As The Manners Of Nations Vary, New Topicks Of Persuasion Become Necessary, And New Combinations Of Imagery Are Produced; And He That Can Accommodate Himself To The Reigning Taste, May Always Have Readers Who Perhaps Would Not Have Looked Upon Better Performances.

The Finest Landscape In The World Is Improved By A Good Inn In The Foreground.

If I Had No Duties, And No Reference To Futurity, I Would Spend My Life In Driving Briskly In A Post-chaise With A Pretty Woman.

Hunting Was The Labour Of The Savages Of North America, But The Amusement Of The Gentlemen Of England.

To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.

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

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

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.

It Has Long Been Observed, That An Atheist Has No Just Reason For Endeavouring Conversions; And Yet None Harass Those Minds Which They Can Influence, With More Importunity Of Solicitation To Adopt Their Opinions. In Proportion As They Doubt The Truth Of Their Own Doctrines, They Are Desirous To Gain The Attestation Of Another Understanding: And Industriously Labour To Win A Proselyte, And Eagerly Catch At The Slightest Pretense To Dignify Their Sect With A Distinguished Name.

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

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.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak; Yet There Are Prejudices So Near To Laudable That They Have Been Often Praised And Are Always Pardoned.

All Is Not Gold That Glitters, As We Have Often Been Told; And The Adage Is Verified In Your Place And My Favour; But If What Happens Does Not Make Us Richer, We Must Bid It Welcome, If It Makes Us Wiser.

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

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.

The Roads Of Science Are Narrow, So That They Who Travel Them, Must Wither Follow Or Meet One Another.

When I Find That So Much Of My Life Has Stolen Unprofitably Away, And That I Can Descry By Retrospection Scarcely A Few Single Days Properly And Vigorously Employed, Why Do I Yet Try To Resolve Again? I Try, Because Reformation Is Necessary And Despair Is Criminal. I Try, In Humble Hope Of The Help Of God.

If In An Actor There Appears An Utter Vacancy Of Meaning, A Frigid Equality, A Stupid Languor, A Torpid Apathy, The Greatest Kindness That Can Be Shown Him Is A Speedy Sentence Of Expulsion.

Is Not A Patron, My Lord, One Who Looks With Unconcern On A Man Struggling For Life In The Water, And When He Has Reached Ground Encumbers Him With Help? The Notice Which You Have Been Pleased To Take Care Of My Labors, Had It Been Early, Had Been Kind; But It Has Been Delayed Till I Am Indifferent, And Cannot Enjoy It; Till I Am Solitary, And Cannot Impart It; Till I Am Known, And Do Not Want It.

Exactness Is First Obtained, And Afterwards Elegance. But Diction, Merely Vocal, Is Always In Its Childhood. As No Man Leaves His Eloquence Behind Him, The New Generations Have All To Learn. There May Possibly Be Books Without A Polished Language, But There Can Be No Polished Language Without Books.

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

The Appearance And Retirement Of Actors Are The Great Events Of The Theatrical World; And Their First Performances Fill The Pit With Conjecture And Prognostication, As The First Actions Of A New Monarch Agitate Nations With Hope And Fear.

Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.

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 Is A Hopeless Endeavour To Unite The Contrarieties Of Spring And Winter; It Is Unjust To Claim The Privileges Of Age, And Retain The Play-things Of Childhood.

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

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

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

No Wonder, Sir, That He Is Vain; A Man Who Is Perpetually Flattered In Every Mode That Can Be Conceived. So Many Bellows Have Blown The Fire, That One Wonders He Is Not By This Time Become A Cinder.

Everybody Knows Worse Of Himself Than He Knows Of Other Men.

It Is Dangerous For Mortal Beauty, Or Terrestrial Virtue, To Be Examined By Too Strong A Light. The Torch Of Truth Shows Much That We Cannot, And All That We Would Not, See.

The Habit Of Looking On The Bright Side Of Every Event Is Worth More Than A Thousand Pounds A Year.

Positive Thinking

He That Writes May Be Considered As A Kind Of General Challenger, Whom Every One Has A Right To Attack; Since He Quits The Common Rank Of Life, Steps Forward Beyond The Lists, And Offers His Merit To The Public Judgement. To Commence Author Is To Claim Praise, And No Man Can Justly Aspire To Honour, But At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

The Most Heterogeneous Ideas Are Yoked By Violence Together.

Diffidence May Check Resolution And Obstruct Performance, But Compensates Its Embarrassments By More Important Advantages; It Conciliates The Proud, And Softens The Severe; Averts Envy From Excellence, And Censure From Miscarriage.

Whatever Enlarges Hope Will Also Exalt Courage.

When Making Your Choice In Life, Do Not Neglect To Live.

Such Is The Constitution Of Man That Labor May Be Said To Be Its Own Re-ward.

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

Sleep Undisturbed Within This Peaceful Shrine, Till Angels Wake Thee With A Note Like Thine.

No Man Tells His Opinion So Freely As When He Imagines It Received With Implicit Veneration.

As The Faculty Of Writing Has Chiefly Been A Masculine Endowment, The Reproach Of Making The World Miserable Has Always Been Thrown Upon The Women.

Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.

The Luster Of Diamonds Is Invigorated By The Interposition Of Darker Bodies; The Lights Of A Picture Are Created By The Shades; The Highest Pleasure Which Nature Has Indulged To Sensitive Perception Is That Of Rest After Fatigue.

Every Man Speaks And Writes With Intent To Be Understood; And It Can Seldom Happen But He That Understands Himself, Might Convey His Notions To Another, If, Content To Be Understood, He Did Not Seek To Be Admired; But When Once He Begins To Contrive How His Sentiments May Be Received, Not With Most Ease To His Reader, But With Most Advantage To Himself, He Then Transfers His Consideration From Words To Sounds, From Sentences To Periods, And, As He Grows More Elegant, Becomes Less Intelligible.

A Writer Who Obtains His Full Purpose Loses Himself In His Own Lustre.

I Do Not Know, Sir, That The Fellow Is An Infidel; But If He Be An Infidel, He Is An Infidel As A Dog Is An Infidel; That Is To Say, He Has Never Thought Upon The Subject.

But It Is Evident, That These Bursts Of Universal Distress Are More Dreaded Than Felt; Thousands And Ten Thousands Flourish In Youth, And Wither In Age, Without The Knowledge Of Any Other Than Domestic Evils, And Share The Same Pleasures And Vexations, Whether Their Kings Are Mild Or Cruel, Whether The Armies Of Their Country Pursue Their Enemies Or Retreat Before Them.

Piety Is The Only Proper And Adequate Relief Of Decaying Man. He That Grows Old Without Religions Hopes, As He Declines Into Imbecility, And Feels Pains And Sorrows Incessantly Crowding Upon Him, Falls Into A Gulf Of Bottomless Misery, In Which Every Reflection Must Plunge Him Deeper And Deeper.

A Certain Amount Of Distrust Is Wholesome, But Not So Much Of Others As Of Ourselves; Neither Vanity Not Conceit Can Exist In The Same Atmosphere With It.

Philosophy Has Often Attempted To Repress Insolence By Asserting That All Conditions Are Leveled By Death; A Position Which, However It May Defect The Happy, Will Seldom Afford Much Comfort To The Wretched.

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.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; And As The Noblest Mien Or Most Graceful Action Would Be Degraded And Obscured By A Garb Appropriated To The Gross Employments Of Rusticks Or Mechanics, So The Most Heroick Sentiments Will Lose Their Efficacy

Was Ever Poet So Trusted Before?

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

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.

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

He Who Praises Everybody, Praises Nobody.

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

Piety Practiced In Solitude, Like The Flower That Blooms In The Desert, May Give Its Fragrance To The Winds Of Heaven, And Delight Those Unbodied Spirits That Survey The Works Of God And The Actions Of Men; But It Bestows No Assistance Upon Earthly Beings, And However Free From Taints Of Impurity, Yet Wants The Sacred Splendor Of Beneficence.

It Is, Indeed, At Home That Every Man Must Be Known By Those Who Would Make A Just Estimate Either Of His Virtue Or Felicity; For Smiles And Embroidery Are Alike Occasional, And The Mind Is Often Dressed For Show In Painted Honor, And Fictitious Benevolence.

No Man Is Defeated Without Some Resentment Which Will Be Continued With Obstinacy While He Believes Himself In The Right, And Asserted With Bitterness, If Even To His Own Conscience He Is Detected In The Wrong.

Hunger Is Never Delicate.

He That Pursues Fame With Just Claims, Trusts His Happiness To The Winds; But He That Endeavors After It By False Merit, Has To Fear, Not Only The Violence Of The Storm, But The Leaks Of His Vessel.

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

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.

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

What Is Easy Is Seldom Excellent.

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment.

Credulity Is The Common Failing Of Inexperienced Virtue; And He Who Is Spontaneously Suspicious May Justly Be Charged With Radical Corruption.

He That Never Thinks Can Never Be Wise.

Wasting A Fortune Is Evaporation By A Thousand Imperceptible Means.

In This Work Are Exhibited, In A Very High Degree, The Two Most Engaging Powers Of An Author. New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.

Every State Of Society Is As Luxurious As It Can Be. Men Always Take The Best They Can Get.

Every Man's Affairs, However Little, Are Important To Himself.

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.

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

Labor, If It Were Not Necessary For Existence, Would Be Indispensable For The Happiness Of Man.

Among The Innumerable Mortifications Which Waylay Human Arrogance On Every Side May Well Be Reckoned Our Ignorance Of The Most Common Objects And Effects, A Defect Of Which We Become More Sensible By Every Attempt To Supply It. Vulgar And Inactive Minds Confound Familiarity With Knowledge And Conceive Themselves Informed Of The Whole Nature Of Things When They Are Shown Their Form Or Told Their Use; But The Speculatist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity, And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

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

He Who Sees Different Ways To The Same End, Will, Unless He Watches Carefully Over His Own Conduct, Lay Out Too Much Of His Attention Upon The Comparison Of Probabilities And The Adjustment Of Expedients, And Pause In The Choice Of His Road, Till Some Accident Intercepts His Journey.

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

Merit Rather Enforces Respect Than Attracts Fondness.

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

The Life Of A Conscientious Clergyman Is Not Easy. I Have Always Considered A Clergyman As The Father Of A Larger Family Than He Is Able To Maintain. I Would Rather Have Chancery Suits Upon My Hands Than The Cure Of Souls.

The Wickedness Of A Loose Or Profane Author Is More Atrocious Than That Of A Giddy Libertine Or Drunken Ravisher, Not Only Because It Extends Its Effects Wider, As A Pestilence That Taints The Air Is More Destructive Than Poison Infused In A Draught, But Because It Is Committed With Cool Deliberation.

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

Even Those To Whom Providence Has Allotted Greater Strength Of Understanding Can Expect Only To Improve A Single Science.

A Man Who Has Not Been In Italy, Is Always Conscious Of An Inferiority.

It Is Wonderful When A Calculation Is Made, How Little The Mind Is Actually Employed In The Discharge Of Any Profession.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

Wise Married Women Don't Trouble Themselves About Infidelity In Their Husbands.

Whatever You Have Spend Less.

All Travel Has Its Advantages. If The Passenger Visits Better Countries, He May Learn To Improve His Own. And If Fortune Carries Him To Worse, He May Learn To Enjoy It.

Self-love Is Often Rather Arrogant Than Blind; It Does Not Hide Our Faults From Ourselves, But Persuades Us That They Escape The Notice Of Others.

Many Leave The Labours Of Half Their Life To Their Executors And To Chance, Because They Will Not Send Them Abroad Unfinished, And Are Unable To Finish Them, Having Prescribed To Themselves Such A Degree Of Exactness As Human Diligence Can Scarcely Ontain.

Those That Have Done Nothing In Life, Are Not Qualified To Judge Of Those That Have Done Little

The Liberty Of Using Harmless Pleasure Will Not Be Disputed; But It Is Still To Be Examined What Pleasures Are Harmless.

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

The Triumph Of Hope Over Experience.

New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.

Familiar Things

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Giving Him An Advantage To Which He Is Not Entitled.

There Is No Idleness, By Which We Are So Easily Seduced, As That Which Dignifies Itself By The Appearance Of Business, And By Making The Loiterer Imagine That He Has Something To Do Which Must Not Be Neglected, Keeps Him In Perpetual Agitation, And Hurries Him Rapidly From Place To Place.

The Good Of Our Present State Is Merely Comparative, And The Evil Which Every Man Feels Will Be Sufficient To Disturb And Harass Him If He Does Not Know How Much He Escapes.

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous. Religion, Of Which The Rewards Are Distant, And Which Is Animated Only By Faith And Hope, Will Glide By Degrees Out Of The Mind Unless It Be Invigorated And Reimpressed By External Ordinances, By Stated Calls To Worship, And The Salutary Influence Of Example.

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.

A Few Men Are Sufficient To Broach Falsehoods, Which Are Afterwards Innocently Diffused By Successive Relaters.

We Are Inclined To Believe Those Whom We Do Not Know Because They Have Never Deceived Us.

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

Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.

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

Dogs Have Not The Power Of Comparing. A Dog Will Take A Small Piece Of Meat As Readily As A Large, When Both Are Before Him.

He That Pines With Hunger, Is In Little Care How Others Shall Be Fed. The Poor Man Is Seldom Studious To Make His Grandson Rich.

It Is Almost Always The Unhappiness Of A Victorious Disputant To Destroy His Own Authority By Claiming Too Many Consequences, Or Diffusing His Proposition To An Indefensible Extent.

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

Go Into The Street, And Give One Man A Lecture On Morality, And Another A Shilling, And See Which Will Respect You Most.

I Have Thought Of A Pulley To Raise Me Gradually; But That Would Give Me Pain, As It Would Counteract My Natural Inclination. I Would Have Something That Can Dissipate The Inertia And Give Elasticity To The Muscles. We Can Heat The Body, We Can Cool It; We Can Give It Tension Or Relaxation; And Surely It Is Possible To Bring It Into A State In Which Rising From Bed Will Not Be A Pain.

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

The Superiority Of Some Men Is Merely Local. They Are Great Because Their Associates Are Little.

Memory Is The Primary And Fundamental Power, Without Which There Could Be No Other Intellectual Operation.

Grief Is A Species Of Idleness.

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

Players, Sir! I Look On Them As No Better Than Creatures Set Upon Tables And Joint Stools To Make Faces And Produce Laughter, Like Dancing Dogs.

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Georges Bernanos

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