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It Requires But Little Acquaintance With The Heart To Know That Woman's First Wish Is To Be Handsome; And That, Consequently, The Readiest Method Of Obtaining Her Kindness Is To Praise Her Beauty.

-Samuel Johnson

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It Requires But Little

Samuel Johnson

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It Requires But Little Acquaintance With The Heart To Know That Woman's First Wish Is To Be Handsome; And That, Consequently, The Readiest Method Of Obtaining Her Kindness Is To Praise Her Beauty.

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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 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.

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

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

The Prospect Of Penury In Age Is So Gloomy And Terrifying That Every Man Who Looks Before Him Must Resolve To Avoid It; And It Must Be Avoided Generally By The Science Of Sparing.

Among The Numerous Stratagems By Which Pride Endeavors To Recommend Folly To Regard, There Is Scarcely One That Meets With Less Success Than Affectation, Or A Perpetual Disguise Of The Real Character By Fictitious Appearances.

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

Lectures Were Once Useful; But Now When All Can Read, And Books Are So Numerous, Lectures Are Unnecessary.

If We Consider The Manner In Which Those Who Assume The Office Of Directing The Conduct Of Others Execute Their Undertaking, It Will Not Be Very Wonderful That Their Labours, However Zealous Or Affectionate, Are Frequently Useless. For What Is The Advice That Is Commonly Given? A Few General Maxims, Enforced With Vehemence, And Inculcated With Importunity, But Failing For Want Of Particular Reference And Immediate Application.

It Is However, Reasonable, To Have Perfection In Our Eye; That We May Always Advance Towards It, Though We Know It Never Can Be Reached.

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.

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

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

It May Be Observed In General That The Future Is Purchased By The Present. It Is Not Possible To Secure Distant Or Permanent Happiness But By The Forbearance Of Some Immediate Gratification. This Is So Evidently True With Regard To The Whole Of Our Existence That All Precepts Of Theology Have No Other Tendency Than To Enforce A Life Of Faith; A Life Regulated Not By Our Senses But By Our Belief; A Life In Which Pleasures Are To Be Refused For Fear Of Invisible Punishments, And Calamities Sometimes To Be Sought, And Always Endured, In Hope Of Rewards That Shall Be Obtained In Another State.

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.

I Never Have Sought The World; The World Was Not To Seek Me.

He That Is Pushing His Predecessors Into The Gulf Of Obscurity, Cannot But Sometimes Suspect, That He Must Himself Sink In Like Manner, And, As He Stands Upon The Same Precipice, Be Swept Away With The Same Violence.

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

It Is Common To Overlook What Is Near By Keeping The Eye Fixed On Something Remote.

The Lust Of Gold Succeeds The Rage Of Conquest; The Lust Of Gold, Unfeeling And Remorseless! The Last Corruption Of Degenerate Man.

A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.

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.

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

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

No Man Will Be A Sailor Who Has Contrivance Enough To Get Himself Into A Jail; For Being In A Ship Is Being In A Jail, With The Chance Of Being Drowned... A Man In A Jail Has More Room, Better Food, And Commonly Better Company.

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

Life Consists Not Of A Series Of Illustrious Actions Or Elegant Enjoyments. The Greater Part Of Our Time Passes In Compliance With Necessities, In The Performance Of Daily Duties, In The Removal Of Small Inconveniences, In The Procurement Of Petty Pleasures; And We Are Well Or Ill At Ease, As The Main Stream Of Life Glides On Smoothly, Or Is Ruffled By Small Obstacles And Frequent Interruption.

Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.

To Do Nothing Is In Everyone's Power.

Where There Is No Difficulty There Is No Praise.

Some People Have A Foolish Way Of Not Minding, Or Pretending Not To Mind, What They Eat. For My Part, I Mind My Belly Very Studiously, And Very Carefully; For I Look Upon It, That He Who Does Not Mind His Belly Will Hardly Mind Anything Else.

Of All The Grief's That Harass The Distressed; Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest.

This Mournful Truth Is Everywhere Confessed, Slow Rises Worth By Poverty Depressed.

People May Be Taken In Once, Who Imagine That An Author Is Greater In Private Life Than Other Men.

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.

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.

I Am Not Able To Instruct You. I Can Only Tell That I Have Chosen Wrong. I Have Passed My Time In Study Without Experience; In The Attainment Of Sciences Which Can, For The Most Part, Be But Remotely Useful To Mankind. I Have Purchased Knowledge At The Expense Of All The Common Comforts Of Life: I Have Missed The Endearing Elegance Of Female Friendship, And The Happy Commerce Of Domestic Tenderness.

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

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.

All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise. It Is In Order To Show How Much He Can Spare.

Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last.

If The Abuse Be Enormous, Nature Will Rise Up, And Claiming Her Original Rights, Overturn A Corrupt Political System.

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

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

In Civilized Society External Advantages Make Us More Respected. A Man With A Good Coat Upon His Back Meets With A Better Reception Than He Who Has A Bad One. You May Analyze This And Say, What Is There In It? But That Will Avail You Nothing, For It Is A Part Of A General System.

A Horse That Can Count To Ten Is A Remarkable Horse, Not A Remarkable Mathematician.

Though It Is Evident, That Not More Than One Age Or People Can Deserve The Censure Of Being More Averse From Learning Than Any Other, Yet At All Times Knowledge Must Have Encountered Impediments, And Wit Been Mortified With Contempt, Or Harassed With Persecution.

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.

Why, Sir, Sherry Is Dull, Naturally Dull; But It Must Have Taken Him A Great Deal Of Pains To Become What We Now See Him. Such An Excess Of Stupidity, Sir, Is Not In Nature.

Faults And Defects Every Work Of Man Must Have.

When Two Eglishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather.

Greece Appears To Be The Fountain Of Knowledge; Rome Of Elegance

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.

Reason Will By Degrees Submit To Absurdity, As The Eye Is In Time Accommodated To Darkness.

What Is Twice Read Is Commonly Better Remembered That What Is Transcribed.

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

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

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

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.

A Man, Doubtful Of His Dinner, Or Trembling At A Creditor, Is Not Much Disposed To Abstracted Meditation, Or Remote Enquiries.

He That Is Much Flattered Soon Learns To Flatter Himself.

Wit Is That Which Has Been Often Thought, But Never Before Was Well Expressed.

Few Have Abilities So Much Needed By The Rest Of The World As To Be Caressed On Their Own Terms; And He That Will Not Condescend To Recommend Himself By External Embellishments Must Submit To The Fate Of Just Sentiment Meanly Expressed, And Be Ridiculed And Forgotten Before He Is Understood.

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

It Is The Great Privilege Of Poverty To Be Happy Unenvied, To Be Healthful Without Physic, And Secure Without A Guard; To Obtain From The Bounty Of Nature, What The Great And Wealthy Are Compelled To Procure By The Help Of Artists And Attendants, Of Flatterers And Spies.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.

There Is In This World No Real Delight (excepting Those Of Sensuality), But Exchange Of Ideas In Conversation.

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.

It Is As Bad As Bad Can Be: It Is Ill-fed, Ill-killed, Ill-kept, And Ill-drest.

History Can Be Formed From Permanent Monuments And Records; But Lives Can Only Be Written From Personal Knowledge, Which Is Growing Every Day Less, And In A Short Time Is Lost Forever.

Personal Knowledge

The Most Fatal Disease Of Friendship Is Gradual Decay, Or Dislike Hourly Increased By Causes Too Slender For Complaint, And Too Numerous For Removal.

Lawful And Settled Authority Is Very Seldom Resisted When It Is Well Employed.

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

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

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.

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.

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

To Do Something Is In Every Man's Power.

It Is Not Often That Any Man Can Have So Much Knowledge Of Another, As Is Necessary To Make Instruction Useful.

Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.

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

I Will Be Conquered; I Will Not Capitulate.

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

Of The Blessings Set Before You Make Your Choice, And Be Content.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

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

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

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

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.

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

How Many May A Man Of Diffusive Conversation Count Among His Acquaintances, Whose Lives Have Been Signalized By Numberless Escapes; Who Never Cross The River But In A Storm, Or Take A Journey Into The Country Without More Adventures Than Befel The Knights-errant Of Ancient Times In Pathless Forests Or Enchanted Castles! How Many Must He Know, To Whom Portents And Prodigies Are Of Daily Occurrence; And For Whom Nature Is Hourly Working Wonders Invisible To Every Other Eye, Only To Supply Them With Subjects Of Conversation?

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

I Never Desire To Converse With A Man Who Has Written More Than He Has Read.

Of Riches It Is Not Necessary To Write The Praise. Let It, However, Be Remembered That He Who Has Money To Spare Has It Always In His Power To Benefit Others, And Of Such Power A Good Man Must Always Be Desirous.

To Forget, Or Pretend To Do So, To Return A Borrowed Article, Is The Meanest Sort Of Petty Theft.

Distance Either Of Time Or Place Is Sufficient To Reconcile Weak Minds To Wonderful Relations.

Gayety Is To Good-humor As Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance: The One Overpowers Weak Spirits; The Other Recreates And Revives Them.

Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

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

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

Since Life Itself Is Uncertain, Nothing Which Has Life For Its Basis Can Boast Much Stability.

Riches Are Of No Value In Themselves; Their Use Is Discovered Only In That Which They Procure.

It Is Unpleasing To Represent Our Affairs To Our Own Disadvantage; Yet It Is Necessary To Shew The Evils Which We Desire To Be Removed.

We Never Do Anything Consciously For The Last Time Without Sadness Of Heart.

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

The Maxim Of Cleobulus, "mediocrity Is Best," Has Been Long Considered A Universal Principle, Extending Through The Whole Compass Of Life And Nature. The Experience Of Every Age Seems To Have Given It New Confirmation, And To Show That Nothing, However Specious Or Alluring, Is Pursued With Propriety Or Enjoyed With Safety Beyond Certain Limits.

Let Him That Desires To See Others Happy, Make Haste To Give While His Gift Can Be Enjoyed, And Remember That Every Moment Of Delay Takes Away Something From The Value Of His Benefaction.

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.

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.

That Observation Which Is Called Knowledge Of The World Will Be Found Much More Frequently To Make Men Cunning Than Good.

Employment And Hardships Prevent Melancholy.

Catch, Then, Oh! Catch The Transient Hour, Improve Each Moment As It Flies; Life's A Short Summer-man A Flower; He Dies-alas! How Soon He Dies!

Claret Is The Liquor For Boys; Port For Men; But He Who Aspires To Be A Hero Must Drink Brandy.

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

All Wonder Is The Effect Of Novelty On Ignorance.

Cautious Age Suspects The Flattering Form, And Only Credits What Experience Tells.

None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.

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

It Is Better A Man Should Be Abused Than Forgotten.

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present. The Acknowledgment Of Those Virtues On Which Conscience Congratulates Us Is A Tribute That We Can At Any Tine Exact With Confidence; But The Celebration Of Those Which We Only Feign, Or Desire Without Any Vigorous Endeavours To Attain Them, Is Received As A Confession Of Sovereignty Over Regions Never Conquered, As A Favourable Decision Of Disputable Claims, And Is More Welcome As More Gratuitous.

When Emulation Leads Us To Strive For Self-elevation By Merit Alone, And Not By Belittling Another, Then It Is One Of The Grandest Possible Incentives To Action.

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

Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.

I Know Not Anything More Pleasant, Or More Instructive, Than To Compare Experience With Expectation, Or To Register From Time To Time The Difference Between Idea And Reality. It Is By This Kind Of Observation That We Grow Daily Less Liable To Be Disappointed.

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.

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.

Grief Is A Species Of Idleness.

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

Riches Seldom Make Their Owners Rich.

The Limbs Will Quiver And Move After The Soul Is Gone.

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

There Is Such A Difference Between The Pursuits Of Men In Great Cities That One Part Of The Inhabitants Lives To Little Other Purpose Than To Wonder At The Rest. Some Have Hopes And Fears, Wishes And Aversions, Which Never Enter Into The Thoughts Of Others, And Inquiry Is Laboriously Exerted To Gain That Which Those Who Possess It Are Ready To Throw Away.

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

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.

An Infallible Characteristic Of Meanness Is Cruelty. Men Who Have Practiced Tortures On Animals Without Pity, Relating Them Without Shame, How Can They Still Hold Their Heads Among Human Beings?

Wine Makes A Man Better Pleased With Himself. I Do Not Say That It Makes Him More Pleasing To Others.

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

Knowledge Always Desires Increase, It Is Like Fire, Which Must First Be Kindled By Some External Agent, But Which Will Afterwards Propagate Itself.

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

Wine Gives Great Pleasure; And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. It Is A Good, Unless Counterbalanced By Evil.

Pleasure Is Very Seldom Found Where It Is Sought; Our Brightest Blazes Of Gladness Are Commonly Kindled By Unexpected Sparks.

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

Unless A Woman Has An Amorous Heart, She Is A Dull Companion.

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

It Is As Foolish To Make Experiments Upon The Constancy Of A Friend, As Upon The Chastity Of A Wife.

The Desire Of Advising Has A Very Extensive Prevalence; And, Since Advice Cannot Be Given But To Those That Will Hear It, A Patient Listener Is Necessary To The Accommodation Of All Those Who Desire To Be Confirmed In The Opinion Of Their Own Wisdom: A Patient Listener, However, Is Not Always To Be Had; The Present Age, Whatever Age Is Present, Is So Vitiated And Disordered, That Young People Are Readier To Talk Than To Attend, And Good Counsel Is Only Thrown Away Upon Those Who Are Full Of Their Own Perfections.

I Have Protracted My Work Till Most Of Those Whom I Wished To Please Have Sunk Into The Grave, And Success And Miscarriage Are Empty Sounds: I Therefore Dismiss It With Frigid Tranquillity, Having Little To Fear Or Hope From Censure Or From Praise.

A Thousand Years May Elapse Before There Shall Appear Another Man With A Power Of Versification Equal To That Of Pope.

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

There Is No Temper More Unpropitious To Interest Than Desultory Application And Unlimited Inquiry, By Which The Desires Are Held In A Perpetual Equipoise, And The Mind Fluctuates Between Different Purposes Without Determination.

A Blade Of Grass Is Always A Blade Of Grass, Whether In One Country Or Another.

It May Be Observed In General That The Future Is Purchased By The Present. It Is Not Possible To Secure Distant Or Permanent Happiness But By The Forbearance Of Some Immediate Gratification.

Memory Is Like All Other Human Powers, With Which No Man Can Be Satisfied Who Measures Them By What He Can Conceive, Or By What He Can Desire.

It Is Observed Of Gold, By An Old Epigrammatist, That To Have It Is To Be In Fear, And To Want It Is To Be In Sorrow.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

How Can Children Credit The Assertions Of Parents, Which Their Own Eyes Show Them To Be False? Few Parents Act In Such A Manner As Much To Enforce Their Maxims By The Credit Of Their Lives

Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.

The Prosperity Of A People Is Proportionate To The Number Of Hands And Minds Usefully Employed. To The Community, Sedition Is A Fever, Corruption Is A Gangrene, And Idleness Is An Atrophy. Whatever Body Or Society Wastes More Than It Acquires, Must Gradually Decay, And Every Being That Continues To Be Fed, And Eases To Labor, Takes Away Something From The Public Stock.

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

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

Among The Calamities Of War May Be Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth, By The Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates, And Credulity Encourages.

Censure Is Willingly Indulged, Because It Always Implies Some Superiority: Men Please Themselves With Imagining That They Have Made A Deeper Search, Or Wider Survey Than Others, And Detected Faults And Follies Which Escape Vulgar Observation.

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

He That Voluntarily Continues In Ignorance, Is Guilty Of All The Crimes Which Ignorance Produces.

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

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

Lost Friendship

The Supreme End Of Education Is Expert Discernment In All Things-the Power To Tell The Good From The Bad, The Genuine From The Counterfeit, And To Prefer The Good And The Genuine To The Bad And The Counterfeit.

Human Reason Borrowed Many Arts From The Instinct Of Animals.

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

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

Happiness Consists In The Multiplicity Of Agreeable Consciousness.

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

People In Distress Never Think That You Feel Enough.

London! The Needy Villain's General Home, The Common Sewer Of Paris And Of Rome! With Eager Thirst, By Folly Or By Fate, Sucks In The Dregs Of Each Corrupted State.

The True Genius Is A Mind Of Large General Powers, Accidentally Determined To Some Particular Direction.

He That Will Enjoy The Brightness Of Sunshine, Must Quit The Coolness Of The Shade.

Were It Not For Imagination A Man Would Be As Happy In The Arms Of A Chambermaid As Of A Duchess.

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

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings.

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.

I Am A Hardened And Shameless Tea Drinker, Who Has, For Twenty Years, Diluted His Meals With Only The Infusion Of This Fascinating Plant; Whose Kettle Has Scarcely Time To Cool; Who With Tea Amuses The Evening, With Tea Solaces The Midnight, And, With Tea, Welcomes The Morning.

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.

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.

A Decent Provision For The Poor Is The True Test Of Civilization.

To Keep Your Secret Is Wisdom; But To Expect Others To Keep It Is Folly.

Keeping Secrets

Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

It Is More Reasonable To Wish For Reputation While It May Be Enjoyed, As Anacreon Calls Upon His Companions To Give Him For Present Use The Wine And Garlands Which They Propose To Bestow Upon His Tomb.

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

I Would Advise No Man To Marry Who Is Not Likely To Propagate Understanding.

Smoking Is A Shocking Thing - Blowing Smoke Out Of Our Mouths Into Other People's Mouths, Eyes, And Noses, And Having The Same Thing Done To Us.

Whoever Shall Review His Life, Will Find That The Whole Tenor Of His Conduct Has Been Determined By Some Accident Of No Apparent Moment.

Courage Is The Greatest Of All Virtues, Because If You Haven't Courage, You May Not Have An Opportunity To Use Any Of The Others.

Apologies Are Seldom Of Any Use.

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Kathie Lee Gifford

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