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It Is The Quality Of Patriotism To Be Jealous And Watchful, To Observe All Secret Machinations, And To See Publick Dangers At A Distance. The True Lover Of His Country Is Ready To Communicate His Fears, And To Sound The Alarm, Whenever He Perceives The Approach Of Mischief. But He Sounds No Alarm, When There Is No Enemy; He Never Terrifies His Countrymen Till He Is Terrified Himself. The Patriotism, Therefore, May Be Justly Doubted Of Him, Who Professes To Be Disturbed By Incredibilities.

-Samuel Johnson

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It Is The Quality

Samuel Johnson

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It Is The Quality Of Patriotism To Be Jealous And Watchful, To Observe All Secret Machinations, And To See Publick Dangers At A Distance. The True Lover Of His Country Is Ready To Communicate His Fears, And To Sound The Alarm, Whenever He Perceives The Approach Of Mischief. But He Sounds No Alarm, When There Is No Enemy; He Never Terrifies His Countrymen Till He Is Terrified Himself. The Patriotism, Therefore, May Be Justly Doubted Of Him, Who Professes To Be Disturbed By Incredibilities.

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

A Man May Be So Much Of Everything That He Is Nothing Of Anything.

It Is The Quality Of Patriotism To Be Jealous And Watchful, To Observe All Secret Machinations, And To See Publick Dangers At A Distance. The True Lover Of His Country Is Ready To Communicate His Fears, And To Sound The Alarm, Whenever He Perceives The Approach Of Mischief. But He Sounds No Alarm, When There Is No Enemy; He Never Terrifies His Countrymen Till He Is Terrified Himself. The Patriotism, Therefore, May Be Justly Doubted Of Him, Who Professes To Be Disturbed By Incredibilities.

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

To Do Something Is In Every Man's Power.

Parents Are By No Means Exempt From The Intoxication Of Dominion.

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.

Marriage Is The Best State For Man In General, And Every Man Is A Worst Man In Proportion To The Level He Is Unfit For Marriage.

They Whose Activity Of Imagination Is Often Shifting The Scenes Of Expectation, Are Frequently Subject To Such Sallies Of Caprice As Make All Their Actions Fortuitous, Destroy The Value Of Their Friendship, Obstruct The Efficacy Of Their Virtues, And Set Them Below The Meanest Of Those Who Persist In Their Resolutions, Execute What They Design, And Perform What They Have Promised.

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

There Is Little Peace Or Comfort In Life If We Are Always Anxious As To Future Events. He That Worries Himself With The Dread Of Possible Contingencies Will Never Be At Rest.

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

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.

Every Man Wishes To Be Wise, And They Who Cannot Be Wise Are Almost Always Cunning.

A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

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.

Pride Is Seldom Delicate, It Will Please Itself With Very Mean Advantages; And Envy Feels Not Its Own Happiness, But When It May Be Compared With The Misery Of Others

Among The Numerous Requisites That Must Concur To Complete An Author, Few Are Of More Importance Than An Early Entrance Into The Living World. The Seed Of Knowledge May Be Planted In Solitude, But Must Be Cultivated In Public. Argumentation May Be Taught In Colleges, And Theories Formed In Retirement; But The Artifice Of Embellishment And The Powers Of Attraction Can Be Gained Only By A General Converse.

It Seems To Be Remarkable That Death Increases Our Veneration For The Good, And Extenuates Our Hatred For The Bad.

The Main Of Life Is Composed Of Small Incidents And Petty Occurrences; Of Wishes For Objects Not Remote, And Grief For Disappointments Of No Fatal Consequence.

When People Find A Man Of The Most Distinguished Abilities As A Writer Their Inferior While He Is With Them, It Must Be Highly Gratifying To Them.

Accustom Your Children Constantly To This; If A Thing Happened At One Window And They, When Relating It, Say That It Happened At Another, Do Not Let It Pass, But Instantly Check Them; You Do Not Know Where Deviation From Truth Will End

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

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.

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

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil But Its Duty, Like That Of Other Passions, Is Not To Overbear Reason, But To Assist It. It Should Not Be Suffered To Tyrannize In The Imagination, To Raise Phantoms Of Horror, Or To Beset Life With Supernumerary Distresses.

Age Looks With Anger On The Temerity Of Youth, And Youth With Contempt On The Scrupulosity Of Age.

Nobody Has The Right To Put Another Under Such A Difficulty That He Must Either Hurt The Person By Telling The Truth Or Hurt Himself By Telling What Is Not True.

Telling The Truth

My Diseases Are An Asthma And A Dropsy And, What Is Less Curable, Seventy-five.

An Old Friend Never Can Be Found, And Nature Has Provided That He Cannot Easily Be Lost.

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal; And He May Be Properly Charged With Evil Who Refused To Learn How He Might Prevent It.

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.

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.

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

New Arts Are Long In The World Before Poets Describe Them; For They Borrow Everything From Their Predecessors, And Commonly Derive Very Little From Nature Or From Life.

The Life Of A Solitary Man Will Be Certainly Miserable, But Not Certainly Devout.

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.

Depend Upon It, Sir, It Is When You Come Close To A Man In Conservation That You Discover What His Real Abilities Are; To Make A Speech In A Public Assembly Is A Knack.

Solitude Is Dangerous To Reason, Without Being Favourable To Virtue. Remember That The Solitary Mortal Is Certainly Luxurious, Probably Superstitious, And Possibly Mad.

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

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

Example Is Always More Efficacious Than Precept.

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.

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

What Is Good Only Because It Pleases Cannot Be Pronounced Good Till It Has Been Found To Please.

Avarice Is Generally The Last Passion Of Those Lives Of Which The First Part Has Been Squandered In Pleasure, And The Second Devoted To Ambition. He That Sinks Under The Fatigue Of Getting Wealth, Lulls His Age With The Milder Business Of Saving It

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.

Procrastination

Fate Wings, With Every Wish, The Afflictive Dart, Each Gift Of Nature, And Each Grace Of Art.

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.

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

I Inherited A Vile Melancholy From My Father, Which Has Made Me Mad All My Life, At Least Not Sober.

Surely, It Is Much Easier To Respect A Man Who Has Always Had Respect, Than To Respect A Man Who We Know Was Last Year No Better Than Ourselves, And Will Be No Better Next Year.

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

It Is Not Indeed Certain, That The Most Refined Caution Will Find A Proper Time For Bringing A Man To The Knowledge Of His Own Failing, Or The Most Zealous Benevolence Reconcile Him To That Judgment By Which They Are Detected; But He Who Endeavours Only The Happiness Of Him Whom He Reproves Will Always Have Either The Satisfaction Of Obtaining Or Deserving Kindness; If He Succeeds, He Benefits His Friend; And If He Fails, He Has At Least The Consciousness That He Suffers For Only Doing Well.

Nothing Is More Idle Than To Inquire After Happiness, Which Nature Has Kindly Placed Within Our Reach.

I Have Already Enjoyed Too Much; Give Me Something To Desire.

You Cannot Spend Money In Luxury Without Doing Good To The Poor. Nay, You Do More Good To Them By Spending It In Luxury, Than By Giving It; For By Spending It In Luxury, You Make Them Exert Industry, Whereas By Giving It, You Keep Them Idle.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

Among The Lower Classes Of Mankind There Will Be Found Very Little Desire Of Any Other Knowledge Than What May Contribute Immediately To The Relief Of Some Pressing Uneasiness, Or The Attainment Of Some Near Advantage.

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

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

Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not For Man.

A Fly, Sir, May Sting A Stately Horse And Make Him Wince; But, One Is But An Insect, And The Other Is A Horse Still.

Preserve Me From Unseasonable And Immoderate Sleep.

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

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

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

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!

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.

Never Mind The Use--do It!

To Hear Complaints With Patience, Even When Complaints Are Vain, Is One Of The Duties Of Friendship.

Life, However Short, Is Made Still Shorter By Waste Of Time.

Much May Be Made Of A Scotchman, If He Be Caught Young.

Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.

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.

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding; And Those Who Are Conscious Of Their Inferiority Have The Modesty Not To Talk; When They Have Drunk Wine, Every Man Feels Himself Happy, And Loses That Modesty, And Grows Impudent And Vociferous; But He Is Not Improved; He Is Only Not Sensible Of His Defects.

Security Will Produce Danger.

A Fellow Will Hack Half A Year At A Block Of Marble To Make Something In Stone That Hardly Resembles A Man. The Value Of Statuary Is Owing To Its Difficulty. You Would Not Value The Finest Head Cut Upon A Carrot.

Friendship, Like Love, Is Destroyed By Long Absence, Though It May Be Increased By Short Intermissions.

Peevishness May Be Considered The Canker Of Life, That Destroys Its Vigor And Checks Its Improvement; That Creeps On With Hourly Depredations, And Taints And Vitiates What It Cannot Consume.

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.

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

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

A Man Of Sense And Education Should Meet A Suitable Companion In A Wife. It Is A Miserable Thing When The Conversation Can Only Be Such As Whether The Mutton Should Be Boiled Or Roasted, And Probably A Dispute About That.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet.

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

The Chief Art Of Learning, As Locke Has Observed, Is To Attempt But Little At A Time. The Widest Excursions Of The Mind Are Made By Short Flights Frequently Repeated; The Most Lofty Fabrics Of Science Are Formed By The Continued Accumulation Of Single Propositions.

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

Of All Noises, I Think Music Is The Least Disagreeable.

There Are, Indeed, Few Kinds Of Composition From Which An Author, However Learned Or Ingenious, Can Hope A Long Continuance Of Fame.

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

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

Excellence In Any Department Can Be Attained Only By The Labor Of A Lifetime; It Is Not To Be Purchased At A Lesser Price.

No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

You Need A Good Editor Because Every Writer Thinks He Can Write A War And Peace, But By The Time He Gets It On Paper, It's Not War And Peace Anymore; It's Comic-book Stuff. Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original. But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

No People Can Be Great Who Have Ceased To Be Virtuous.

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

A Good Wife Is Like The Ivy Which Beautifies The Building To Which It Clings, Twining Its Tendrils More Lovingly As Time Converts The Ancient Edifice Into A Ruin.

The True Art Of Memory Is The Art Of Attention.

The Mental Disease Of The Present Generation Is Impatience Of Study, Contempt Of The Great Masters Of Ancient Wisdom, And A Disposition To Rely Wholly Upon Unassisted Genius And Natural Sagacity. The Wits Of These Happy Days Have Discovered A Way To Fame, Which The Dull Caution Of Our Laborious Ancestors Durst Never Attempt; They Cut The Knots Of Sophistry, Which It Was Formerly The Business Of Years To Untie, Solve Difficulties By Sudden Irradiations Of Intelligence, And Comprehend Long Processes Of Argument By Immediate Intuition.

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

The Balls Of Sight Are So Formed, That One Man's Eyes Are Spectacles To Another, To Read His Heart With.

Friends Are Often Chosen For Similitude Of Manners, And Therefore Each Palliates The Other's Failings Because They Are His Own.

Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

The Excellence Of Aphorisms Consists Not So Much In The Expression Of Some Rare Or Abstruse Sentiment, As In The Comprehension Of Some Useful Truth In A Few Words.

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

Men Do Not Suspect Faults Which They Do Not Commit

Condemned To Hope's Delusive Mine, As On We Toil From Day To Day, By Sudden Blasts Or Slow Decline Our Social Comforts Drop Away.

The Longer We Live The More We Think And The Higher The Value We Put On Friendship And Tenderness Towards Parents And Friends.

What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure.

Integrity Without Knowledge Is Weak And Useless, And Knowledge Without Integrity Is Dangerous And Dreadful.

Social Sorrow Loses Half Its Pain.

It Is Commonly Supposed That The Uniformity Of A Studious Life Affords No Matter For Narration: But The Truth Is, That Of The Most Studious Life A Great Part Passes Without Study. An Author Partakes Of The Common Condition Of Humanity; He Is Born And Married Like Another Man; He Has Hopes And Fears, Expectations And Disappointments, Griefs And Joys, And Friends And Enemies, Like A Courtier Or A Statesman; Nor Can I Conceive Why His Affairs Shuld Not Excite Curiosity As Much As The Whisper Of A Drawing-room, Or The Factions Of A Camp.

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.

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

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.

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

Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded, For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadful Than Its Extinction.

He That Accepts Protection, Stipulates Obedience.

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

Men Hate More Steadily Than They Love.

It Seems Not More Reasonable To Leave The Right Of Printing Unrestrained, Because Writers May Be Afterwards Censured, Than It Would Be To Sleep With Doors Unbolted, Because By Our Laws We Can Hang A Thief.

Games Are Good Or Bad As To Their Nature; All May Be Perverted.

It Is A Most Mortifying Reflection For A Man To Consider What He Has Done, Compared To What He Might Have Done.

[w]ith An Unquiet Mind, Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physick Can Be Of Much Use.

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.

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

The Coquette Has Companions, Indeed, But No Lovers,--for Love Is Respectful And Timorous; And Where Among Her Followers Will She Find A Husband?

I Would Injure No Man, And Should Provoke No Resentment. I Would Relieve Every Distress, And Should Enjoy The Benedictions Of Gratitude. I Would Choose My Friends Among The Wise And My Wife Among The Virtuous, And Therefore Should Be In No Danger From Treachery Or Unkindness. My Children Should By My Care Be Learned And Pious, And Would Repay To My Age What Their Childhood Had Received.

There May Be Other Reasons For A Man's Not Speaking In Publick Than Want Of Resolution: He May Have Nothing To Say.

Love Is Only One Of Many Passions.

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

Resentment Gratifies Him Who Intended An Injury, And Pains Him Unjustly Who Did Not Intend It.

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

The Imaginations Excited By The View Of An Unknown And Untravelled Wilderness Are Not Such As Arise In The Artificial Solitude Of Parks And Gardens... The Phantoms Which Haunt A Desert Are Want, And Misery, And Danger; The Evils Of Dereliction Rush Upon The Thoughts; Man Is Made Unwillingly Acquainted With His Own Weakness, And Meditation Shows Him Only How Little He Can Sustain, And How Little He Can Perform.

The Future Is Purchased By The Present.

Round Numbers Are Always False.

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

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.

A Scotchman Must Be A Very Sturdy Moralist Who Does Not Love Scotland Better Than Truth.

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.

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.

When Any Anxiety Or Gloom Of The Mind Takes Hold Of You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaining; But Exert Yourselves To Hide It, And By Endeavoring To Hide It You Drive It Away.

I Would Consent To Have A Limb Amputated To Recover My Spirits

Lichfield, England. Swallows Certainly Sleep All Winter. A Number Of Them Conglobulate Together, By Flying Round And Round, And Then All In A Heap Throw Themselves Under Water, And Lye In The Bed Of A River.

There Are Occasions On Which It Is Noble To Dare To Stand Alone. To Be Pious Among Infidels, To Be Disinterested In A Time Of General Venality, To Lead A Life Of Virtue And Reason In The Midst Of Sensualists, Is A Proof Of A Mind Intent On Nobler Things Than The Praise Or Blame Of Men, Of A Soul Fixed In The Contemplation Of The Highest Good, And Superiour To The Tyranny Of Custom And Example.

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

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

Enlarge My Life With Multitude Of Days, In Health, In Sickness, Thus The Suppliant Prays; Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know, That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe. Time Hovers O'er, Impatient To Destroy, And Shuts Up All The Passages Of Joy.

Women Have Two Weapons - Cosmetics And Tears

A Quibble Is To Shakespeare What Luminous Vapours Are To The Traveller: He Follows It At All Adventures; It Is Sure To Lead Him Out Of His Way And Sure To Engulf Him In The Mire.

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

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

It Is Better A Man Should Be Abused Than Forgotten.

Glory, The Casual Gift Of Thoughtless Crowds! Glory, The Bribe Of Avaricious Virtue!

We Go From Anticipation To Anticipation, Not From Satisfaction To Satisfaction.

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

If You Are Idle, Be Not Solitary; If You Are Solitary Be Not Idle.

All Power Of Fancy Over Reason Is A Degree Of Madness.

The Specualtist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity; And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

The Hostility Perpetually Exercised Between One Man And Another, Is Caused By The Desire Of Many For That Which Only Few Can Possess. Every Man Would Be Rich, Powerful, And Famous; Yet Fame, Power, And Riches, Are Only The Names Of Relative Conditions, Which Imply The Obscurity, Dependence, And Poverty Of Greater Numbers.

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

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

To Dread No Eye And To Suspect No Tongue Is The Great Prerogative Of Innocence--an Exemption Granted Only To Invariable Virtue.

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

Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill.

A Patriot Is He Whose Public Conduct Is Regulated By One Single Motive, The Love Of His Country; Who, As An Agent In Parliament, Has, For Himself, Neither Hope Nor Fear, Neither Kindness Nor Resentment, But Refers Every Thing To The Common Interest

Leave To Heaven The Measure And The Choice.

Courtesy And Good-humour Are Often Found With Little Real Worth.

He Said That Few People Had Intellectual Resources Sufficient To Forgo The Pleasures Of Wine. They Could Not Otherwise Contrive How To Fill The Interval Between Dinner And Supper.

A Short Letter To A Distant Friend Is, In My Opinion, An Insult Like That Of A Slight Bow Or Cursory Salutation - A Proof Of Unwillingness To Do Much, Even Where There Is A Necessity Of Doing Something.

The Most Useful Truths Are Always Universal, And Unconnected With Accidents And Customs.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

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.

It Is Necessary To The Success Of Flattery, That It Be Accommodated To Particular Circumstances Or Characters, And Enter The Heart On That Side Where The Passions Are Ready To Receive It.

Of The Present State, Whatever It Be, We Feel And Are Forced To Confess The Misery; Yet When The Same State Is Again At A Distance, Imagination Paints It As Desirable.

Very Few Live By Choice. Every Man Is Placed In His Present Condition By Causes Which Acted Without His Foresight, And With Which He Did Not Always Willingly Cooperate; And Therefore You Will Rarely Meet One Who Does Not Think The Lot Of His Neighbor Better Than His Own.

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

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.

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment.

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

The Fortitude Which Has Encountered No Dangers, That Prudence Which Has Surmounted No Difficulties, That Integrity Which Has Been Attacked By No Temptation, Can At Best Be Considered But As Gold Not Yet Brought To The Test, Of Which Therefore The True Value Cannot Be Assigned.

His Death Eclipsed The Gayety Of Nations, And Impoverished The Public Stock Of Harmless Pleasure.

We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.

Sir, I Have Found You An Argument; But I Am Not Obliged To Find You An Understanding.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation, Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City.

Women Can Spin Very Well; But They Cannot Make A Good Book Of Cookery.

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

If A Man Begins To Read In The Middle Of A Book, And Feels An Inclination To Go On, Let Him Not Quit It To Go To The Beginning. He May Perhaps Not Feel Again The Inclination.

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

Deviation From Nature Is Deviation From Happiness.

To Get A Name Can Happen But To Few. A Name, Even In The Most Commercial Nation, Is One Of The Few Things Which Cannot Be Bought . It Is The Free Gift Of Mankind, Which Must Be Deserved Before It Will Be Granted, And Is At Last Unwillingly Bestowed.

A Man May Be Very Sincere In Good Principles, Without Having Good Practice.

When First The College Rolls Receive His Name, The Young Enthusiast Quilts His Ease For Fame; Through All His Veins The Fever Of Renown Burns From The Strong Contagion Of The Gown

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

I Should As Soon Think Of Contradicting A Bishop

None Can Be Pleased Without Praise, And Few Can Be Praised Without Falsehood.

The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.

It Is Strange That There Should Be So Little Reading In The World, And So Much Writing. People In General Do Not Willingly Read, If They Can Have Any Thing Else To Amuse Them.

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

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