Background Image

...

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.

-Samuel Johnson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Let Him That Desires

Samuel Johnson

...

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.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Samuel Johnson

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.

Milton, Madam, Was A Genius That Could Cut A Colossus From A Rock; But Could Not Carve Heads Upon Cherry-stones.

He Who Is Extravagant Will Quickly Become Poor; And Poverty Will Enforce Dependence, And Invite Corruption.

To Embarrass Justice By Multiplicity Of Laws, Or To Hazard It By Confidence In Judges, Seem To Be The Opposite Rocks On Which All Civil Institutions Have Been Wrecked, And Between Which Legislative Wisdom Has Never Yet Found An Open Passage.

I Will Take No More Physick, Not Even My Opiates; For I Have Prayed That I May Render Up My Soul To God Unclouded.

Since Every Man Is Obliged To Promote Happiness And Virtue, He Should Be Careful Not To Mislead Unwary Minds, By Appearing To Set Too High A Value Upon Things By Which No Real Excellence Is Conferred.

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

A Ship Is Worse Than A Gaol. There Is, In A Gaol, Better Air, Better Company, Better Conveniency Of Every Kind; And A Ship Has The Additional Disadvantage Of Of Being In Danger.

The Man Who Is Asked By An Author What He Thinks Of His Work Is Put To The Torture And Is Not Obliged To Speak The Truth.

All The Performances Of Human Art, At Which We Look With Praise Or Wonder, Are Instances Of The Resistless Force Of Perseverance.

I Do Not Envy A Clergyman's Life As An Easy Life, Nor Do I Envy The Clergyman Who Makes It An Easy Life.

Those Writers Who Lie On The Watch For Novelty Can Have Little Hope Of Greatness; For Great Things Cannot Have Escaped Former Observation.

Sir, I Think All Christians, Whether Papists Or Protestants, Agree In The Essential Articles, And That Their Differences Are Trivial, And Rather Political Than Religious.

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present.

We Are Easily Shocked By Crimes Which Appear At Once In Their Full Magnitude, But The Gradual Growth Of Our Own Wickedness, Endeared By Interest, And Palliated By All The Artifices Of Self-deceit, Gives Us Time To Form Distinctions In Our Own Favor

Nothing Is More Common Than Mutual Dislike, Where Mutual Approbation Is Particularly Expected.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself, And, Therefore, In His Own Opinion, To Others; And, Supposing The World Already Acquainted With His Pleasures And His Pains, Is Perhaps The First To Publish Injuries Or Misfortunes Which Had Never Been Known Unless Related By Himself, And At Which Those That Hear Them Will Only Laugh, For No Man Sympathises With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

You Cannot Give Me An Instance Of Any Man Who Is Permitted To Lay Out His Own Time Contriving Not To Have Tedious Hours.

Almost All Absurdity Of Conduct Arises From The Imitation Of Those Who We Cannot Resemble.

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

Whoever Rises Above Those Who Once Pleased Themselves With Equality, Will Have Many Malevolent Gazers At His Eminence.

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

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

Every Reader Should Remember The Diffidence Of Socrates, And Repair By His Candour The Injuries Of Time: He Should Impute The Seeming Defects Of His Author To Some Chasm Of Intelligence, And Suppose That The Sense Which Is Now Weak Was Once Forcible

Yet Reason Frowns In War's Unequal Game, Where Wasted Nations Raise A Single Name; And Mortgag'd States Their Grandsire's Wreaths Regret, From Age To Age In Everlasting Debt; Wreaths Which At Last The Dear-bought Right Convey To Rust On Medals, Or On Stones Decay.

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.

Fine Clothes Are Good Only As They Supply The Want Of Other Means Of Procuring Respect.

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 Dreadsul Than Its Extinction.

To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise... Let Him Take A Course Of Chemistry, Or A Course Of Rope-dance, Or A Course Of Any Thing To Which He Is Inclined At The Time. Let Him Contrive To Have As Many Retreats For His Mind As He Can, As Many Things To Which It Can Fly From Itself.

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.

All To Whom Want Is Terrible, Upon Whatever Principle, Ought To Think Themselves Obliged To Learn The Sage Maxims Of Our Parsimonious Ancestors, And Attain The Salutary Arts Of Contracting Expense; For Without Economy None Can Be Rich, And With It Few Can Be Poor.

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

Our Senses, Our Appetite, And Our Passions Are Our Lawful And Faithful Guides In Things That Relate Solely To This Life.

The King Who Makes War On His Enemies Tenderly Distresses His Subjects Most Cruelly.

There Can Be No Friendship Without Confidence, And No Confidence Without Integrity.

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

No Knowledge Is Useless, With The Exception Of Heraldry.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

There Seems To Be A Strange Affectation In Authors Of Appearing To Have Done Everything By Chance.

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.

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.

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

It Is Certain That Success Naturally Confirms In Us A Favourable Opinion Of Our Own Abilities. Scarce Any Man Is Willing To Allot To Accident, Friendship, And A Thousand Causes, Which Concur In Every Event Without Human Contrivance Or Interposition, The Part Which They May Justly Claim In His Advancement. We Rate Ourselves By Our Fortune Rather Than Our Virtues, And Exorbitant Claims Are Quickly Produced By Imaginary Merit.

Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.

No Man Was Ever Great By Imitation.

Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

From Ignorance Our Comfort Flows, The Only Wretched Are The Wise

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

I Do Not See, Sir, That It Is Reasonable For A Man To Be Angry At Another, Whom A Woman Has Preferred To Him; But Angry He Is, No Doubt; And He Is Loath To Be Angry At Himself.

Learn That The Present Hour Alone Is Man's.

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

The Use Of Traveling Is To Regulate Imagination By Reality.

Few Of Those Who Fill The World With Books, Have Any Pretensions To The Hope Either Of Pleasing Or Instructing. They Have Often No Other Task Than To Lay Two Books Before Them, Out Of Which They Compile A Third, Without Any New Material Of Their Own, And With Very Little Application Of Judgment To Those Which Former Authors Have Supplied.

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

All Envy Would Be Extinguished, If It Were Universally Known That There Are None To Be Envied.

Turn On The Prudent Ant, Thy Heedful Eyes, Observe Her Labours, Sluggard, And Be Wise.

Pain Is Less Subject Than Pleasure To Careless Expression.

That There Is Something In Advice Very Useful And Salutary, Seems To Be Equally Confessed On All Hands; Since Even Those That Reject It, Allow For The Most Part That Rejection To Be Wrong, But Charge The Fault Upon The Unskilful Manner In Which It Is Given; They Admit The Efficacy Of The Medicine, But Abhor The Nauseousness Of The Vehicle.

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.

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.

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding.

He That Teaches Us Anything Which We Knew Not Before Is Undoubtedly To Be Reverenced As A Master.

Pleasure That Is Obtained By Unreasonable And Unsuitable Cost Must Always End In Pain.

Consider What Importance To Society The Chastity Of Women Is. Upon That All The Property In The World Depends. We Hang A Thief For Stealing A Sheep; But The Unchastity Of A Woman Transfers Sheep And Farm And All From The Right Owner.

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

We Frequently Fall Into Error And Folly, Not Because The True Principles Of Action Are Not Known, But Because For A Time They Are Not Remembered; He May, Therefore, Justly Be Numbered Among The Benefactors Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into Short Sentences That May Early Be Impressed On The Memory, And Taught By Frequent Recollection To Occur Habitually To The Mind.

There Is No Observation More Frequently Made By Such As Employ Themselves In Surveying The Conduct Of Mankind, Than That Marriage, Though The Dictate Of Nature, And The Institution Of Providence, Is Yet Very Often The Cause Of Misery, And That Those Who Enter Into That State Can Seldom Forbear To Express Their Repentance, And Their Envy Of Those Whom Either Chance Or Caution Hath Withheld From It.

From All Our Observations We May Collect With Certainty, That Misery Is The Lot Of Man, But Cannot Discover In What Particular Condition It Will Find Most Alleviations.

Let Observation With Extensive View, Survey Mankind From China To Peru; Remark Each Anxious Toil, Each Eager Strife, And Watch The Busy Scenes Of Crowded Life.

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.

To A People Warlike And Indigent, An Incursion Into A Rich Country Is Never Hurtful.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Law Is The Last Result Of Human Wisdom Acting Upon Human Experience For The Benefit Of The Public.

Slander Is The Revenge Of A Coward, And Dissimulation Of His Defense.

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

The Most Heterogeneous Ideas Are Yoked By Violence Together; Nature And Art Are Ransacked For Illustrations, Comparisons, And Allusions; Their Learning Instructs, And Their Subtlety Surprises; But The Reader Commonly Thinks His Improvement Dearly Bought And, Though He Sometimes Admires, Is Seldom Pleased.

When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life; For There Is In London All That Life Can Afford.

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

In Bed We Laugh, In Bed We Cry, And Born In Bed, In Bed We Die; The Near Approach A Bed May Show Of Human Bliss To Human Woe.

In Order That All Men May Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It; For No Species Of Falsehood Is More Frequent Than Flattery, To Which The Coward Is Betrayed By Fear, The Dependent By Interest, And The Friend By Tenderness: Those Who Are Neither Servile Nor Timorous Are Yet Desirous To Bestow Pleasure; And, While Unjust Demands Of Praise Continue To Be Made, There Will Always Be Some Whom Hope, Fear, Or Kindness Will Dispose To Pay Them.

To Be Flattered Is Grateful, Even When We Know That Our Praises Are Not Believed By Those Who Pronounce Them; For They Prove, At Least, Our Power, And Show That Our Favour Is Valued, Since It Is Purchased By The Meanness Of Falsehood.

To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition.

We Have Less Reason To Be Surprised Or Offended When We Find Others Differ From Us In Opinion, Because We Very Often Differ From Ourselves.

It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.

Abstinence Is As Easy To Me As Temperance Would Be Difficult.

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

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

In All Evils Which Admit A Remedy, Impatience Is To Be Avoided, Because It Wastes That Time And Attention In Complaints, That, If Properly Applied Might Remove The Cause.

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

Was Ever Poet So Trusted Before?

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

They Make A Rout About Universal Liberty, Without Considering That All That Is To Be Valued, Or Indeed Can Be Enjoyed By Individuals, Is Private Liberty.

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

Wheresoe'er I Turn My View, All Is Strange, Yet Nothing New: Endless Labor All Along, Endless Labor To Be Wrong: Phrase That Time Has Flung Away; Uncouth Words In Disarray, Trick'd In Antique Ruff And Bonnet, Ode, And Elegy, And Sonnet.

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

Wine Gives A Man Nothing... It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

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

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

Profuseness Is A Cruel And Crafty Demon, That Gradually Involves Her Followers In Dependence And Debt; That Is, Fetters Them With Irons That Enter Into Their Souls.

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.

He Who Fails To Please In His Salutation And Address Is At Once Rejected, And Never Obtains An Opportunity Of Showing His Latest Excellences Or Essential Qualities.

That Fellow Seems To Me To Possess But One Idea, And That Is A Wrong One.

Friendship May Well Deserve The Sacrifice Of Pleasure, Though Not Of Conscience.

When Desperate Ills Demand A Speedy Cure, Distrust Is Cowardice, And Prudence Folly.

Abuse Is Often Of Service. There Is Nothing So Dangerous To An Author As Silence.

He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.

They Who Have Already Enjoyed The Crowds And Noise Of The Great City, Know Their Desire To Return Is Little More Than The Restlessness Of A Vacant Mind, That They Are Not So Much Led By Hope As Driven By Disgust, And Wish Rather To Leave The Country Than To See The Town.

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

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

Our Minds, Like Our Bodies, Are In Continual Flux; Something Is Hourly Lost, And Something Acquired.... Do Not Suffer Life To Stagnate; It Will Grow Muddy For Want Of Motion: Commit Yourself Again To The Current Of The World.

How Few Of His Friends' Houses Would A Man Choose To Be At When He Is Sick.

The Poor And The Busy Have No Leisure For Sentimental Sorrow.

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

Bashfulness May Sometimes Exclude Pleasure, But Seldom Opens Any Avenue To Sorrow Or Remorse.

For Gold The Hireling Judge Distorts The Laws.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.

To Be Free It Is Not Enough To Beat The System, One Must Beat The System Every Day

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

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

It Is Very Natural For Young Men To Be Vehement, Acrimonious And Severe. For As They Seldom Comprehend At Once All The Consequences Of A Position, Or Perceive The Difficulties By Which Cooler And More Experienced Reasoners Are Restrained From Confidence, They Form Their Conclusions With Great Precipitance. Seeing Nothing That Can Darken Or Embarrass The Question, They Expect To Find Their Own Opinion Universally Prevalent, And Are Inclined To Impute Uncertainty And Hesitation To Want Of Honesty, Rather Than Of Knowledge.

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

Resentment Is A Union Of Sorrow With Malignity; A Combination Of A Passion Which All Endeavor To Avoid With A Passion Which All Concur To Detest.

A Lawyer Has No Business With The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Which He Undertakes, Unless His Client Asks His Opinion, And Then He Is Bound To Give It Honestly. The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Is To Be Decided By The Judge.

Indolence Is The Devil's Cushion.

Agriculture Not Only Gives Riches To A Nation, But The Only Riches She Can Call Her Own.

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

The Business Of Life Is To Go Forward; He Who Sees Evil In Prospect Meets It In His Way, And He Who Catches It By Retrospection Turns Back To Find It. That Which Is Feared May Sometimes Be Avoided, But That Which Is Regretted To-day May Be Regretted Again To-morrow.

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.

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

There Are Few Ways In Which A Man Can Be More Innocently Employed Than In Getting Money.

There Are Occasions On Which All Apology Is Rudeness.

Those Who Are In The Power Of Evil Habits Must Conquer Them As They Can; And Conquered They Must Be, Or Neither Wisdom Nor Happiness Can Be Attained: But Those Who Are Not Yet Subject To Their Influence May, By Timely Caution, Preserve Their Freedom.

When A Man Says He Had Pleasure With A Woman He Does Not Mean Conversation.

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

The Future Is Purchased By The Present.

You Raise Your Voice When You Should Reinforce Your Argument.

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

Round Numbers Are Always False.

Curiosity Is The Thirst Of The Soul.

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

As The Mind Must Govern The Hands, So In Every Society The Man Of Intelligence Must Direct The Man Of Labor.

It Is Incident To Physicians, I Am Afraid, Beyond All Other Men, To Mistake Subsequence For Consequence.

Few Men Survey Themselves With So Much Severity As Not To Admit Prejudices In Their Own Favour, Which An Artful Flatterer May Gradually Strengthen, Till Wishes For A Particular Qualification Are Improved To Hopes Of Attainment, And Hopes Of Attainment To Belief Of Possession.

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

Lost Friendship

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

Composition Is For The Most Part An Effort Of Slow Diligence And Steady Perseverance, To Which The Mind Is Dragged By Necessity Or Resolution, And From Which The Attention Is Every Moment Starting To More Delightful Amusements.

Every Man Is, Or Hopes To Be, An Idler.

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

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

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

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

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.

Life Is But Short; No Time Can Be Afforded But For The Indulgence Of Real Sorry, Or Contests Upon Questions Seriously Momentous. Let Us Not Throw Away Any Of Our Days Upon Useless Resentment, Or Contend Who Shall Hold Out Longest In Stubborn Malignity. It Is Best Not To Be Angry; And Best, In The Next Place, To Be Quickly Reconciled.

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

Where There Is Emulation, There Will Be Vanity; Where There Is Vanity, There Will Be Folly.

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.

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.

There Is Nothing, Sir, Too Little For So Little A Creature As Man. It Is By Studying Little Things That We Attain The Great Art Of Having As Little Misery And As Much Happiness As Possible.

There Are In Every Age New Errors To Be Rectified And New Prejudices To Be Opposed.

Curiosity Is One Of The Most Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect.

To Expect That The Intricacies Of Science Will Be Pierced By A Careless Glance, Or The Eminences Of Fame Ascended Without Labour, Is To Expect A Peculiar Privilege, A Power Denied To The Rest Of Mankind; But To Suppose That The Maze Is Inscrutable To Diligence, Or The Heights Inaccessible To Perseverance, Is To Submit Tamely To The Tyranny Of Fancy, And Enchain The Mind In Voluntary Shackles.

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.

Deceit And Falsehood, Whatever Conveniences They May For A Time Promise Or Produce, Are, In The Sum Of Life, Obstacles To Happiness. Those Who Profit By The Cheat Distrust The Deceiver; And The Act By Which Kindness Was Sought Puts An End To Confidence.

The Hour Of Reformation Is Always Delayed; Every Delay Gives Vice Another Opportunity Of Fortifying Itself By Habit.

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

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.

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. Far From Me, And Far From My Friends Be Such Frigid Philosophy As May Conduct Us Indifferent And Unmoved Over Any Ground Which Has Been Dignified By Wisdom, Bravery, Or Virtue. That Man Is Little To Be Envied Whose Patriotism Would Not Gain Force Upon The Plain Of Marathon, Or Whose Piety Would Not Grow Warmer Among The Ruins Of Ionia.

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

The Peculiar Doctrine Of Christianity Is That Of A Universal Sacrifice And Perpetual Propitiation.

He That Never Thinks Can Never Be Wise.

So Different Are The Colors Of Life, As We Look Forward To The Future, Or Backward To The Past; And So Different The Opinions And Sentiments Which This Contrariety Of Appearance Naturally Produces, That The Conversation Of The Old And Young Ends Generally With Contempt Or Pity On Either Side.

No Wise Man Will Go To Live In The Country, Unless He Has Something To Do Which Can Be Better Done In The Country. For Instance, If He Is To Shut Himself Up For A Year To Study Science, It Is Better To Look Out To The Fields, Than To An Opposite Wall. Then, If A Man Walks Out In The Country, There Is Nobody To Keep Him From Walking In Again: But If A Man Walks Out In London, He Is Not Sure When He Will Walk In Again. A Great City Is, To Be Sure, The School For Studying Life.

1. Turn All Care Out Of Your Head As Soon As You Mount The Chaise. 2. Do Not Think About Frugality: Your Health Is Worth More Than It Can Cost. 3. Do Not Continue Any Day's Journey To Fatigue. 4. Take Now And Then A Day's Rest. 5. Get A Smart Seasickness If You Can. 6. Cast Away All Anxiety, And Keep Your Mind Easy. This Last Direction Is The Principal; With An Unquiet Mind Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physic Can Be Of Much Use.

There Must Always Be A Struggle Between A Father And Son, While One Aims At Power And The Other At Independence.

Superfluous Lags The Veteran On The Stage, Till Pitying Nature Signs The Last Release, And Bids Afflicted Worth Retire To Peace.

As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance.

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

A Man Is Very Apt To Complain Of The Ingratitude Of Those Who Have Risen Far Above Him.

It Is Not Easy To Surround Life With Any Circumstances In Which Youth Will Not Be Delightful.

Marriage Is The Strictest Tie Of Perpetual Friendship, And There Can Be No Friendship Without Confidence, And No Confidence Without Integrity; And He Must Expect To Be Wretched, Who Pays To Beauty, Riches, Or Politeness That Regard Which Only Virtue And Piety Can Claim.

I Am A Friend To Subordination, As Most Conducive To The Happiness Of Society. There Is A Reciprocal Pleasure In Governing And Being Governed.

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

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

It Is Not Uncommon To Charge The Difference Between Promise And Performance, Between Profession And Reality, Upon Deep Design And Studied Deceit; But The Truth Is, That There Is Very Little Hypocrisy In The World.

No Man, However Enslaved To His Appetites, Or Hurried By His Passions, Can, While He Preserves His Intellects Unimpaired, Please Himself With Promoting The Corruption Of Others. He Whose Merit Has Enlarged His Influence Would Surely Wish To Exert It For The Benefit Of Mankind. Yet Such Will Be The Effect Of His Reputation, While He Suffers Himself To Indulge In Any Favourite Fault, That They Who Have No Hope To Reach His Excellence Will Catch At His Failings, And His Virtues Will Be Cited To Justify The Copiers Of His Vices.

It Is Wonderful What A Difference Learning Makes Upon People Even In The Common Intercourse Of Life, Which Does Not Appear To Be Much Connected With It.

Unintelligible Language Is A Lantern Without A Light.

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.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; Every Time You Talk Your Mind Is On Parade.

Such Are The Vicissitudes Of The World, Through All Its Parts, That Day And Night, Labor And Rest, Hurry And Retirement, Endear Each Other; Such Are The Changes That Keep The Mind In Action: We Desire, We Pursue, We Obtain, We Are Satiated; We Desire Something Else And Begin A New Pursuit.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused, And It Is Therefore Become Necessary To Gain Attention By Magnificence Of Promises, And By Eloquence Sometimes Sublime And Sometimes Pathetic.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure/that Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure.

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

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

Trending Author

Cardinal Richelieu

Mahmoud Darwish

Category