Background Image

...

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.

-Samuel Johnson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Many Causes May Vitiate

Samuel Johnson

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Samuel Johnson

It Is A Common Error, And The Greater And More Mischievous For Being So Common, To Believe That Repentance Best Becomes And Most Concerns Dying Men. Indeed, What Is Necessary Every Hour Of Our Life Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too, And As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance, And Therefore It Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too; But He Who Hath Constantly Exercised Himself In It In His Health And Vigor, Will Do It With Less Pain In His Sickness And Weakness; And He Who Hath Practiced It All His Life, Will Do It With More Ease And Less Perplexity In The Hour Of His Death.

People Need To Be Reminded More Often Than They Need To Be Instructed.

Poetry Cannot Be Translated; And, Therefore, It Is The Poets That Preserve The Languages; For We Would Not Be At The Trouble To Learn A Language If We Could Have All That Is Written In It Just As Well In A Translation. But As The Beauties Of Poetry Cannot Be Preserved In Any Language Except That In Which It Was Originally Written, We Learn The Language.

There Are People Whom One Should Like Very Well To Drop, But Would Not Wish To Be Dropped By.

Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.

He Who Has Provoked The Shaft Of Wit, Cannot Complain That He Smarts From It.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendor Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate.

The Cure For The Greatest Part Of Human Miseries Is Not Radical, But Palliative.

No Cause More Frequently Produces Bashfulness Than Too High An Opinion Of Our Own Importance. He That Imagines An Assembly Filled With His Merit, Panting With Expectation, And Hushed With Attention, Easily Terrifies Himself With The Dread Of Disappointing Them, And Strains His Imagination In Pursuit Of Something That May Vindicate The Veracity Of Fame, And Show That His Reputation Was Not Gained By Chance.

As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.

Of Many, Imagined Blessings It May Be Doubted Whether He That Wants Or Possesses Them Had More Reason To Be Satisfied With His Lot.

My Dear Friend, Clear Your Mind Of Can't.

To Understand The Works Of Celebrated Authors, To Comprehend Their Systems, And Retain Their Reasonings, Is A Task More Than Equal To Common Intellects; And He Is By No Means To Be Accounted Useless Or Idle, Who Has Stored His Mind With Acquired Knowledge, And Can Detail It Occasionally To Others Who Have Less Leisure Or Weaker Abilities.

Waste Cannot Be Accurately Told, Though We Are Sensible How Destructive It Is. Economy, On The One Hand, By Which A Certain Income Is Made To Maintain A Man Genteelly; And Waste, On The Other, By Which On The Same Income Another Man Lives Shabbily, Cannot Be Defined. It Is A Very Nice Thing; As One Man Wears His Coat Out Much Sooner Than Another, We Cannot Tell How.

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

Those Whose Abilities Or Knowledge Incline Them Most To Deviate From The General Round Of Life Are Recalled From Eccentricity By The Laws Of Their Existence.

Every Man Naturally Persuades Himself That He Can Keep His Resolutions, Nor Is He Convinced Of His Imbecility But By Length Of Time And Frequency Of Experiment.

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

Those Who Suppress Freedom Always Do So In The Name Of Law And Order." - John V. Lindsay "no Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.

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.

Truth Allows No Choice.

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.

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

Lost Friendship

It Is No Matter What You Teach Them First, Any More Than What Leg You Shall Put Into Your Breeches First. You May Stand Disputing Which Is Best To Put In First, But In The Mean Time Your Breech Is Bare. Sir, While You Are Considering Which Of Two Things You Should Teach Your Child First, Another Boy Has Learned Them Both.

Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last; And Perhaps Always Predominates In Proportion To The Strength Of The Contemplative Faculties. He Who Easily Comprehends All That Is Before Him, And Soon Exhausts Any Single Subject, Is Always Eager For New Inquiries; And In Proportion As The Intellectual Eye Takes In A Wider Prospect, It Must Be Gratified With Variety, By More Rapid Flights And Bolder Excursions.

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

Commerce However We May Please Ourselves With The Contrary Opinion, Is One Of The Daughters Of Fortune, Inconstant And Deceitful As Her Mother. She Chooses Her Residence Where She Is Least Expected, And Shifts Her Abode When Her Continuance Is, In Appearance, Most Firmly Settled.

You Are Much Surer That You Are Doing Good When You Pay Money To Those Who Work, As The Recompense Of Their Labor, Than When You Give Money Merely In Charity.

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

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

Advice Is Seldom Welcome. Those Who Need It Most, Like It Least.

This Was A Good Dinner Enough, To Be Sure, But It Was Not A Dinner To Ask A Man To.

Virtue Is Too Often Merely Local.

Still We Love The Evil We Do, Until We Suffer It.

At Seventy-seven It Is Time To Be In Earnest.

To See Helpless Infancy Stretching Out Her Hands, And Pouring Out Her Cries In Testimony Of Dependence, Without Any Powers To Alarm Jealousy, Or Any Guilt To Alienate Affection, Must Surely Awaken Tenderness In Every Human Mind; And Tenderness Once Excited Will Be Hourly Increased By The Natural Contagion Of Felicity, By The Repercussion Of Communicated Pleasure, By The Consciousness Of Dignity Of Benefaction.

I Have Two Very Cogent Reasons For Not Printing Any List Of Subscribers; One, That I Have Lost All The Names, The Other, That I Have Spent All The Money.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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!

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.

The Mischief Of Flattery Is, Not That It Persuades Any Man That He Is What He Is Not, But That It Suppresses The Influence Of Honest Ambition, By Raising An Opinion That Honour May Be Gained Without The Toil Of Merit.

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

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

It Has Long Been Observed, That An Atheist Has No Just Reason For Endeavouring Conversions; And Yet None Harass Those Minds Which They Can Influence, With More Importunity Of Solicitation To Adopt Their Opinions. In Proportion As They Doubt The Truth Of Their Own Doctrines, They Are Desirous To Gain The Attestation Of Another Understanding: And Industriously Labour To Win A Proselyte, And Eagerly Catch At The Slightest Pretense To Dignify Their Sect With A Distinguished Name.

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

Poverty Has, In Large Cities, Very Different Appearances; It Is Often Concealed In Splendour, And Often In Extravagance.

The Equity Of Providence Has Balanced Peculiar Sufferings With Peculiar Enjoyments.

On Sir Joshua Reynolds's Observing That The Real Character Of A Man Was Found Out By His Amusements. Yes, Sir, No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

If I Have Said Something To Hurt A Man Once, I Shall Not Get The Better Of This By Saying Many Things To Please Him.

The Botanist Looks Upon The Astronomer As A Being Unworthy Of His Regard; And He That Is Glowing Great And Happy By Electrifying A Bottle Wonders How The World Can Be Engaged By Trifling Prattle About War And Peace.

There Is Something In Obstinacy Which Differs From Every Other Passion. Whenever It Fails, It Never Recovers, But Either Breaks Like Iron, Or Crumbles Sulkily Away, Like A Fractured Arch. Most Other Passions Have Their Periods Of Fatigue And Rest, Their Sufferings And Their Cure; But Obstinacy Has No Resource, And The First Wound Is Mortal.

Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not For Man.

We Seldom Require More To The Happiness Of The Present Hour Than To Surpass Him That Stands Next Before Us.

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

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.

Bias And Impartiality Is In The Eye Of The Beholder.

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.

Procrastination

We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.

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

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.

Never Trust Your Tongue When Your Heart Is Bitter.

I Will Venture To Say There Is More Learning And Science Within The Circumference Of Ten Miles From Where We Now Sit [in London], Than In All The Rest Of The Kingdom.

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

The Charm Of London Is That You Are Never Glad Or Sorry For Ten Minutes Together; In The Country You Are One Or The Other For Weeks.

...it Will Not Always Happen That The Success Of A Poet Is Proportionate To His Labor.

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

Each Person's Work Is Always A Portrait Of Himself.

To Go And See One Druidical Temple Is Only To See That It Is Nothing, For There Is Neither Art Nor Power In It; And Seeing One Is Quite Enough.

The Fiction Of Happiness Is Propagated By Every Tongue And Confirmed By Every Look Till At Last All Profess The Joy Which They Do Not Feel And Consent To Yield To The General Delusion.

But The Distant Hope Of Being One Day Useful Or Eminent Ought Not To Mislead Us Too Far From That Study Which Is Equally Requisite To The Great And Mean, To The Celebrated And Obscure; The Art Of Moderating The Desires, Of Repressing The Appetites; And Of Conciliating Or Retaining The Favour Of Mankind.

The Dangers Gather As The Treasures Rise.

Occupation Alone Is Happiness.

Pound St. Paul's Church Into Atoms, And Consider Any Single Atom; It Is To Be Sure, Good For Nothing; But Put All These Atoms Together, And You Have St. Paul's Church. So It Is With Human Felicity, Which Is Made Up Of Many Ingredients, Each Of Which May Be Shown To Be Very Insignificant.

Golf Is A Game In Which You Claim The Privileges Of Age, And Retain The Playthings Of Childhood.

As Every Writer Has His Use, Every Writer Ought To Have His Patrons; And Since No Man, However High He May Now Stand, Can Be Certain That He Shall Not Be Soon Thrown Down From His Elevation By Criticism Or Caprice, The Common Interest Of Learning Requires That Her Sons Should Cease From Intestine Hostilities, And, Instead Of Sacrificing Each Other To Malice And Contempt, Endeavour To Avert Persecution From The Meanest Of Their Fraternity.

Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.

He That Floats Lazily Down The Stream, In Pursuit Of Something Borne Along By The Same Current, Will Find Himself Indeed Moved Forward; But Unless He Lays His Hand To The Oar, And Increases His Speed By His Own Labour, Must Be Always At The Same Distance From That Which He Is Following.

Want Of Tenderness Is Want Of Parts, And Is No Less A Proof Of Stupidity Than Depravity.

It May Be No Less Dangerous To Claim, On Certain Occasions, Too Little Than Too Much. There Is Something Captivating In Spirit And Intrepidity, To Which We Often Yield As To A Resistless Power; Nor Can We Often Yield As To A Resistless Power; Nor Can He Reasonably Expect The Confidence Of Others Who Too Apparently Distrusts Himself.

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.

Once A Coxcomb, Always A Coxcomb.

Few Faults Of Style, Whether Real Or Imaginary, Excite The Malignity Of A More Numerous Class Of Readers, Than The Use Of Hard Words.

The Necessary Connexion Of Representatives With Taxes, Seems To Have Sunk Deep Into Many Of Those Minds, That Admit Sounds, Without Their Meaning.

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

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

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

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

Oratory Is The Power Of Beating Down Your Adversary's Arguments And Putting Better In Their Place.

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.

There Is A Certain Race Of Men That Either Imagine It Their Duty, Or Make It Their Amusement, To Hinder The Reception Of Every Work Of Learning Or Genius, Who Stand As Sentinels In The Avenues Of Fame, And Value Themselves Upon Giving Ignorance And Envy The First Notice Of A Prey.

The Vicious Count Their Years; Virtuous, Their Acts.

Making A Difference

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

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

If We Estimate Dignity By Immediate Usefulness, Agriculture Is Undoubtedly The First And Noblest Science.

Unintelligible Language Is A Lantern Without A Light.

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.

The Superiority Of Some Men Is Merely Local. They Are Great Because Their Associates Are Little.

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.

The Purpose Of A Writer Is To Be Read, And The Criticism Which Would Destroy The Power Of Pleasing Must Be Blown Aside

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.

The Present Is Never A Happy State To Any Human Being.

A Married Man Has Many Cares, But A Bachelor No Pleasures.

None Of The Projects Or Designs Which Exercise The Mind Of Man Are Equally Subject To Obstructions And Disappointments With The Pursuit Of Fame.

Such Is The Constitution Of Man That Labor May Be Said To Be Its Own Re-ward.

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

Words Are Daughters Of Earth But Ideas Are Sons Of Heaven.

The Use Of Travelling Is To Regulate Imagination By Reality, And Instead Of Thinking How Things May Be, To See Them As They Are.

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

From Bard, To Bard, The Frigid Caution Crept, Till Declamation Roar'd, While Passion Slept.

John Wesley's Conversation Is Good, But He Is Never At Leisure. He Is Always Obliged To Go At A Certain Hour. This Is Very Disagreeable To A Man Who Loves To Fold His Legs And Have His Talk Out As I Do.

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.

Admiration Must Be Continued By That Novelty Which First Produces It; And How Much Soever Is Given, There Must Always Be Reason To Imagine That More Remains.

The General Remedy Of Those Who Are Uneasy Without Knowing The Cause Is Change Of Place.

It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.

It Was His Peculiar Happiness That He Scarcely Ever Found A Stranger Whom He Did Not Leave A Friend; But It Must Likewise Be Added, That He Had Not Often A Friend Long Without Obliging Him To Become A Stranger.

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

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent.

Wise Married Women Don't Trouble Themselves About Infidelity In Their Husbands.

Scarce Any Man Becomes Eminently Disagreeable But By A Departure From His Real Character, And An Attempt At Something For Which Nature Or Education Has Left Him Unqualified.

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.

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.

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.

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

As The Greatest Liar Tells More Truths Than Falsehoods, So May It Be Said Of The Worst Man, That He Does More Good Than Evil.

An Author Places Himself Uncalled Before The Tribunal Of Criticism And Solicits Fame At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

It Is The Condition Of Our Present State To See More Than We Can Attain; The Exactest Vigilance And Caution Can Never Maintain A Single Day Of Unmingled Innocence.

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.

Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.

The Round Of A Passionate Man's Life Is In Contracting Debts In His Passion, Which His Virtue Obliges Him To Pay. He Spends His Time In Outrage And Acknowledgment, Injury And Reparation.

No Place Affords A More Striking Conviction Of The Vanity Of Human Hopes Than A Public Library; For Who Can See The Wall Crowded On Every Side By Mighty Volumes, The Works Of Laborious Meditations And Accurate Inquiry, Now Scarcely Known But By The Catalogue.

To Prevent Evil Is The Great End Of Government, The End For Which Vigilance And Severity Are Properly Employed.

Courage Is A Quality So Necessary For Maintaining Virtue, That It Is Always Respected, Even When It Is Associated With Vice.

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

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

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

The Wickedness Of A Loose Or Profane Author Is More Atrocious Than That Of A Giddy Libertine Or Drunken Ravisher, Not Only Because It Extends Its Effects Wider, As A Pestilence That Taints The Air Is More Destructive Than Poison Infused In A Draught, But Because It Is Committed With Cool Deliberation.

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.

By The Consultation Of Books, Whether Of Dead Or Living Authors, Many Temptations To Petulance And Opposition, Which Occur In Oral Conferences, Are Avoided. An Author Cannot Obtrude His Service Unasked, Nor Can Be Often Suspected Of Any Malignant Intention To Insult His Readers With His Knowledge Or His Wit. Yet So Prevalent Is The Habit Of Comparing Ourselves With Others, While They Remain Within The Reach Of Our Passions, That Books Are Seldom Read With Complete Impartiality, But By Those From Whom The Writer Is Placed At Such A Distance That His Life Or Death Is Indifferent.

Vanity Is So Frequently The Apparent Motive Of Advice, That We, For The Most Part, Summon Our Powers To Oppose It Without Any Very Accurate Inquiry Whether It Is Right.

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

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

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?

The Truly Strong And Sound Mind Is The Mind That Can Embrace Equally Great Things And Small.

To Mean Understandings, It Is Sufficient Honour To Be Numbered Amongst The Lowest Labourers Of Learning; But Different Abilities Must Find Different Tasks. To Hew Stone, Would Have Been Unworthy Of Palladio; And To Have Rambled In Search Of Shells And Flowers, Had But Ill Suited With The Capacity Of Newton.

I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.

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

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

One Of The Most Pernicious Effects Of Haste Is Obscurity.

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Of Sickness, Or Captivity, Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable; Nor Does It Appear That The Happiest Lot Of Terrestrial Existence Can Set Us Above The Want Of This General Blessing; Or That Life, When The Gifts Of Nature And Of Fortune Are Accumulated Upon It, Would Not Still Be Wretched, Were It Not Elevated And Delighted By The Expectation Of Some New Possession, Of Some Enjoyment Yet Behind, By Which The Wish Shall At Last Be Satisfied, And The Heart Filled Up To Its Utmost Extent.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity. It Becomes Cheap As It Becomes Vulgar, And Will No Longer Raise Expectation Or Animate Enterprise.

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

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.

This World, Where Much Is To Be Done And Little To Be Known.

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.

Perhaps Man Is The Only Being That Can Properly Be Called Idle.

The Advice That Is Wanted Is Commonly Not Welcome And That Which Is Not Wanted, Evidently An Effrontery.

Self-love Is Often Rather Arrogant Than Blind; It Does Not Hide Our Faults From Ourselves, But Persuades Us That They Escape The Notice Of Others.

False Taste Is Always Busy To Mislead Those That Are Entering Upon The Regions Of Learning; And The Traveller, Uncertain Of His Way, And Forsaken By The Sun, Will Be Pleased To See A Fainter Orb Arise On The Horizon, That May Rescue Him From Total Darkness, Though With Weak And Borrowed Lustre.

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.

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

A Country Is In A Bad State, Which Is Governed Only By Laws; Because A Thousand Things Occur For Which Laws Cannot Provide, And Where Authority Ought To Interpose.

Was Ever Poet So Trusted Before?

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

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

Man Alone Is Born Crying, Lives Complaining, And Dies Disappointed.

I Love The Acquaintance Of Young People; Because, In The First Place, I Do Not Like To Think Myself Growing Old. In The Next Place, Young Acquaintances Must Last Longest, If They Do Last; And Then, Sir, Young Men Have More Virtue Than Old Men; They Have More Generous Sentiments In Every Respect.

All Severity That Does Not Tend To Increase Good, Or Prevent Evil, Is Idle.

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

Madam, Before You Flatter A Man So Grossly To His Face, You Should Consider Whether Or Not Your Flattery Is Worth His Having.

It Is One Of The Maxims Of The Civil Law, That Definitions Are Hazardous.

Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness.

Pride Is A Vice, Which Pride Itself Inclines Every Man To Find In Others, And To Overlook In Himself

Whosoever Shall Look Heedfully Upon Those Who Are Eminent For Their Riches Will Not Think Their Condition Such As That He Should Hazard His Quiet, And Much Less His Virtue, To Obtain It, For All That Great Wealth Generally Gives Above A Moderate Fortune Is More Room For The Freaks Of Caprice, And More Privilege For Ignorance And Vice, A Quicker Succession Of Flatteries, And A Larger Circle Of Voluptuousness.

Year Chases Year, Decay Pursues Decay, Still Drops Some Joy From With'ring Life Away; New Forms Arise, And Diff'rent Views Engage

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

The Greatest Part Of A Writer's Time Is Spent In Reading In Order To Write. A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make A Book.

It Is So Far From Being Natural For A Man And Woman To Live In A State Of Marriage, That We Find All The Motives Which They Have For Remaining In That Connection, And The Restraints Which Civilised Society Imposes To Prevent Separation, Are Hardly Sufficient To Keep Them Together.

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

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

Luncheon: As Much Food As One's Hand Can Hold.

Do Not Discourage Your Children From Hoarding, If They Have A Taste To It; Whoever Lays Up His Penny Rather Than Part With It For A Cake, At Least Is Not The Slave Of Gross Appetite; And Shows Besides A Preference Always To Be Esteemed, Of The Future To The Present Moment.

Every Man May Be Observed To Have A Certain Strain Of Lamentation, Some Peculiar Theme Of Complaint On Which He Dwells In His Moments Of Dejection.

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

He That Is Warm For Truth, And Fearless In Its Defense, Performs One Of The Duties Of A Good Man; He Strenghtens His Own Conviction, And Guards Others From Delusion; But Steadiness Of Belief, And Boldness Of Profession, Are Yet Only Part Of The Form Of Godliness.

Go Into The Street, And Give One Man A Lecture On Morality, And Another A Shilling, And See Which Will Respect You Most.

You Cannot, By All The Lecturing In The World, Enable A Man To Make A Shoe.

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

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

Applause Abates Diligence.

It Would Add Much To Human Happiness, If An Art Could Be Taught Of Forgetting All Of Which The Remembrance Is At Once Useless And Afflictive, That The Mind Might Perform Its Functions Without Encumbrance, And The Past Might No Longer Encroach Upon The Present.

There Is No Idleness, By Which We Are So Easily Seduced, As That Which Dignifies Itself By The Appearance Of Business, And By Making The Loiterer Imagine That He Has Something To Do Which Must Not Be Neglected, Keeps Him In Perpetual Agitation, And Hurries Him Rapidly From Place To Place.

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

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

Kindness Is In Our Power, Even When Fondness Is Not.

I Am Always For Getting A Boy Forward In His Learning, For That Is Sure Good. I Would Let Him At First Read Any English Book Which Happens To Engage His Attention; Because You Have Done A Great Deal When You Have Brought Him To Have Entertainment From A Book. He'll Get Better Books Afterwards.

[c]ourage Is Reckoned The Greatest Of All Virtues; Because, Unless A Man Has That Virtue, He Has No Security For Preserving Any Other.

The Dependant Who Cultivates Delicacy In Himself Very Little Consults His Own Tranquillity.

All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire.

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

Knowledge Is Praised And Desired By Multitudes Whom Her Charms Could Never Rouse From The Couch Of Sloth; Whom The Faintest Invitation Of Pleasure Draws Away From Their Studies; To Whom Any Other Method Of Wearing The Day Is More Eligible Than The Use Of Books, And Who Are More Easily Engaged By Any Conversation Than Such As May Rectify Their Notions Or Enlarge Their Comprehension.

Trending Author

Thomas De Quincey

Katherine Harris

Category