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It Is Not From Reason And Prudence That People Marry, But From Inclination.
-Samuel Johnson
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It Is Not From

Samuel Johnson
...
It Is Not From Reason And Prudence That People Marry, But From Inclination.

Understanding the Quote: "it is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from..."

This quote by Samuel Johnson reflects deeply on the theme of marriage. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Marriage, Wedding, People, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Samuel Johnson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on marriage and wedding. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Marriage
Wedding
People
More From Samuel Johnson
Attention And Respect Give Pleasure, However Late, Or However Useless. But They Are Not Useless, When They Are Late, It Is Reasonable To Rejoice, As The Day Declines, To Find That It Has Been Spent With The Approbation Of Mankind.
Respect
Giving
Attention
To Let Friendship Die Away By Negligence And Silence Is Certainly Not Wise. It Is Voluntarily To Throw Away One Of The Greatest Comforts Of The Weary Pilgrimage.
Friendship
Wise
Silence
Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
It Is Better To Suffer Wrong Than To Do It, And Happier To Be Sometimes Cheated Than Not To Trust.
Trust
Cheating
Pain
The World Is Seldom What It Seems; To Man, Who Dimly Sees, Realities Appear As Dreams, And Dreams Realities.
Dream
Reality
Men
A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing - It Only Hastens Fools To Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread.
Angel
Littles
Fool
Unconstraint Is The Grace Of Conversation.
Grace
Conversation
What Makes All Doctrines Plain And Clear? About Two Hundred Pounds A Year. And That Which Was Proved True Before, Prove False Again? Two Hundred More.
Money
Years
Two
Norway, Too, Has Noble Prospects; And Lapland Is Remarkable For Prodigious Noble Wild Prospects. But, Sir, Let Me Tell You, The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England!
Noble
Lapland
Norway
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.
Book
Expression
Wish
To Go And See One Druidical Temple Is Only To See That It Is Nothing, For There Is Neither Art Nor Power In It; And Seeing One Is Quite Enough.
Art
Temples
Enough
The Reciprocal Civility Of Authors Is One Of The Most Risible Scenes In The Farce Of Life.
Farce
Civility
Scene
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.
Men
Skills
Discovery
Pension: An Allowance Made To Anyone Without An Equivalent. In England It Is Generally Understood To Mean Pay Given To A State Hireling For Treason To His Country.
Country
Mean
Pay
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.
Long
Broken
Able
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.
Failure
Men
Misery
Such Is The State Of Life, That None Are Happy But By The Anticipation Of Change: The Change Itself Is Nothing; When We Have Made It, The Next Wish Is To Change Again.
Wish
Next
Anticipation
Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.
Compromise
Reciprocal
Concessions
Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy.
Hypocrisy
Burden
Villainy
Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Always Are Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel.
Children
Men
Savages
I Wish You Would Add An Index Rerum, That When The Reader Recollects Any Incident He May Easily Find It.
Wish
Add
May
Timidity Is A Disease Of The Mind, Obstinate And Fatal; For A Man Once Persuaded That Any Impediment Is Insuperable Has Given It, With Respect To Himself, That Strength And Weight Which It Had Not Before.
Fear
Men
Mind
The General Remedy Of Those Who Are Uneasy Without Knowing The Cause Is Change Of Place.
Change
Knowing
Causes
If I Have Said Something To Hurt A Man Once, I Shall Not Get The Better Of This By Saying Many Things To Please Him.
Hurt
Men
Persuasion
Change Is Not Made Without Inconvenience.
Change
Project Management
Projects
Without Frugality None Can Be Rich, And With It Very Few Would Be Poor.
Would Be
Rich Poor
Frugal
There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.
Admiration
Charm
Made
That Fellow Seems To Me To Possess But One Idea, And That Is A Wrong One.
Funny
Mistake
Humorous
Never Believe Extraordinary Characters Which You Hear Of People. Depend Upon It, They Are Exaggerated. You Do Not See One Man Shoot A Great Deal Higher Than Another.
Believe
Character
Men
Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.
Book
Knowledge
Science
He That Would Be Superior To External Influences Must First Become Superior To His Own Passions.
Wisdom
Courage
Passion
I Do Not Much Wish Well To Discoveries, For I Am Always Afraid They Will End In Conquest And Robbery.
Discovery
Wish
Ends
The Size Of A Man's Understanding Might Always Be Justly Measured By His Mirth.
Happiness
Laughter
Men
It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.
Chiefs
Policy
Avarice
It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.
Writing
Men
Easier
Men Know That Women Are An Overmatch For Them, And Therefore They Choose The Weakest Or The Most Ignorant. If They Did Not Think So, They Never Could Be Afraid Of Women Knowing As Much As Themselves.
Fear
Women
Thinking
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
Crucible
Body
Limits
It Was The Peculiar Artifice Of Habit Not To Suffer Her Power To Be Felt At First. Those Whom She Led, She Had The Address Of Appearing Only To Attend, But Was Continually Doubling Her Chains Upon Her Companions; Which Were So Slender In Themselves, And So Silently Fastened, That While The Attention Was Engaged By Other Objects, They Were Not Easily Perceived. Each Link Grew Tighter As It Had Been Longer Worn; And When By Continual Additions They Became So Heavy As To Be Felt, They Were Very Frequently Too Strong To Be Broken.
Strong
Broken
Suffering
A Person Loves To Review His Own Mind. That Is The Use Of A Diary, Or Journal.
Mind
Diaries
Use
When Desperate Ills Demand A Speedy Cure, Distrust Is Cowardice, And Prudence Folly.
Demand
Desperate
Cowardice
The Wretched Have No Compassion, They Can Do Good Only From Strong Principles Of Duty.
Strong
Compassion
Principles
Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries, But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.
Names
Giving
Civilized Nations
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.
Education
Book
Boys
To A Poet Nothing Can Be Useless.
Useless
Poet
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.
Men
Order
Discipline
You Cannot, By All The Lecturing In The World, Enable A Man To Make A Shoe.
Teaching
Men
Shoes
Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.
Gratitude
Justice
Species
He Endearing Elegance Of Female Friendship.
Friendship
Female
Elegance
Life Will Not Bear Refinement. You Must Do As Other People Do.
People
Simplicity
Bears
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.
Spring
Winter
Play
A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.
Fishing
Hook
Fool
He That Accepts Protection, Stipulates Obedience.
Freedom
Democracy
Protection
There Is Reason To Suspect, That The Distinctions Of Mankind Have More Show Than Value, When It Is Found That All Agree To Be Weary Alike Of Pleasures And Of Cares; That The Powerful And The Weak, The Celebrated And Obscure, Join In One Common Wish, And Implore From Nature's Hand The Nectar Of Oblivion.
Powerful
Hands
Humanity
Many Causes May Vitiate A Writer's Judgement Of His Own Works. On That Which Has Cost Him Much Labour He Sets A High Value, Because He Is Unwilling To Think That He Has Been Diligent In Vain: What Has Been Produced Without Toilsome Efforts Is Considered With Delight As A Proof Of Vigorous Faculties And Fertile Invention; And The Last Work, Whatever It Be, Has Necessarily Most Of The Grace Of Novelty.
Writing
Thinking
Effort
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.
Passion
Eye
Intellectual
Excise: A Hateful Tax Levied Upon Commodities, And Adjudged Not By The Common Judges Of Property, But Wretches Hired By Those To Whom Excise Is Paid.
Judging
Hateful
Common
A Married Man Has Many Cares, But A Bachelor No Pleasures.
Marriage
Men
Care
There Are Few Ways In Which A Man Can Be More Innocently Employed Than In Getting Money.
Money
Men
Way
It Is The Condition Of Our Present State To See More Than We Can Attain; The Exactest Vigilance And Caution Can Never Maintain A Single Day Of Unmingled Innocence.
Writing
Ideas
Perfection
Applause Abates Diligence.
Praise
Diligence
Applause
The Finest Landscape In The World Is Improved By A Good Inn In The Foreground.
World
Landscape
Finest
A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make One Book.
Book
Writing
Men
The Necessary Connexion Of Representatives With Taxes, Seems To Have Sunk Deep Into Many Of Those Minds, That Admit Sounds, Without Their Meaning.
Mind
Sound
Taxation
Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal.
Ignorance
Criminals
The End Of Writing Is To Instruct; The End Of Poetry Is To Instruct By Pleasing.
Art
Writing
Poetry
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.
Moving
Self
Suffering
Man Is A Transitory Being, And His Designs Must Partake Of The Imperfections Their Author.
Men
Design
Imperfection
As Any Action Or Posture, Long Continued, Will Distort And Disfigure The Limbs, So The Mind Likewise Is Crippled And Contracted By Perpetual Application To The Same Set Of Ideas.
Ideas
Long
Mind
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.
Expectations
Gold
Scarcity
To A People Warlike And Indigent, An Incursion Into A Rich Country Is Never Hurtful.
Country
War
Rich Countries
We Are Not Here To Sell A Parcel Of Boilers And Vats, But The Potentiality Of Growing Rich Beyond The Dreams Of Avarice.
Dream
Marketing
Vat
But Though It Cannot Be Reasonable Not To Gain Happiness For Fear Of Losing It, Yet It Must Be Confessed, That In Proportion To The Pleasure Of Possession, Will Be For Some Time Our Sorrow For The Loss.
Loss
Sorrow
Gains
The Next Best Thing To Knowing Something Is Knowing Where To Find It.
Wisdom
Knowledge
Knowing
We Suffer Equal Pain From The Pertinacious Adhesion Of Unwelcome Images, As From The Evanescence Of Those Which Are Pleasing And Useful.
Pain
Suffering
Evanescence
If A Madman Were To Come Into This Room With A Stick In His Hand, No Doubt We Should Pity The State Of His Mind; But Our Primary Consideration Would Be To Take Care Of Ourselves. We Should Knock Him Down First, And Pity Him Afterwards.
Hands
Doubt
Mind
Hunger Is Never Delicate; They Who Are Seldom Gorged To The Full With Praise May Be Safely Fed With Gross Compliments, For The Appetite Must Be Satisfied Before It Is Disgusted.
May
Hunger
Compliment
Nothing Can Be Truly Great Which Is Not Right.
Fairness
We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.
Ignorance
Instruction
Delighted
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.
Pretty Woman
Risk
Driving
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.
Fire
Religion
Coward
No Money Is Better Spent Than What Is Laid Out For Domestic Satisfaction. A Man Is Pleased That His Wife Is Dressed As Well As Other People, And The Wife Is Pleased That She Is Dressed.
Men
People
Wife
High People, Sir, Are The Best; Take A Hundred Ladies Of Quality, You'll Find Them Better Wives, Better Mothers, More Willing To Sacrifice Their Own Pleasures To Their Children, Than A Hundred Other Woman.
Mother
Children
Sacrifice
Care That Is Once Enter'd Into The Breast Will Have The Whole Possession Ere It Rest.
Care
Possession
Breasts
Our Minds Should Not Be Empty Because If They Are Not Preoccupied By Good, Evil Will Break In Upon Them.
Evil
Mind
Empty
Remember That Nothing Will Supply The Want Of Prudence, And That Negligence And Irregularity Long Continued Will Make Knowledge Useless, Wit Ridiculous, And Genius Contemptible.
Long
Genius
Useless
But Grant, The Virtues Of A Temp'rate Prime Bless With An Age Exempt From Scorn Or Crime; An Age That Melts With Unperceived Decay, And Glides In Modest Innocence Away
Age
Decay
Innocence
The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.
Political
Campaigns
Civility
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.
Lying
Eye
Deception
Trust As Little As You Can To Report, And Examine All You Can By Your Own Senses.
Trust
Littles
Senses
Men, However Distinguished By External Accidents Or Intrinsick Qualities, Have All The Same Wants, The Same Pains, And, As Far As The Senses Are Consulted, The Same Pleasures.
Pain
Men
Humanity
No Man Likes To Live Under The Eye Of Perpetual Disapprobation.
Eye
Men
Likes
Commerce However We May Please Ourselves With The Contrary Opinion, Is One Of The Daughters Of Fortune, Inconstant And Deceitful As Her Mother. She Chooses Her Residence Where She Is Least Expected, And Shifts Her Abode When Her Continuance Is, In Appearance, Most Firmly Settled.
Daughter
Mother
May
Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.
Jest
Impression
Expected
By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.
Marriage
Men
Wife
There May Be Community Of Material Possessions, But There Can Never Be Community Of Love Or Esteem.
Community
May
Communism
Nay, Sir, Those Who Write In Them, Write Well, In Order To Be Paid Well.
Writing
Order
Wells
Criticism, Though Dignified From The Earliest Ages By The Labours Of Men Eminent For Knowledge And Sagacity, Has Not Yet Attained The Certainty And Stability Of Science.
Knowledge
Science
Men
It Is Incident To Physicians, I Am Afraid, Beyond All Other Men, To Mistake Subsequence For Consequence.
Mistake
Men
Physicians
Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.
Life
Littles
States
You May Abuse A Tragedy, Though You Cannot Write One. You May Scold A Carpenter Who Has Made You A Bad Table, Though You Cannot Make A Table. It Is Not Your Trade To Make Tables.
Writing
Abuse
Criticism
Pride Is A Vice, Which Pride Itself Inclines Every Man To Find In Others, And To Overlook In Himself
Pride
Men
Vices
It Is Not Difficult To Conceive, However, That For Many Reasons A Man Writes Much Better Than He Lives. For Without Entering Into Refined Speculations, It May Be Shown Much Easier To Design Than To Perform. A Man Proposes His Schemes Of Life In A State Of Abstraction And Disengagement, Exempt From The Enticements Of Hope, The Solicitations Of Affection, The Importunities Of Appetite, Or The Depressions Of Fear.
Writing
Men
Design
A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City, After A Distant Prospect. Remotely, We See Nothing But Spires Of Temples And Turrets Of Palaces, And Imagine It The Residence Of Splendour, Grandeur, And Magnificence; But When We Have Passed The Gates, We Find It Perplexed With Narrow Passages, Disgraced With Despicable Cottages, Embarrassed With Obstructions, And Clouded With Smoke.
Fear
Book
Writing
He That Is Warm For Truth, And Fearless In Its Defense, Performs One Of The Duties Of A Good Man; He Strenghtens His Own Conviction, And Guards Others From Delusion; But Steadiness Of Belief, And Boldness Of Profession, Are Yet Only Part Of The Form Of Godliness.
Men
Fearless
Good Man
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.
Government
Order
Law
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.
Death
Philosophy
Comfort
Foppery Is Never Cured; It Is The Bad Stamina Of The Mind, Which, Like Those Of The Body, Are Never Rectified; Once A Coxcomb Always A Coxcomb.
Mind
Body
Stamina
No Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.... There Is A Remedy In Human Nature Against Tyranny, That Will Keep Us Safe Under Every Form Of Government.
Power
Government
Long
Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.
Art
Poetry
Uniting
Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet. From Those Sounds Which We Hear On Small Or On Coarse Occasions, We Do Not Easily Receive Strong Impressions, Or Delightful Images; And Words To Which We Are Nearly Strangers, Whenever They Occur, Draw That Attention On Themselves Which They Should Transmit To Other Things.
Strong
Writing
Attention
See Nations Slowly Wise, And Meanly Just, To Buried Merit Raise The Tardy Bust.
Wise
Merit
Buried
Friendship, Like Love, Is Destroyed By Long Absence, Though It May Be Increased By Short Intermissions. What We Have Missed Long Enough To Want It, We Value More When It Is Regained; But That Which Has Been Lost Till It Is Forgotten Will Be Found At Last With Little Gladness, And With Still Less If A Substitute Has Supplied The Place.
Friendship
Love Is
Like Love
He That Teaches Us Anything Which We Knew Not Before Is Undoubtedly To Be Reverenced As A Master.
Inspirational
Education
Teacher
The Desires Of Man Increase With His Acquisitions.
Men
Desire
Acquisition
Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent.
Historical
Mind
Penetration
Once A Coxcomb, Always A Coxcomb.
Learn The Leading Precognita Of All Things-no Need To Turn Over Leaf By Leaf, But Grasp The Trunk Hard And You Will Shake All The Branches. Advice Cherished By Samuel Johnson That That, If One Is To Master Any Subject, One Must First Discover Its General Principles.
Knowledge
Advice
Principles
There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness Than To Be Able To Look Back On A Life Usefully And Virtuously Employed, To Trace Our Own Progress In Existence, By Such Tokens As Excite Neither Shame Nor Sorrow.
Memories
Sorrow
Progress
The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.
Enemy
Relief
Affection
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.
Government
Principles
Firsts
Sir, There Is No End Of Negative Criticism.
Criticism
Negative
Negative Criticism
If A Man Could Say Nothing Against A Character But What He Can Prove, History Could Not Be Written.
Character
Men
History
To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labor Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.
Ambition
Home
Desire
He To Whom Many Objects Of Pursuit Arise At The Same Time, Will Frequently Hesitate Between Different Desires Till A Rival Has Precluded Him, Or Change His Course As New Attractions Prevail, And Harass Himself Without Advancing.
Focus
Desire
Different
Whoever Shall Review His Life, Will Find That The Whole Tenor Of His Conduct Has Been Determined By Some Accident Of No Apparent Moment.
Determined
Moments
Reviews
That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.
Inspirational
Positive
Self Esteem
Example Is Always More Efficacious Than Precept.
Example
Statistics
I Had Rather See The Portrait Of A Dog That I Know, Than All The Allegorical Paintings They Can Show Me In The World.
Dog
Pain
Portraits
In His Comic Scenes, Shakespeare Seems To Produce, Without Labor, What No Labor Can Improve.
Scene
Comic
Produce
Each Change Of Many-colour'd Life He Drew, Exhausted Worlds, And Then Imagin'd New.
Life
Change
World
Time Quickly Puts An End To Artificial And Accidental Fame
Fame
Ends
Artificial
I Know Not, Madam, That You Have A Right, Upon Moral Principles, To Make Your Readers Suffer So Much.
Writing
Suffering
Principles
False Taste Is Always Busy To Mislead Those That Are Entering Upon The Regions Of Learning; And The Traveller, Uncertain Of His Way, And Forsaken By The Sun, Will Be Pleased To See A Fainter Orb Arise On The Horizon, That May Rescue Him From Total Darkness, Though With Weak And Borrowed Lustre.
Ignorance
Darkness
Horizon
Parents Are By No Means Exempt From The Intoxication Of Dominion.
Mean
Parent
Dominion
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.
Party
Believe
Character
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.
Retirement
Knowledge
May
Every Man Is, Or Hopes To Be, An Idler.
Men
Idlers
Every Man
It Is Justly Considered As The Greatest Excellency Of Art To Imitate Nature; But It Is Necessary To Distinguish Those Parts Of Nature Which Are Most Proper For Imitation: Greater Care Is Still Required In Representing Life, Which Is So Often Discoloured By Passion Or Deformed By Wickedness. If The World Be Promiscuously Described, I Cannot See Of What Use It Can Be To Read The Account; Or Why It May Not Be As Safe To Turn The Eye Immediately Upon Mankind, As Upon A Mirror Which Shows All That Presents Itself Without Discrimination.
Art
Eye
Passion
Luxury, So Far As It Reaches The People, Will Do Good To The Race Of People; It Will Strengthen And Multiply Them. Sir, No Nation Was Ever Hurt By Luxury; For, As I Said Before; It Can Reach But A Very Few.
Hurt
Race
Luxury
Scarce Any Man Becomes Eminently Disagreeable But By A Departure From His Real Character, And An Attempt At Something For Which Nature Or Education Has Left Him Unqualified.
Real
Character
Men
None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.
Worry
Fool
Influence
Revenge Is An Act Of Passion; Vengeance Of Justice. Injuries Are Revenged; Crimes Are Avenged.
Revenge
Passion
Justice
The Mind Is Never Satisfied With The Objects Immediately Before It, But Is Always Breaking Away From The Present Moment, And Losing Itself In Schemes Of Future Felicity... The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.
Mind
Breaking Away
Anticipation
Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.
Fear
Evil
The King Who Makes War On His Enemies Tenderly Distresses His Subjects Most Cruelly.
Kings
War
Enemy
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.
Writing
Men
May
To Talk In Public, To Think In Solitude, To Read And To Hear, To Inquire And Answer Inquiries, Is The Business Of The Scholar
Thinking
Solitude
Inquiry
Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.
Anticipation
Species
Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.
Examination
Fraud
Dread
Prudence Operates On Life In The Same Manner As Rule Of Composition; It Produces Vigilance Rather Than Elevation; Rather Prevents Loss Than Procures Advantage; And Often Miscarriages, But Seldom Reaches Either Power Or Honor.
Life
Success
Miscarriage
Gayety Is To Good-humor As Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance: The One Overpowers Weak Spirits; The Other Recreates And Revives Them.
Vegetables
Offending
Spirit
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!
Sweet
Heart
Race
That Eminence Of Learning Is Not To Be Gained Without Labour, At Least Equal To That Which Any Other Kind Of Greatness Can Require, Will Be Allowed By Those Who Wish To Elevate The Character Of A Scholar; Since They Cannot But Know That Every Human Acquisition Is Valuable In Proportion To The Difficulty Of Its Attainment.
Character
Greatness
Effort
Integrity Without Knowledge Is Weak And Useless, And Knowledge Without Integrity Is Dangerous And Dreadful.
Education
Honesty
Integrity
Admiration Begins Where Acquaintance Ceases
Admiration
Acquaintance
Cease
A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.
Failing
We Seldom Require More To The Happiness Of The Present Hour Than To Surpass Him That Stands Next Before Us.
Happiness
Next
Hours
Prepare For Death, If Here At Night You Roam, And Sign Your Will Before You Sup From Home.
Death
Home
Night
I Will Venture To Say There Is More Learning And Science Within The Circumference Of Ten Miles From Where We Now Sit [in London], Than In All The Rest Of The Kingdom.
Learning
Science
Venture
Those Who Have No Power To Judge Of Past Times But By Their Own, Should Always Doubt Their Conclusions
Past
Judging
Doubt
The Imitator Treads A Beaten Walk, And With All His Diligence Can Only Find A Few Flowers Or Branches Untouched By His Predecessor, The Refuse Of Contempt, Or The Omissions Of Negligence.
Flower
Omission
Branches
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.
School
Mind
Radiation
All Knowledge Is Of Itself Of Some Value. There Is Nothing So Minute Or Inconsiderable, That I Would Not Rather Know It Than Not. In The Same Manner, All Power, Of Whatever Sort, Is Of Itself Desirable. A Man Would Not Submit To Learn To Hem A Ruffle, Of His Wife, Or His Wife's Maid; But If A Mere Wish Could Attain It, He Would Rather Wish To Be Able To Hem A Ruffle.
Knowledge
Men
Wife
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.
Fall
Men
Air
We May Have Many Acquaintances, But We Can Have But Few Friends; This Made Aristotle Say That He That Hath Many Friends Hath None.
May
Few Friends
Made
Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.
Science
Ideas
Language
Here Lies Our Good Edmund, Whose Genius Was Such, We Scarcely Can Praise It Or Blame It Too Much; Who, Born For The Universe, Narrowed His Mind, And To Party Gave Up What Was Meant For Mankind.
Lying
Party
Mind
Pound St. Paul's Church Into Atoms, And Consider Any Single Atom; It Is To Be Sure, Good For Nothing; But Put All These Atoms Together, And You Have St. Paul's Church. So It Is With Human Felicity, Which Is Made Up Of Many Ingredients, Each Of Which May Be Shown To Be Very Insignificant.
Church
Together
Atoms
The Best Part Of Every Author Is In General To Be Found In His Book, I Assure You.
Book
Found
It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society.
Society
Firsts
Duty
Rash Oaths, Whether Kept Or Broken, Frequently Produce Guilt.
Broken
Guilt
Produce
More Knowledge May Be Gained Of A Man's Real Character By A Short Conversation With One Of His Servants Than From A Formal And Studied Narrative, Begun With His Pedigree And Ended With His Funeral.
Real
Knowledge
Character
Wisdom And Virtue Are By No Means Sufficient, Without The Supplemental Laws Of Good-breeding, To Secure Freedom From Degenerating Into Rudeness, Or Self Esteem From Swelling Into Insolence. A Thousand Incivilities May Be Committed, And A Thousand Offices Neglected. Without Any Remorse Of Conscience, Or Reproach From Reason.
Self Esteem
Mean
Law
Scarcely Any Degree Of Judgment Is Sufficient To Restrain The Imagination From Magnifying That On Which It Is Long Detained
Long
Imagination
Judging
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.
Wise
Money
Men
Philips, Whose Touch Harmonious Could Remove The Pangs Of Guilty Power And Hapless Love! Rest Here, Distress'd By Poverty No More; Here Find That Calm Thou Gav'st So Oft Before; Sleep Undisturb'd Within This Peaceful Shrine, Till Angels Wake Thee With A Note Like Thine!
Love
Peace
Sleep
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.
Prejudice
Facts
Opinion
Milton, Madam, Was A Genius That Could Cut A Colossus From A Rock; But Could Not Carve Heads Upon Cherry-stones.
Cutting
Rocks
Poetry
In Order That All Men Might Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It.
Wisdom
Truth
Learning
It Is Man's Own Fault, It Is From Want Of Use, If His Mind Grows Torpid In Old Age.
Men
Mind
Age
[w]ith An Unquiet Mind, Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physick Can Be Of Much Use.
Exercise
Mind
Use
You Cannot Give Me An Instance Of Any Man Who Is Permitted To Lay Out His Own Time Contriving Not To Have Tedious Hours.
Men
Giving
Hours
A Writer Only Begins A Book. A Reader Finishes It.
Book
Reading
Writing
What I Gained By Being In France Was Learning To Be Better Satisfied With My Own Country.
Country
France
Satisfied
None Can Be Pleased Without Praise, And Few Can Be Praised Without Falsehood.
Praise
Falsehood
Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.
Friendship
Dream
Attitude
In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.
Memories
Writing
Men
To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity.
Happiness
Inner Peace
Trying
Most Vices May Be Committed Very Genteelly: A Man May Debauch His Friend's Wife Genteelly: He May Cheat At Cards Genteelly
Men
Wife
Vices
Life Affords No Higher Pleasure Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties, Passing From One Step Of Success To Another, Forming New Wishes And Seeing Them Gratified.
Life
Motivational
Achievement
Nothing Has Tended More To Retard The Advancement Of Science Than The Disposition In Vulgar Minds To Vilify What They Cannot Comprehend.
Learning
Science
Mind
Time Is, Of All Modes Of Existence, Most Obsequious To The Imagination.
Imagination
Existence
Advice Is Offensive, It Shows Us That We Are Known To Others As Well As To Ourselves.
Advice
Offensive
Shows
The Whole Power Of Cunning Is Privative; To Say Nothing, And To Do Nothing , Is The Utmost Of Its Reach. Yet Men, Thus Narrow By Nature And Mean By Art, Are Sometimes Able To Rise By The Miscarriages Of Bravery And The Openness Of Integrity, And, Watching Failures And Snatching Opportunities, Obtain Advantages Which Belong To Higher Characters.
Art
Integrity
Character
Most Men Are Unwilling To Be Taught.
Men
Taught
Unwilling
The Vicious Count Their Years; Virtuous, Their Acts.
Years
Making A Difference
Charity
As To The Rout That Is Made About People Who Are Ruined By Extravagance, It Is No Matter To The Nation That Some Individuals Suffer. When So Much General Productive Exertion Is The Consequence Of Luxury, The Nation Does Not Care Though There Are Debtors; Nay, They Would Not Care Though Their Creditors Were There Too.
Luxury
People
Suffering
As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.
Humility
Pride
Sometimes
The Perfect Day For Quitting Is Not Real. It Will Never Come, So Might As Well Start Today
Encouragement
Real
Perfect Days
A Man With A Good Coat Upon His Back Meets With A Better Reception Than He Who Has A Bad One.
Men
Coats
Reception
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