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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.

-Samuel Johnson

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Mankind Have A Great

Samuel Johnson

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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.

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The Arguments For Purity Of Life Fail Of Their Due Influence, Not Because They Have Been Considered And Confuted, But Because They Have Been Passed Over Without Consideration.

Truth, Sir, Is A Cow Which Will Yield Such People No More Milk, And So They Are Gone To Milk The Bull.

So Willing Is Every Man To Flatter Himself, That The Difference Between Approving Laws, And Obeying Them, Is Frequently Forgotten; He That Acknowledges The Obligations Of Morality And Pleases His Vanity With Enforcing Them To Others, Concludes Himself Zealous In The Cause Of Virtue.

Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.

As To The Christian Religion, Besides The Strong Evidence Which We Have For It, There Is A Balance In Its Favor From The Number Of Great Men Who Have Been Convinced Of Its Truth After A Serious Consideration Of The Question. Grotius Was An Acute Man, A Lawyer, A Man Accustomed To Examine Evidence, And He Was Convinced. Grotius Was Not A Recluse, But A Man Of The World, Who Certainly Had No Bias On The Side Of Religion. Sir Isaac Newton Set Out An Infidel, And Came To Be A Very Firm Believer.

Good Breeding Consists In Having No Particular Mark Of Any Profession, But A General Elegance Of Manners.

He That Can Swim Needs Not Despair To Fly; To Swim Is To Fly In A Grosser Fluid, And To Fly Is To Swim In A Subtler. We Are Only To Proportion Our Power Of Resistance To The Different Density Of Matter Through Which We Are To Pass. You Will Be Necessarily Upborne By The Air If You Can Renew Any Impulse Upon It Faster Than The Air Can Recede From The Pressure.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

There Is Nothing Which Has Yet Been Contrived By Man, By Which So Much Happiness Is Produced As By A Good Tavern.

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

Helping Someone

It Is Natural For Every Man Uninstructed To Murmur At His Condition, Because, In The General Infelicity Of Life, He Feels His Own Miseries Without Knowing That They Are Common To All The Rest Of The Species; And, Therefore, Though He Will Not Be Less Sensible Of Pain By Being Told That Others Are Equally Tormented, He Will At Least Be Freed From The Temptation Of Seeking, By Perpetual Changes, That Ease Which Is No Where To Be Found, And Though His Diseases Still Continue, He Escapes The Hazard Of Exasperating It By Remedies.

Repentance, However Difficult To Be Practiced, Is, If It Be Explained Without Superstition, Easily Understood. Repentance Is The Relinquishment Of Any Practice From The Conviction That It Has Offended God.

That Is The Happiest Conversation Where There Is No Competition, No Vanity, But A Calm, Quiet Interchange Of Sentiments...

Unconstraint Is The Grace Of Conversation.

Sir, Sorrow Is Inherent In Humanity. As You Cannot Judge Two And Two To Be Either Five, Or Three, But Certainly Four, So, When Comparing A Worse Present State With A Better Which Is Past, You Cannot But Feel Sorrow. It Is Not Cured By Reason, But By The Incursion Of Present Objects, Which Bear Out The Past.

All This [wealth] Excludes But One Evil, Poverty.

Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.

More Knowledge May Be Gained Of A Man's Real Character By A Short Conversation With One Of His Servants Than From A Formal And Studied Narrative, Begun With His Pedigree And Ended With His Funeral.

Difference Of Thoughts Will Produce Difference Of Language. He That Thinks With More Extent Than Another, Will Want Words Of A Larger Meaning; He That Thinks With More Subtilty Will Seek For Terms Of More Nice Discrimination; And Where Is The Wonder, Since Words Are But The Images Of Things, That He Who Never Knew The Original Should Not Know The Copies?

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

I Believe It Will Be Found That Those Who Marry Late Are Best Pleased With Their Children; And Those Who Marry Early, With Their Partners.

He That Shall Peruse The Political Pamphlets Of Any Past Reign Will Wonder Why They Were So Eagerly Read, Or So Loudly Praised.

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

No Man Was Ever Great By Imitation.

The Power, Indeed, Of Every Individual Is Small, And The Consequence Of His Endeavours Imperceptible, In A General Prospect Of The World. Providence Has Given No Man Ability To Do Much, That Something Might Be Left For Every Man To Do. The Business Of Life Is Carried On By A General Co-operation; In Which The Part Of Any Single Man Can Be No More Distinguished, Than The Effect Of A Particular Drop When The Meadows Are Floated By A Summer Shower: Yet Every Drop Increases The Inundation, And Every Hand Adds To The Happiness Or Misery Of Mankind.

There Is ... Scarcely Any Species Of Writing Of Which We Can Tell What Is Its Essence, And What Are Its Constituents; Every New Genius Produces Some Innovation, Which, When Invented And Approved, Subverts The Rules Which The Practice Of Foregoing Authors Had Established.

To Those Who Have Lived Long Together, Everything Heard And Everything Seen Recalls Some Pleasure Communicated, Some Benefit Conferred, Some Petty Quarrel Or Some Slight Endearment. Esteem Of Great Powers, Or Amiable Qualities Newly Discovered May Embroider A Day Or A Week, But A Friendship Of Twenty Years Is Interwoven With The Texture Of Life.

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.

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

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

It Matters Not How A Man Dies, But How He Lives. The Act Of Dying Is Not Of Importance, It Lasts So Short A Time.

Sleep Is A State In Which A Great Part Of Every Life Is Passed. No Animal Has Yet Been Discovered, Whose Existence Is Not Varied With Intervals Of Insensibility; And Some Late Philosophers Have Extended The Empire Of Sleep Over The Vegetable World.

In Youth, It Is Common To Measure Right And Wrong By The Opinion Of The World, And In Age, To Act Without Any Measure But Interest, And To Lose Shame Without Substituting Virtue.

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.

No Mind Is Much Employed Upon The Present; Recollection And Anticipation Fill Up Almost All Our Moments.

Of Him That Hopes To Be Forgiven It Is Indispensably Required That He Forgive. It Is, Therefore, Superfluous To Urge Any Other Motive. On This Great Duty Eternity Is Suspended, And To Him That Refuses To Practise It, The Throne Of Mercy Is Inaccessible, And The Saviour Of The World Has Been Born In Vain.

How Is It That We Hear The Loudest Yelps For Liberty Among The Drivers Of Negroes?

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous.

Justice Is Indispensably And Universally Necessary, And What Is Necessary Must Always Be Limited, Uniform, And Distinct

When The Original Is Well Chosen And Judiciously Copied, The Imitator Often Arrives At Excellence Which He Could Never Have Attained Without Direction; For Few Are Formed With Abilities To Discover New Possibilities Of Excellence, And To Distinguish Themselves By Means Never Tried Before.

Paradise Lost Is A Book That, Once Put Down, Is Very Hard To Pick Up Again.

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.

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.

It Is Commonly Observed, That When Two Englishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather; They Are In Haste To Tell Each Other, What Each Must Already Know, That It Is Hot Or Cold, Bright Or Cloudy, Windy Or Calm.

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.

The Business Of The Biographer Is Often To Pass Slightly Over Those Performances And Incidents Which Produce Vulgar Greatness, To Lead The Thoughts Into Domestic Privacies, And Display The Minute Details Of Daily Life, Were Exterior Appendages Are Cast Aside, And Men Excel Each Other Only By Prudence And Virtue.

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

Surely Nothing Is More Reproachful To A Being Endowed With Reason, Than To Resign Its Powers To The Influence Of The Air, And Live In Dependence On The Weather And The Wind, For The Only Blessings Which Nature Has Put Into Our Power, Tranquillity And Benevolence. To Look Up To The Sky For The Nutriment Of Our Bodies, Is The Condition Of Nature; To Call Upon The Sun For Peace And Gaiety, Or Deprecate The Clouds Lest Sorrow Should Overwhelm Us, Is The Cowardice Of Idleness, And The Idolatry Of Folly.

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

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.

That Eminence Of Learning Is Not To Be Gained Without Labour, At Least Equal To That Which Any Other Kind Of Greatness Can Require, Will Be Allowed By Those Who Wish To Elevate The Character Of A Scholar; Since They Cannot But Know That Every Human Acquisition Is Valuable In Proportion To The Difficulty Of Its Attainment.

That Friendship May Be At Once Fond And Lasting, There Must Not Only Be Equal Virtue On Each Part, But Virtue Of The Same Kind; Not Only The Same End Must Be Proposed, But The Same Means Must Be Approved By Both.

Many A Man Is Mad In Certain Instances, And Goes Through Life Without Having It Perceived. For Example, A Madness Has Seized A Person Of Supposing Himself Obliged Literally To Pray Continually; Had The Madness Turned The Opposite Way, And The Person Thought It A Crime Ever To Pray, It Might Not Improbably Have Continued Unobserved.

No Man Is Obliged To Do As Much As He Can Do. A Man Is To Have Part Of His Life To Himself.

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

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.

The Business Of A Poet Is To Examine Not The Individual But The Species; To Remark General Properties And Large Appearances.

When The Eye Or The Imagination Is Struck With An Uncommon Work, The Next Transition Of An Active Mind Is To The Means By Which It Was Performed

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

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

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

I Doubt If There Ever Was A Man Who Was Not Gratified By Being Told That He Was Liked By The Women.

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

Consultation And Compliance Can Conduce Little To The Perfection Of Any Literary Performance; For Whoever Is So Doubtful Of His Own Abilities As To Encourage The Remarks Of Others, Will Find Himself Every Day Embarrassed With New Difficulties, And Will Harass His Mind, In Vain, With The Hopeless Labour Of Uniting Heterogeneous Ideas, Digesting Independent Hints, And Collecting Into One Point The Several Rays Of Borrowed Light, Emitted Often With Contrary Directions.

We May Take Fancy For A Companion, But Must Follow Reason As Our Guide.

There Is No Crime More Infamous Than The Violation Of Truth. It Is Apparent That Men Can Be Social Beings No Longer Than They Believe Each Other. When Speech Is Employed Only As The Vehicle Of Falsehood, Every Man Must Disunite Himself From Others, Inhabit His Own Cave And Seek Prey Only For Himself.

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.

Modern Writers Are The Moons Of Literature; They Shine With Reflected Light, With Light Borrowed From The Ancients.

You Never Find People Laboring To Convince You That You May Live Very Happily Upon A Plentiful Income.

Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.

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 Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.

When Once A Man Has Made Celebrity Necessary To His Happiness, He Has Put It In The Power Of The Weakest And Most Timorous Malignity, If Not To Take Away His Satisfaction, At Least To Withhold It. His Enemies May Indulge Their Pride By Airy Negligence And Gratify Their Malice By Quiet Neutrality.

It May Be Laid Down As A Position Which Seldom Deceives, That When A Man Cannot Bear His Own Company, There Is Something Wrong.

Foppery Is Never Cured; It Is The Bad Stamina Of The Mind, Which, Like Those Of The Body, Are Never Rectified; Once A Coxcomb Always A Coxcomb.

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 Return Of My Birthday, If I Remember It, Fills Me With Thoughts Which It Seems To Be The General Care Of Humanity To Escape.

In Sovereignty There Are No Gradations.

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments; Any Enlargement Of Wishes Is Therefore Equally Destructive To Happiness With The Diminution Of Possession, And He That Teaches Another To Long For What He Never Shall Obtain Is No Less An Enemy To His Quiet Than If He Had Robbed Him Of Part Of His Patrimony

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.

A Minute Analysis Of Life At Once Destroys That Splendor Which Dazzles The Imagination. Whatsoever Grandeur Can Display, Or Luxury Enjoy, Is Procured By Offices Of Which The Mind Shrinks From The Contemplation. All The Delicacies Of The Table May Be Traced Back To The Shambles And The Dunghill; All Magnificence Of Building Was Hewn From The Quarry, And All The Pomp Of Ornament Dug From Among The Damps And Darkness Of The Mine.

The Drama's Laws The Drama's Patrons Give. For We That Live To Please Must Please To Live.

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

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.

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

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

Sir, A Man Who Cannot Get To Heaven In A Green Coat, Will Not Find His Way Thither The Sooner In A Grey One.

Poetry Cannot Be Translation

It Is More From Carelessness About Truth Than From Intentionally Lying That There Is So Much Falsehood In The World.

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

Exert Your Talents, And Distinguish Yourself, And Don't Think Of Retiring From The World, Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire.

People Seldom Read A Book Which Is Given To Them; And Few Are Given. The Way To Spread A Work Is To Sell It At A Low Price. No Man Will Send To Buy A Thing That Costs Even Sixpence Without An Intention To Read It.

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

The Church Does Not Superstitiously Observe Days, Merely As Days, But As Memorials Of Important Facts. Christmas Might Be Kept As Well Upon One Day Of The Year As Another; But There Should Be A Stated Day For Commemorating The Birth Of Our Saviour, Because There Is Danger That What May Be Done On Any Day, Will Be Neglected.

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

Every Man Has Something To Do Which He Neglects, Every Man Has Faults To Conquer Which He Delays To Combat.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

If We Require More Perfection From Women Than From Ourselves, It Is Doing Them Honor.

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.

Affectation Is To Be Always Distinguished From Hypocrisy As Being The Art Of Counterfeiting Those Qualities, Which We Might With Innocence And Safety, Be Known To Want. Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy; Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly.

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

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.

They Who Most Loudly Clamour For Liberty Do Not Most Liberally Grant It.

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

There Is No Book So Poor That It Would Not Be A Prodigy If Wholly Made By A Single Man.

As To The Rout That Is Made About People Who Are Ruined By Extravagance, It Is No Matter To The Nation That Some Individuals Suffer. When So Much General Productive Exertion Is The Consequence Of Luxury, The Nation Does Not Care Though There Are Debtors; Nay, They Would Not Care Though Their Creditors Were There Too.

Nothing Detains The Reader's Attention More Powerfully Than Deep Involutions Of Distress, Or Sudden Vicissitudes Of Fortune; And These Might Be Abundantly Afforded By Memoirs Of The Sons Of Literature. They Are Entangled By Contracts Which They Know Not How To Fulfill, And Obliged To Write On Subjects Which They Do Not Understand. Every Publication Is A New Period Of Time, From Which Some Increase Or Declension Of Fame Is To Be Reckoned. The Gradations Of A Hero's Life Are From Battle To Battle, And Of An Author's From Book To Book.

Reason And Truth Will Prevail At Last

Truth Will Prevail

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.

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

Never, My Dear Sir, Do You Take It Into Your Head That I Do Not Love You; You May Settle Yourself In Full Confidence Both Of My Love And My Esteem; I Love You As A Kind Man, I Value You As A Worthy Man, And Hope In Time To Reverence You As A Man Of Exemplary Piety.

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

He That Is Much Flattered Soon Learns To Flatter Himself.

The First Years Of Man Must Make Provision For The Last.

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

We May Have Uneasy Feelings For Seeing A Creature In Distress Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance.

To A Poet Nothing Can Be Useless.

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

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

To Tell Of Disappointment And Misery, To Thicken The Darkness Of Futurity, And Perplex The Labyrinth Of Uncertainty, Has Been Always A Delicious Employment Of The Poets

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.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak

A Wise Man Will Make Haste To Forgive, Because He Knows The True Value Of Time, And Will Not Suffer It To Pass Away In Unnecessary Pain.

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.

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

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.

A Man Finds In The Productions Of Nature An Inexhaustible Stock Of Material On Which He Can Employ Himself, Without Any Temptations To Envy Or Malevolence, And Has Always A Certain Prospect Of Discovering New Reasons For Adoring The Sovereign Author Of The Universe.

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

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

Reason Elevates Our Thoughts As High As The Stars, And Leads Us Through The Vast Space Of This Mighty Fabric; Yet It Comes Far Short Of The Real Extent Of Our Corporeal Being.

There Is Nothing More Dreadful To An Author Than Neglect; Compared With Which Reproach, Hatred, And Opposition Are Names Of Happiness; Yet This Worst, This Meanest Fate, Every One Who Dares To Write Has Reason To Fear.

In Proportion As Our Cares Are Employed Upon The Future, They Are Abstracted From The Present, From The Only Time Which We Can Call Our Own, And Of Which, If We Neglect The Apparent Duties To Make Provision Against Visionary Attacks, We Shall Certainly Counteract Our Own Purpose.

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.

The Gloomy And The Resentful Are Always Found Among Those Who Have Nothing To Do Or Who Do Nothing.

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.

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.

Tediousness Is The Most Fatal Of All Faults.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself.

Sir, He Throws Away His Money Without Thought And Without Merit. I Do Not Call A Tree Generous That Sheds Its Fruit At Every Breeze.

Good-humor Is A State Between Gayety And Unconcern,--the Act Or Emanation Of A Mind At Leisure To Regard The Gratification Of Another.

Dishonor Waits On Perfidy. A Man Should Blush To Think A Falsehood; It Is The Crime Of Cowards.

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

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.

Never Mind The Use--do It!

He That Resigns His Peace To Little Casualties, And Suffers The Course Of His Life To Be Interrupted For Fortuitous Inadvertencies Or Offences, Delivers Up Himself To The Direction Of The Wind, And Loses All That Constancy And Equanimity Which Constitutes The Chief Praise Of A Wise Man.

To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labor Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.

Many Causes May Vitiate A Writer's Judgement Of His Own Works. On That Which Has Cost Him Much Labour He Sets A High Value, Because He Is Unwilling To Think That He Has Been Diligent In Vain: What Has Been Produced Without Toilsome Efforts Is Considered With Delight As A Proof Of Vigorous Faculties And Fertile Invention; And The Last Work, Whatever It Be, Has Necessarily Most Of The Grace Of Novelty.

That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.

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

He Who Attempts To Do All Will Waste His Life In Doing Little.

Such Is The Uncertainty Of Human Affairs, That Security And Despair Are Equal Follies; And As It Is Presumption And Arrogance To Anticipate Triumphs, It Is Weakness And Cowardice To Prog-nosticate Miscarriages.

Never Trust Your Tongue When Your Heart Is Bitter.

Without Good Humour, Learning And Bravery Can Only Confer That Superiority Which Swells The Heart Of The Lion In The Desert, Where He Roars Without Reply, And Ravages Without Resistance. Without Good Humour Virtue May Awe By Its Dignity And Amaze By Its Brightness, But Must Always Be Viewed At A Distance, And Will Scarcely Gain A Friend Or Attract An Imitator.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

Every Desire Is A Viper In The Bosom, Who While He Was Chill Was Harmless; But When Warmth Gave Him Strength, Exerted It In Poison.

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.

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

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

What Is The Reason That Women Servants ... Have Much Lower Wages Than Men Servants ... When In Fact Our Female House Servants Work Much Harder Than The Male?

Locke, Whom There Is No Reason To Suspect Of Being A Favorer Of Idleness Or Libertinism, Has Advanced That Whoever Hopes To Employ Any Part Of His Time With Efficacy And Vigor Must Allow Some Of It To Pass With Trifles.

Whatever You Have Spend Less.

I Know Not Why Any One But A School Boy In His Declamation Would Whine Over The Commonwealth Of Rome, Which Grew Great Only By The Misery Of The Rest Of Mankind. The Romans, Like Others, As Soon As They Were Rich, Grew Corrupt; And In Their Corruption Sold The Lives And Freedoms Of Themselves And Of One Another.

Patron: One Who Countenances, Supports Or Protects. Commonly A Wretch Who Supports With Insolence, And Is Repaid In Flattery.

The Power Of Punishment Is To Silence, Not To Confute.

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.

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

Some Desire Is Necessary To Keep Life In Motion.

Liberty Is The Parent Of Truth, But Truth And Decency Are Sometimes At Variance. All Men And All Propositions Are To Be Treated Here As They Deserve, And There Are Many Who Have No Claim Either To Respect Or Decency.

The Love Of Life Is Necessary To The Vigorous Prosecution Of Any Undertaking

Books That You May Carry To The Fire, And Hold Readily In Your Hand, Are The Most Useful After All.

It Is Thus That Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace. Were One Half Of Mankind Brave And One Cowards, The Brave Would Be Always Beating The Cowards. Were All Brave, They Would Lead A Very Uneasy Life; All Would Be Continually Fighting; But Being All Cowards, We Go On Very Well.

Though The Discoveries Or Acquisitions Of Man Are Not Always Adequate To The Expectations Of His Pride, They Are At Least Sufficient To Animate His Industry.

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

Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.

A Mere Literary Man Is A Dull Man; A Man Who Is Solely A Man Of Business Is A Selfish Man; But When Literature And Commerce Are United, They Make A Respectable Man.

Security Will Produce Danger.

He Who Praises Everybody, Praises Nobody.

The Usual Fortune Of Complaint Is To Excite Contempt More Than Pity.

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

To Purchase Heaven Has Gold The Power? Can Gold Remove The Mortal Hour? In Life Can Love Be Bought With Gold? Are Friendship's Pleasures To Be Sold? No--all That's Worth A Wish--a Thought, Fair Virtue Gives Unbribed, Unbought. Cease Then On Trash Thy Hopes To Bind, Let Nobler Views Engage Thy Mind.

It Is The Just Doom Of Laziness And Gluttony To Be Inactive Without Ease And Drowsy Without Tranquility.

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!

Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.

The World Will Never Be Long Without Some Good Reason To Hate The Unhappy; Their Real Faults Are Immediately Detected; And If Those Are Not Sufficient To Sink Them Into Infamy, An Individual Weight Of Calumny Will Be Super-added.

Where Grief Is Fresh, Any Attempt To Divert It Only Irritates.

Life Will Not Bear Refinement. You Must Do As Other People Do.

A Soldier's Time Is Passed In Distress And Danger, Or In Idleness And Corruption.

He Is A Benefactor Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into The Short Sentences, That May Be Easily Impressed On The Memory, And So Recur Habitually To The Mind.

I Look Upon This As I Did Upon The Dictionary: It Is All Work, And My Inducement To It Is Not Love Or Desire Of Fame, But The Want Of Money, Which Is The Only Motive To Writing That I Know Of.

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.

There May Be Community Of Material Possessions, But There Can Never Be Community Of Love Or Esteem.

Adversity Leads Us To Think Properly Of Our State, And So Is Most Beneficial To Us.

The Truth Is That The Spectators Are Always In Their Senses, And Know, From The First Act To The Last, That The Stage Is Only A Stage, And That The Players Are Only Players.

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

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

Sorrow Is A Kind Of Rust Of The Soul, Which Every New Idea Contributes In Its Passage To Scour Away. It Is The Putrefaction Of Stagnant Life, And Is Remedied By Exercise And Motion.

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

It Is Generally Agreed, That Few Men Are Made Better By Affluence Or Exaltation.

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