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Men Universally Are Ungrateful Towards Him Who Instructs Them, Unless, In The Hours Or In The Intervals Of Instruction, He Presents A Sweet-cake To Their Self-love.

-Walter Savage Landor

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Men Universally Are Ungrateful

Walter Savage Landor

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Men Universally Are Ungrateful Towards Him Who Instructs Them, Unless, In The Hours Or In The Intervals Of Instruction, He Presents A Sweet-cake To Their Self-love.

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Many Laws As Certainly Make Men Bad, As Bad Men Make Many Laws.

Law And Justice

Why Cannot We Be Delighted With An Author, And Even Feel A Predilection For Him, Without A Dislike Of Others? An Admiration Of Catullus Or Virgil, Of Tibullus Or Ovid, Is Never To Be Heightened By A Discharge Of Bile On Horace.

Cruelty Is The Highest Pleasure To The Cruel Man; It Is His Love.

Men Universally Are Ungrateful Towards Him Who Instructs Them, Unless, In The Hours Or In The Intervals Of Instruction, He Presents A Sweet-cake To Their Self-love.

Fame, They Tell You, Is Air; But Without Air There Is No Life For Any; Without Fame There Is None For The Best.

The Assailant Is Often In The Right; That The Assailed Is Always.

Teach Him To Live Unto God And Unto Thee; And He Will Discover That Women, Like The Plants In Woods, Derive Their Softness And Tenderness From The Shade.

A Good Cook Is The Peculiar Gift Of The Gods. He Must Be A Perfect Creature From The Brain To The Palate, From The Palate To The Finger's End.

There Is Only One Word Of Tenderness We Could Say, Which We Have Not Said Oftentimes Before ; And There Is No Consolation In It. The Happy Never Say, And Never Hear Said, Farewell.

And Modesty, Who, When She Goes, Is Gone For Ever.

The Foundation Of Domestic Happiness Is Faith In The Virtue Of Woman.

Consciousness Of Error Is, To A Certain Extent, A Consciousness Of Understanding; And Correction Of Error Is The Plainest Proof Of Energy And Mastery.

Those Who Are Quite Satisfied Sit Still And Do Nothing; Those Who Are Not Quite Satisfied Are The Sole Benefactors Of The World.

A Wise Man Will Always Be A Christian, Because The Perfection Of Wisdom Is To Know Where Lies Tranquillity Of Mind And How To Attain It, Which Christianity Teaches.

Those Who Speak Against The Great Do Not Usually Speak From Morality, But From Envy.

Nature I Loved, And Next To Nature, Art.

My Thoughts Are My Company; I Can Bring Them Together, Select Them, Detain Them, Dismiss Them.

Belief In A Future Life Is The Appetite Of Reason.

In Argument, Truth Always Prevails Finally; In Politics, Falsehood Always.

He Who Brings Ridicule To Bear Against Truth Finds In His Hand A Blade Without A Hilt.

True Wit, To Every Man, Is That Which Falls On Another.

Absurdities Are Great Or Small In Proportion To Custom Or Insuetude.

Men, Like Nails, Lose Their Usefulness When They Lose Their Direction And Begin To Bend.

Even The Weakest Disputant Is Made So Conceited By What He Calls Religion, As To Think Himself Wiser Than The Wisest Who Thinks Differently From Him.

To My Ninth Decade I Have Totter'd On, And No Soft Arm Bends Now My Steps To Steady; She, Who Once Led Me Where She Would, Is Gone, So When He Calls Me, Death Shall Find Me Ready.

The Sweetest Souls, Like The Sweetest Flowers, Soon Canker In Cities, And No Purity Is Rarer There Than The Purity Of Delight.

Great Men Lose Somewhat Of Their Greatness By Being Near Us; Ordinary Men Gain Much.

The Flame Of Anger, Bright And Brief, Sharpens The Barb Of Love.

The Highest Price We Can Pay For Anything; Is To Ask It.

No Ashes Are Lighter Than Those Of Incense, And Few Things Burn Out Sooner.

Cats Ask Plainly For What They Want.

Wisdom Consisteth Not In Knowing Many Things, Nor Even In Knowing Them Thoroughly; But In Choosing And In Following What Conduces The Most Certainly To Our Lasting Happiness And True Glory.

Lasting Happiness

How Sweet And Sacred Idleness Is!

We Fancy That Our Afflictions Are Sent Us Directly From Above; Sometimes We Think It In Piety And Contrition, But Oftener In Moroseness And Discontent.

Children Are What The Mothers Are.

As We Sometimes Find One Thing While We Are Looking For Another, So, If Truth Escaped Me, Happiness And Contentment Fell In My Way.

We Care Not How Many See Us In Choler, When We Rave And Bluster, And Make As Much Noise And Bustle As We Can; But If The Kindest And Most Generous Affection Comes Across Us, We Suppress Every Sign Of It, And Hide Ourselves In Nooks And Covert.

The Religion Of Christ Is Peace And Good-will,--the Religion Of Christendom Is War And Ill-will.

It Is Delightful To Kiss The Eyelashes Of The Beloved--is It Not? But Never So Delightful As When Fresh Tears Are On Them.

We Talk On Principal, But Act On Motivation.

If There Were No Falsehood In The World, There Would Be No Doubt, If There Were No Doubt, There Would Be No Inquiry; If No Inquiry, No Wisdom, No Knowledge, No Genius; And Fancy Herself Would Lie Muffled Up In Her Robe, Inactive, Pale, And Bloated.

Sculpture And Painting Are Moments Of Life; Poetry Is Life Itself.

The Habit Of Pleasing By Flattery Makes A Language Soft; The Fear Of Offending By Truth Makes It Circuitous And Conventional.

I Never Did A Single Wise Thing In The Whole Course Of My Existence, Although I Have Written Many Which Have Been Thought So.

Death Stands Above Me, Whispering Low I Know Not What Into My Ear; Of His Strange Language All I Know Is, There Is Not A Word Of Fear.

Cruelty, If We Consider It As A Crime, Is The Greatest Of All; If We Consider It As A Madness, We Are Equally Justifiable In Applying To It The Readiest And The Surest Means Of Oppression.

The Only Effect Of Public Punishment Is To Show The Rabble How Bravely It Can Be Borne; And That Every One Who Hath Lost A Toe-nail Hath Suffered Worse.

No Truer Word, Save God's, Was Ever Spoken, Than That The Largest Heart Is Soonest Broken.

You Should Indeed Have Longer Tarried By The Roadside Before You Married.

A Man's Vanity Tells Him What Is Honor, A Man's Conscience What Is Justice.

Friendship Is A Vase, Which, When It Is Flawed By Heat, Or Violence, Or Accident, May As Well Be Broken At Once; It Can Never Be Trusted After.

What Is Reading But Silent Conversation?

There Is No More Certain Sign Of A Narrow Mind, Of Stupidity, And Of Arrogance, Than To Stand Aloof From Those Who Think Differently From Us.

Of All Studies, The Most Delightful And The Most Useful Is Biography. The Seeds Of Great Events Lie Near The Surface; Historians Delve Too Deep For Them. No History Was Ever True. Lives I Have Read Which, If They Were Not, Had The Appearance, The Interest, And The Utility Of Truth.

Wise Or Unwise, Who Doubts For A Moment That Contentment Is The Cause Of Happiness? Yet The Inverse Is True: We Are Contented Because We Are Happy, And Not Happy Because We Are Contented. Well-regulated Minds May Be Satisfied With A Small Portion Of Happiness; None Can Be Happy With A Small Portion Of Content.

Nothing Is Pleasanter To Me Than Exploring In A Library.

Contentment Is Better Than Divinations Or Visions.

Every Great Writer Is A Writer Of History, Let Him Treat On Almost What Subject He May.

Every Good Writer Has Much Idiom; It Is The Life And Spirit Of Language.

Life And Death Appear More Certainly Ours Than Whatsoever Else; And Yet Hardly Can That Be Called Ours, Which Comes Without Our Knowledge, And Goes Without It.

But I Have Sinuous Shells Of Pearly Hue Within, And They That Lustre Have Imbibed In The Sun's Palace-porch, Where When Unyoked Chariot-wheel Stands Midway In The Wave: Shake One, And It Awakens; Then Apply Its Polisht Lips To Your Attentive Ear, And It Remembers Its August Abodes, And Murmurs As The Ocean Murmurs There.

I Would Recommend A Free Commerce Both Of Matter And Mind. I Would Let Men Enter Their Own Churches With The Same Freedom As Their Own Houses; And I Would Do It Without A Homily Or Graciousness Or Favor, For Tyranny Itself Is To Me A Word Less Odious Than Toleration.

Do Not Expect To Be Acknowledged For What You Are, Much Less For What You Would Be; Since No One Can Well Measure A Great Man But Upon The Bier.

The Eyes Of Critics, Whether In Commending Or Carping, Are Both On One Side, Like A Turbot's.

Ah What Avails The Sceptred Race, Ah What The Form Divine! What Every Virtue, Every Grace! Rose Aylmer, All Were Thine. Rose Aylmer, Whom These Wakeful Eyes May Weep, But Never See, A Night Of Memories And Of Sighs I Consecrate To Thee.

Fancy Is Imagination In Her Youth And Adolescence. Fancy Is Always Excursive; Imagination, Not Seldom, Is Sedate.

Something Of The Severe Hath Always Been Appertaining To Order And To Grace; And The Beauty That Is Not Too Liberal Is Sought The Most Ardently, And Loved The Longest.

As The Pearl Ripens In The Obscurity Of Its Shell, So Ripens In The Tomb All The Fame That Is Truly Precious.

He Who First Praises A Book Becomingly Is Next In Merit To The Author.

Authors Are Like Cattle Going To A Fair: Those Of The Same Field Can Never Move On Without Butting One Another.

Of All Failures, To Fail In A Witticism Is The Worst, And The Mishap Is The More Calamitous In A Drawn-out And Detailed One

Everything That Looks To The Future Elevates Human Nature; For Never Is Life So Low Or So Little As When Occupied With The Present.

There Are Proud Men Of So Much Delicacy That It Almost Conceals Their Pride, And Perfectly Excuses It.

In Honest Truth, A Name Given To A Man Is No Better Than A Skin Given To Him; What Is Not Natively His Own Falls Off And Comes To Nothing.

Vast Objects Of Remote Altitude Must Be Looked At A Long While Before They Are Ascertained. Ages Are The Telescope Tubes That Must Be Lengthened Out For Shakespeare; And Generations Of Men Serve But A Single Witness To His Claims.

I Have Suffered More From My Bad Dancing Than From All The Misfortunes And Miseries Of My Life Put Together.

In The Hours Of Distress And Misery, The Eyes Of Every Mortal Turn To Friendship; In The Hours Of Gladness And Conviviality, What Is Our Want? It Is Friendship. When The Heart Overflows With Gratitude, Or With Any Other Sweet Or Sacred Sentiment, What Is The Word To Which It Would Give Utterance? A Friend.

Fleas Know Not Whether They Are Upon The Body Of A Giant Or Upon One Of Ordinary Size.

Next In Criminality To Him Who Violates The Laws Of His Country, Is He Who Violates The Language.

Study Is The Bane Of Childhood, The Oil Of Youth, The Indulgence Of Adulthood, And A Restorative In Old Age.

Democracy Is Always The Work Of Kings. Ashes, Which In Themselves Are Sterile, Fertilize The Land They Are Cast Upon.

Virtue Is Presupposed In Friendship.

There Is A Desire Of Property In The Sanest And Best Men, Which Nature Seems To Have Implanted As Conservative Of Her Works, And Which Is Necessary To Encourage And Keep Alive The Arts.

Cats Like Men Are Flatterers.

Politeness Is Not Always A Sign Of Wisdom; But The Want Of It Always Leaves Room For A Suspicion Of Folly, If Folly And Imprudence Are The Same.

We May Receive So Much Light As Not To See, And So Much Philosophy As To Be Worse Than Foolish.

States, Like Men, Have Their Growth, Their Manhood, Their Decrepitude, Their Decay.

The Sublime Is Contained In A Grain Of Dust.

Let Me Take Up Your Metaphor. Friendship Is A Vase, Which, When It Is Flawed By Heat Or Violence Or Accident, May As Well Be Broken At Once; It Can Never Be Trusted After. The More Graceful And Ornamental It Was, The More Clearly Do We Discern The Hopelessness Of Restoring It To Its Former State. Coarse Stones, If They Are Fractured, May Be Cemented Again; Precious Stones, Never.

Precious Stones

A Little Praise Is Good For A Shy Temper; It Teaches It To Rely On The Kindness Of Others.

A Mercantile Democracy May Govern Long And Widely; A Mercantile Aristocracy Cannot Stand.

When The Mind Loses Its Feeling For Elegance, It Grows Corrupt And Groveling, And Seeks In The Crowd What Ought To Be Found At Home.

The Vain Poet Is Of The Opinion That Nothing Of His Can Be Too Much: He Sends To You Basketful After Basketful Of Juiceless Fruit, Covered With Scentless Flowers.

We Enter Our Studies, And Enjoy A Society Which We Alone Can Bring Together. We Raise No Jealousy By Conversing With One In Preference To Another; We Give No Offence To The Most Illustrious By Questioning Him As Long As We Will, And Leaving Him As Abruptly. Diversity Of Opinion Raises No Tumult In Our Presence: Each Interlocutor Stands Before Us, Speaks Or Is Silent, And We Adjourn Or Decide The Business At Our Leisure.

Wrong Is But Falsehood Put In Practice.

We Listen To Those Whom We Know To Be Of The Same Opinion As Ourselves, And We Call Them Wise For Being Of It; But We Avoid Such As Differ From Us.

It Often Comes Into My Head That We May Dream When We Are Dead, But I Am Far From Sure We Do. O That It Were So! Then My Rest Would Be Indeed Among The Blest; I Should For Ever Dream Of You.

Circumstances Form The Character; But, Like Petrifying Matters, They Harden While They Form.

The Tomb Is The Pedestal Of Greatness. I Make A Distinction Between God's Great And The King's Great.

No Thoroughly Occupied Person Was Ever Found Really Miserable.

I Hate False Words, And Seek With Care, Difficulty, And Moroseness, Those That Fit The Thing.

There Is A Vast Deal Of Vital Air In Loving Words.

O What A Thing Is Age! Death Without Death's Quiet.

I Strove With None, For None Was Worth My Strife. Nature I Loved And, Next To Nature, Art: I Warm'd Both Hands Before The Fire Of Life; It Sinks, And I Am Ready To Depart.

It Appears To Be Among The Laws Of Nature, That The Mighty Of Intellect Should Be Pursued And Carped By The Little, As The Solitary Flight Of One Great Bird Is Followed By The Twittering Petulance Of Many Smaller.

The Happiest Of Pillows Is Not That Which Love First Presses! It Is That Which Death Has Frowned On And Passed Over.

Heat And Animosity, Contest And Conflict, May Sharpen The Wits, Although They Rarely Do; They Never Strengthen The Understanding, Clear The Perspicacity, Guide The Judgment, Or Improve The Heart.

Cruelty In All Countries Is The Companion Of Anger; But There Is Only One, And Never Was Another On The Globe, Where She Coquets Both With Anger And Mirth.

Friendship May Sometimes Step A Few Paces In Advance Of Truth.

When A Woman Hath Ceased To Be Quite The Same To Us, It Matters Little How Different She Becomes.

Happiness, Like Air And Water, The Other Two Great Requisites Of Life, Is Composite. One Kind Of It Suits One Man, Another Kind Another. The Elevated Mind Takes In And Breathes Out Again That Which Would Be Uncongenial To The Baser; And The Baser Draws Life And Enjoyment From That Which Would Be Putridity To The Loftier.

No Friendship Is So Cordial Or So Delicious As That Of Girl For Girl; No Hatred So Intense And Immovable As That Of Woman For Woman.

The Heart That Once Has Been Bathed In Love's Pure Fountain Retains The Pulse Of Youth Forever.

It Is As Wise To Moderate Our Belief As Our Desires.

Was Genius Ever Ungrateful? Mere Talents Are Dry Leaves, Tossed Up And Down By Gusts Of Passion, And Scattered And Swept Away; But, Genius Lies On The Bosom Of Memory, And Gratitude At Her Feet.

I Warmed Both Hands Before The Fire Of Life; It Sinks, And I Am Ready To Depart.

Other Offences, Even The Greatest, Are The Violation Of One Law: Despotism Is The Violation Of All.

Around The Child Bend All The Threesweet Graces: Faith, Hope, Charity.around The Man Bend Other Faces;pride, Envy, Malice, Are His Graces.

Whatever Is Worthy To Be Loved For Anything Is Worthy Of Preservation. A Wise And Dispassionate Legislator, If Any Such Should Ever Arise Among Men, Will Not Condemn To Death Him Who Has Done Or Is Likely To Do More Service Than Injury To Society. Blocks And Gibbets Are The Nearest Objects With Legislators, And Their Business Is Never With Hopes Or With Virtues.

The Spirit Of Greece, Passing Through And Ascending Above The World, Hath So Animated Universal Nature, That The Very Rocks And Woods, The Very Torrents And Wilds Burst Forth With It.

Nations, Like Individuals, Interest Us In Their Growth.

We Cannot Be Contented Because We Are Happy, And We Cannot Be Happy Because We Are Contented.

Happy And Contented

An Ingenuous Mind Feels In Unmerited Praise The Bitterest Reproof. If You Reject It You Are Unhappy, If You Accept It You Are Undone.

Fame Often Rests At First Upon Something Accidental, And Often, Too, Is Swept Away, Or For A Time Removed; But Neither Genius Nor Glory, Is Conferred At Once, Nor Do They Glimmer And Fall, Like Drops In A Grotto, At A Shout.

Prose On Certain Occasions Can Bear A Great Deal Of Poetry; On The Other Hand, Poetry Sinks And Swoons Under A Moderate Weight Of Prose.

Cruelty Is No More The Cure Of Crimes Than It Is The Cure Of Sufferings; Compassion, In The First Instance, Is Good For Both; I Have Known It To Bring Compunction When Nothing Else Would.

We Oftener Say Things Because We Can Say Them Well, Than Because They Are Sound And Reasonable.

If In Argument We Can Make A Man Angry With Us, We Have Drawn Him From His Vantage Ground And Overcome Him.

O Music! How It Grieves Me That Imprudence, Intemperance, Gluttony, Should Open Their Channels Into Thy Sacred Stream.

The Damps Of Autumn Sink Into The Leaves And Prepare Them For The Necessity Of Their Fall; And Thus Insensibly Are We, As Years Close Around Us, Detached From Our Tenacity Of Life By The Gentle Pressure Of Recorded Sorrow.

The Deafest Man Can Hear Praise, And Is Slow To Think Any An Excess.

Great Men Always Pay Deference To Greater.

Clear Writers, Like Fountains, Do Not Seem So Deep As They Are; The Turbid Look The Most Profound.

A Smile Is Ever The Most Bright And Beautiful With A Tear Upon It. What Is The Dawn Without The Dew? The Tear Is Rendered By The Smile Precious Above The Smile Itself.

I Sometimes Think That The Most Plaintive Ditty Has Brought A Fuller Joy And Of Longer Duration To Its Composer That The Conquest Of Persia To The Macedonian.

I Strove With None; For None Was Worth My Strife.

I See The Rainbow In The Sky, The Dew Upon The Grass; I See Them, And I Ask Not Why They Glimmer Or They Pass. With Folded Arms I Linger Not To Call Them Back; 'twere Vain: In This, Or In Some Other Spot, I Know They'll Shine Again.

How Delightful It Is To See A Friend After A Length Of Absence! How Delightful To Chide Him For That Length Of Absence To Which We Owe Such Delight.

We Fancy We Suffer From Ingratitude, While In Reality We Suffer From Self-love.

Shakespeare Is Not Our Poet, But The World's.

That Which Moveth The Heart Most Is The Best Poetry; It Comes Nearest Unto God, The Source Of All Power.

There Is Nothing On Earth Divine Except Humanity.

Where Power Is Absent We May Find The Robe Of Genius, But We Miss The Throne.

Wherever There Is Excessive Wealth, There Is Also In The Train Of It Excessive Poverty.

Modesty And Diffidence Make A Man Unfit For Public Affairs; They Also Make Him Unfit For Brothels.

Those Who In Living Fill The Smallest Space, In Death Have Often Left The Greatest Void.

In The Morn Of Life We Are Alert, We Are Heated In Its Noon, And Only In Its Decline Do We Repose.

We Must Distinguish Between Felicity And Prosperity; For Prosperity Leads Often To Ambition, And Ambition To Disappointment; The Course Is Then Over, The Wheel Turns Round But Once, While The Reaction Of Goodness And Happiness Is Perpetual.

I Delight In The Diffusion Of Learning; Yet, I Must Confess It, I Am Most Gratified And Transported At Finding A Large Quantity Of It In One Place; Just As I Would Rather Have A Solid Pat Of Butter At Breakfast, Than A Splash Of Grease Upon The Table-cloth That Covers Half Of It.

Greatness, As We Daily See It, Is Unsociable.

Dignity, In Private Men And In Governments, Has Been Little Else Than A Stately And Stiff Perseverance In Oppression; And Spirit, As It Is Called, Little Else Than The Foam Of Hard-mouthed Insolence.

Despotism Sits Nowhere So Secure As Under The Effigy And Ensigns Of Freedom.

Such Is Our Impatience, Such Our Hatred Of Procrastination, To Everything But The Amendment Of Our Practices And The Adornment Of Our Nature, One Would Imagine We Were Dragging Time Along By Force, And Not He Us.

Procrastination

Consult Duty Not Events.

There Is Delight In Singing, Though None Hear Beside The Singer.

Avoid, Which Many Grave Men Have Not Done, Words Taken From Sacred Subjects And From Elevated Poetry: These We Have Seen Vilely Prostituted. Avoid Too The Society Of The Barbarians Who Misemploy Them.

Hope Is The Mother Of Faith.

Goodness Does Not More Certainly Make Men Happy Than Happiness Makes Them Good.

The Most Pernicious Of Absurdities Is That Weak, Blind, Stupid Faith Is Better Than The Constant Practice Of Every Human Virtue.

Every Sect Is A Moral Check On Its Neighbour. Competition Is As Wholesome In Religion As In Commerce.

Immoderate Power, Like Other Intemperance, Leaves The Progeny Weaker And Weaker, Until Nature As In Compassion Covers It With Her Mantle And It Is Seen No More.

Every Witticism Is An Inexact Thought; That Which Is Perfectly True Is Imperfectly Witty.

Delay In Justice Is Injustice.

Justice Is Often Pale And Melancholy; But Gratitude, Her Daughter, Is Constantly In The Flow Of Spirits And The Bloom Of Loveliness.

Harmonious Words Render Ordinary Ideas Acceptable; Less Ordinary, Pleasant; Novel And Ingenious Ones, Delightful. As Pictures And Statues, And Living Beauty, Too, Show Better By Music-light, So Is Poetry Irradiated, Vivified, Glorified', And Raised Into Immortal Life By Harmony.

The Wise Become As The Unwise In The Enchanted Chambers Of Power, Whose Lamps Make Every Face The Same Colour.

Merit Has Rarely Risen Of Itself, But A Pebble Or A Twig Is Often Quite Sufficient For It To Spring From To The Highest Ascent. There Is Usually Some Baseness Before There Is Any Elevation.

Not Dancing Well, I Never Danced At All--and How Grievously Has My Heart Ached When Others Where In The Full Enjoyment Of That Conversation Which I Had No Right Even To Partake.

Old Trees In Their Living State Are The Only Things That Money Cannot Command.

Tyrants Never Perish From Tyranny, But Always From Folly,-when Their Fantasies Have Built Up A Palace For Which The Earth Has No Foundation.

God Made The Rose Out Of What Was Left Of Woman At The Creation. The Great Difference Is, We Feel The Rose's Thorns When We Gather It; And The Other's When We Have Had It For Some Time.

God Scatters Beauty As He Scatters Flowers O'er The Wide Earth, And Tells Us All Are Ours. A Hundred Lights In Every Temple Burn, And At Each Shrine I Bend My Knee In Turn.

Kings Play At War Unfairly With Republics; They Can Only Lose Some Earth, And Some Creatures They Value As Little, While Republics Lose In Every Soldier A Part Of Themselves.

Let A Gentleman Be Known To Have Been Cheated Of Twenty Pounds, And It Costs Him Forty A-year For The Remainder Of His Life.

Be Assured That, Although Men Of Eminent Genius Have Been Guilty Of All Other Vices, None Worthy Of More Than A Secondary Name Has Ever Been A Gamester. Either An Excess Of Avarice Or A Deficiency Of What, In Physics, Is Called Excitability, Is The Cause Of It; Neither Of Which Can Exist In The Same Bosom With Genius, With Patriotism, Or With Virtue.

Music Is God's Gift To Man, The Only Art Of Heaven Given To Earth, The Only Art Of Earth We Take To Heaven.

Everything That Looks To The Future Elevates Human Nature.

There Is No Easy Path Leading Out Of Life, And Few Are The Easy Ones That Lie Within It.

I Have Since Written What No Tide Shall Ever Wash Away, What Men Unborn Shall Read O'er Ocean Wide And Find Ianthe's Name Agen.

Ridicule Has Followed The Vestiges Of Truth, But Never Usurped Her Place.

Piety--warm, Soft, And Passive As The Ether Round The Throne Of Grace--is Made Callous And Inactive By Kneeling Too Much.

A True Philosopher Is Beyond The Reach Of Fortune.

Little Men Build Up Great Ones, But The Snow Colossus Soon Melts; The Good Stand Under The Eye Of God, And Therefore Stand.

Principles Do Not Mainly Influence Even The Principled; We Talk On Principle, But We Act On Interest.

The Writing Of The Wise Are The Only Riches Our Posterity Cannot Squander.

Truth Sometimes Corner Unawares Upon Caution, And Sometimes Speaks In Public As Unconsciously As In A Dream.

The Worse Of Ingratitude Lies Not In The Ossified Heart Of Him Who Commits It, But We Find It In The Effect It Produces On Him Against Whom It Was Committed.

There Is No Eloquence Which Does Not Agitate The Soul.

Religion Is The Eldest Sister Of Philosophy: On Whatever Subjects They May Differ, It Is Unbecoming In Either To Quarrel, And Most So About Their Inheritance.

It Is Easy To Look Down On Others; To Look Down On Ourselves Is The Difficulty.

Falsehood Is For A Season.

Patience, Piety, And Salutary Knowledge Spring Up And Ripen Under The Harrow Of Affliction; Before There Is Wine Or Oil, The Grape Must Be Trodden And The Oil Pressed.

A Critic Is Never Too Severe When He Only Detects The Faults Of An Author. But He Is Worse Than Too Severe When, In Consequence Of This Detection, Be Presumes To Place Himself On A Level With Genius.

The Moderate Are Not Usually The Most Sincere, For The Same Circumspection Which Makes Them Moderate Makes Them Likewise Retentive Of What Could Give Offence.

The Happy Never Say, And Never Hear Said, Farewell.

Friendships Are The Purer And The More Ardent, The Nearer They Come To The Presence Of God, The Sun Not Only Of Righteousness But Of Love.

Moroseness Is The Evening Of Turbulence.

We Cannot At Once Catch The Applauses Of The Vulgar And Expect The Approbation Of The Wise.

What Is Companionship Where Nothing That Improves The Intellect Is Communicated, And Where The Larger Heart Contracts Itself To The Model And Dimension Of The Smaller?

Life Is But Sighs; And, When They Cease, 'tis Over.

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