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

-Samuel Johnson

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No Wise Man Will

Samuel Johnson

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

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

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

A Fellow Will Hack Half A Year At A Block Of Marble To Make Something In Stone That Hardly Resembles A Man. The Value Of Statuary Is Owing To Its Difficulty. You Would Not Value The Finest Head Cut Upon A Carrot.

When I First Collected These Authorities, I Was Desirous That Every Quotation Should Be Useful To Some Other End Than The Illustration Of A Word; I Therefore Extracted From Philosophers Principles Of Science; From Historians Remarkable Facts; From Chymists Complete Processes; From Divines Striking Exhortations; And From Poets Beautiful Descriptions.

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

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause A While From Learning To Be Wise. There Mark What Ills The Scholar's Life Assail,- Toil, Envy, Want, The Patron, And The Jail.

This Merriment Of Parsons Is Mighty Offensive.

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.

Moral Sentences Appear Ostentatious And Tumid, When They Have No Greater Occasions Than The Journey Of A Wit To His Home Town: Yet Such Pleasures And Such Pains Make Up The General Mass Of Life; And As Nothing Is Little To Him That Feels It With Gre

Towering Is The Confidence Of Twenty-one.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

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

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

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding.

We Are Not Here To Sell A Parcel Of Boilers And Vats, But The Potentiality Of Growing Rich Beyond The Dreams Of Avarice.

Pain Is Less Subject Than Pleasure To Careless Expression.

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.

We Love To Overlook The Boundaries Which We Do Not Wish To Pass.

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

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

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.

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

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

To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.

Money Confounds Subordination.

No Writer Can Be Fully Convicted Of Imitation Except There Is A Concurrence Of More Resemblance Than Can Be Imagined To Have Happened By Chance; As Where The Same Ideas Are Conjoined Without Any Natural Series Or Necessary Coherence, Or Where Not Only The Thought But The Words Are Copied.

Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, Possession By Disgust, And The Malicious Remark Of The Greek Epigrammatist On Marriage May Be Applied To Many Another Course Of Life, That Its Two Days Of Happiness Are The First And The Last

I Should As Soon Think Of Contradicting A Bishop

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

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

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

He Who Would Have Fine Guests, Let Him Have A Fine Wife.

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.

Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

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

I Advised Chambers, And Would Advise Every Young Man Beginning To Compose, To Do It As Fast As He Can, To Get A Habit Of Having His Mind To Start Promptly; It Is So Much More Difficult To Improve In Speed Than In Accuracy.

We Have Now Learned That Rashness And Imprudence Will Not Be Deterred From Taking Credit; Let Us Try Whether Fraud And Avarice May Be More Easily Restrained From Giving It.

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

I Had Rather See The Portrait Of A Dog That I Know, Than All The Allegorical Paintings They Can Show Me In The World.

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.

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

Nature Has Given Women So Much Power That The Law Has Very Wisely Given Them Little.

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

A Man Ought To Read Just As Inclination Leads Him, For What He Reads As A Task Will Do Him Little Good.

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

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

Criticism Is A Study By Which Men Grow Important And Formidable At Very Small Expense. He Whom Nature Has Made Weak, And Idleness Keeps Ignorant, May Yet Support His Vanity By The Name Of A Critic.

A Contempt Of The Monuments And The Wisdom Of The Past, May Be Justly Reckoned One Of The Reigning Follies Of These Days, To Which Pride And Idleness Have Equally Contributed.

Any Of Us Would Kill A Cow Rather Than Not Have Beef.

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

He To Whom Many Objects Of Pursuit Arise At The Same Time, Will Frequently Hesitate Between Different Desires Till A Rival Has Precluded Him, Or Change His Course As New Attractions Prevail, And Harass Himself Without Advancing.

We Ought Not To Raise Expectations Which It Is Not In Our Power To Satisfy.-it Is More Pleasing To See Smoke Brightening Into Flame, Than Flame Sinking Into Smoke.

He That Would Travel For The Entertainment Of Others, Should Remember That The Great Object Of Remark Is Human Life. Every Nation Has Something Peculiar In Its Manufactures, Its Works Of Genius, Its Medicines, Its Agriculture, Its Customs, And Its Policy. He Only Is A Useful Traveller, Who Brings Home Something By Which His Country May Be Benefited; Who Procures Some Supply Of Want, Or Some Mitigation Of Evil, Which May Enable His Readers To Compare Their Condition With That Of Others, To Improve It Whenever It Is Worse, And Whenever It Is Better To Enjoy It.

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

Sir, There Is No Settling The Point Of Precedency Between A Louse And A Flea.

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

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

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

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.

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.

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; And As The Noblest Mien Or Most Graceful Action Would Be Degraded And Obscured By A Garb Appropriated To The Gross Employments Of Rusticks Or Mechanics, So The Most Heroick Sentiments Will Lose Their Efficacy

Contempt Is A Kind Of Gangrene Which, If It Seizes One Part Of A Character, Corrupts All The Rest By Degrees.

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

Resolve Not To Be Poor: Whatever You Have, Spend Less. Poverty Is A Great Enemy To Human Happiness; It Certainly Destroys Liberty, And It Makes Some Virtues Impracticable, And Others Extremely Difficult.

I Do Not Care To Speak Ill Of A Man Behind His Back, But I Believe He Is An Attorney.

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.

But It Is Evident, That These Bursts Of Universal Distress Are More Dreaded Than Felt; Thousands And Ten Thousands Flourish In Youth, And Wither In Age, Without The Knowledge Of Any Other Than Domestic Evils, And Share The Same Pleasures And Vexations, Whether Their Kings Are Mild Or Cruel, Whether The Armies Of Their Country Pursue Their Enemies Or Retreat Before Them.

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

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment.

Of The Present State, Whatever It Be, We Feel And Are Forced To Confess The Misery; Yet When The Same State Is Again At A Distance, Imagination Paints It As Desirable.

The Real Satisfaction Which Praise Can Afford, Is When What Is Repeated Aloud Agrees With The Whispers Of Conscience, By Showing Us That We Have Not Endeavored To Deserve Well In Vain.

Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.

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.

Celestial Wisdom Calms The Mind.

Admiration And Love Are Like Being Intoxicated With Champagne; Judgment And Friendship Are Like Being Enlivened.

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

Politics Are Now Nothing More Than Means Of Rising In The World. With This Sole View Do Men Engage In Politics, And Their Whole Conduct Proceeds Upon It.

Life Is Barren Enough Surely With All Her Trappings; Let Us Be Therefore Cautious Of How We Strip Her.

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

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

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

Distance Has The Same Effect On The Mind As On The Eye.

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.

Evil Is Uncertain In The Same Degree As Good, And For The Reason That We Ought Not To Hope Too Securely, We Ought Not To Fear With To Much Dejection.

Confidence Is A Plant Of Slow Growth; Especially In An Aged Bosom

The Synonyme Of Usury Is Ruin.

New Arts Are Long In The World Before Poets Describe Them; For They Borrow Everything From Their Predecessors, And Commonly Derive Very Little From Nature Or From Life.

When A Man Is Tried Of London, He Is Tired Of Life.

It Is Easy For A Man Who Sits Idle At Home, And Has Nobody To Please But Himself, To Ridicule Or Censure The Common Practices Of Mankind.

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

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

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

We Go From Anticipation To Anticipation, Not From Satisfaction To Satisfaction.

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

The Future Is Bought With The Present.

Prejudice Is A Great Time-saver. You Can Form Opinions Without Having To Get The Facts. Prejudice Not Being Founded On Reason Cannot Be Removed By Argument.

Stand Firm For Your Country, And Become A Man Honour'd And Lov'd: It Were A Noble Life, To Be Found Dead, Embracing Her.

I Am Far From Any Intention To Limit Curiosity, Or Confine The Labours Of Learning To Arts Of Immediate And Necessary Use. It Is Only From The Various Essays Of Experimental Industry, And The Vague Excursions Of Mind Set Upon Discovery, That Any Advancement Of Knowledge Can Be Expected; And Though Many Must Be Disappointed In Their Labours, Yet They Are Not To Be Charged With Having Spent Their Time In Vain; Their Example Contributed To Inspire Emulation, And Their Miscarriage Taught Others The Way To Success.

Don't, Sir, Accustom Yourself To Use Big Words For Little Matters.

There Mark What Ills The Scholar's Life Assail, Toil, Envy, Want, And Patron.

All Truth Is Valuable, And Satirical Criticism May Be Considered As Useful When It Rectifies Error And Improves Judgment; He That Refines The Public Taste Is A Public Benefactor.

High People, Sir, Are The Best; Take A Hundred Ladies Of Quality, You'll Find Them Better Wives, Better Mothers, More Willing To Sacrifice Their Own Pleasures To Their Children, Than A Hundred Other Woman.

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.

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.

Curiosity Is One Of The Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect. Every Advance Into Knowledge Opens New Prospects, And Produces New Incitements To Farther Progress.

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

I Hate Mankind, For I Think Myself One Of The Best Of Them, And I Know How Bad I Am.

More Is Learned In A Public Than In A Private School, From Emulation. There Is The Collision Of Mind With Mind, Or The Radiation Of Many Minds Pointing To One Center.

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

To Use Two Languages Familiarly And Without Contaminating One By The Other, Is Very Difficult; And To Use More Than Two Is Hardly To Be Hoped. The Prizes Which Some Have Received For Their Multiplicity Of Languages May Be Sufficient To Excite Industry, But Can Hardly Generate Confidence.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil But Its Duty, Like That Of Other Passions, Is Not To Overbear Reason, But To Assist It. It Should Not Be Suffered To Tyrannize In The Imagination, To Raise Phantoms Of Horror, Or To Beset Life With Supernumerary Distresses.

None Are Happy But By Anticipation Of Change.

Keeping Accounts, Sir, Is Of No Use When A Man Is Spending His Own Money, And Has Nobody To Whom He Is To Account. You Won't Eat Less Beef Today Because You Have Written Down What It Cost Yesterday.

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.

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

Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.

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

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write. The Regard Of The Public Is Not To Be Kept But By Tribute, And The Remembrance Of Past Service Will Quickly Languish Unless Successive Performances Frequently Revive It. Yet In Every New Attempt There Is New Hazard, And There Are Few Who Do Not, At Some Unlucky Time, Injure Their Own Characters By Attempting To Enlarge Them.

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

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.

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future, Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings. Far From Me, And Far From My Friends Be Such Frigid Philosophy As May Conduct Us Indifferent And Unmoved Over Any Ground Which Has Been Dignified By Wisdom, Bravery, Or Virtue. That Man Is Little To Be Envied Whose Patriotism Would Not Gain Force Upon The Plain Of Marathon, Or Whose Piety Would Not Grow Warmer Among The Ruins Of Ionia.

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

The Common People Do Not Accurately Adapt Their Thoughts To Objects; Nor, Secondly, Do They Accurately Adapt Their Words To Their Thoughts; They Do Not Mean To Lie; But, Taking No Pains To Be Exact, They Give You Very False Accounts. A Great Part Of Their Language Is Proverbial; If Anything Rocks At All, They Say It Rocks Like A Cradle; And In This Way They Go On.

Attack Is The Reaction. I Never Think I Have Hit Hard Unless It Rebounds.

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

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

When Any Calamity Is Suffered, The First Thing To Be Remembered Is, How Much Has Been Escaped.

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

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.

Deviation From Nature Is Deviation From Happiness.

Surely, It Is Much Easier To Respect A Man Who Has Always Had Respect, Than To Respect A Man Who We Know Was Last Year No Better Than Ourselves, And Will Be No Better Next Year.

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.

Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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.

I Had Done All That I Could, And No Man Is Well Pleased To Have His All Neglected, Be It Ever So Little.

Most Minds Are The Slaves Of External Circumstances, And Conform To Any Hand That Undertakes To Mould Them.

Trust As Little As You Can To Report, And Examine All You Can By Your Own Senses.

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.

All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.

Expectation Improperly Indulged In Must End In Disappointment.

By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.

As Any Action Or Posture, Long Continued, Will Distort And Disfigure The Limbs, So The Mind Likewise Is Crippled And Contracted By Perpetual Application To The Same Set 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!

We Seldom Learn The True Want Of What We Have Till It Is Discovered That We Can Have No More.

The World Is Seldom What It Seems; To Man, Who Dimly Sees, Realities Appear As Dreams, And Dreams Realities.

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

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

Discord Generally Operates In Little Things; It Is Inflamed ... By Contrariety Of Taste Oftener Than Principles.

Man Is A Transitory Being, And His Designs Must Partake Of The Imperfections Of Their Author. To Confer Duration Is Not Always In Our Power. We Must Snatch The Present Moment, And Employ It Well, Without Too Much Solicitude For The Future, And Content Ourselves With Reflecting That Our Part Is Performed. He That Waits For An Opportunity To Do Much At Once, May Breathe Out His Life In Idle Wishes, And Regret, In The Last Hour, His Useless Intentions And Barren Zeal.

Every Human Being Whose Mind Is Not Debauched, Will Be Willing To Give All That He Has To Get Knowledge.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

In A Man's Letters You Know, Madam, His Soul Lies Naked, His Letters Are Only The Mirror Of His Breast, Whatever Passes Within Him Is Shown Undisguised In Its Natural Process. Nothing Is Inverted, Nothing Distorted, You See Systems In Their Elements, You Discover Actions In Their Motives.

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

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

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

It Was Said Of Euripides, That Every Verse Was A Precept; And It May Be Said Of Shakespeare, That From His Works May Be Collected A System Of Civil And Economical Prudence.

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.

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

By Writing, You Learn To Write.

The Insolence Of Wealth Will Creep Out.

Affectation Naturally Counterfeits Those Excellences Which Are Placed At The Greatest Distance From Possibility Of Attainment, Because, Knowing Our Own Defects, We Eagerly Endeavor To Supply Them With Artificial Excellence.

Pour Forth Thy Fervors For A Healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, And A Will Resigned

That Man Is Never Happy For The Present Is So True, That All His Relief From Unhappiness Is Only Forgetting Himself For A Little While. Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

A Man Seldom Thinks With More Earnestness Of Anything Than He Does Of His Dinner.

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

Of Those That Spin Out Trifles And Die Without A Memorial, Many Flatter Themselves With High Opinions Of Their Own Importance, And Imagine That They Are Every Day Adding Some Improvement To Human Life.

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.

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

The Duties Of Religion, Sincerely And Regularly Performed, Will Always Be Sufficient To Exalt The Meanest And To Exercise The Highest Understanding.

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

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes; The Distinctions Which Set One Man So Much Above Another Are Very Little Perceived In The Gloom Of A Sick Chamber, Where It Will Be Vain To Expect Entertainment From The Gay, Or Instruction From The Wise; Where All Human Glory Is Obliterated, The Wit Is Clouded, The Reasoner Perplexed, And The Hero Subdued; Where The Highest And Brightest Of Mortal Beings Finds Nothing Left Him But The Consciousness Of Innocence.

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

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.

I Am Not So Lost In Lexicography As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven.

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

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

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

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.

The Student Who Would Build His Knowledge On Solid Foundations, And Proceed By Just Degrees To The Pinnacles Of Truth, Is Directed By The Great Philosopher Of France To Begin By Doubting Of His Own Existence. In Like Manner, Whoever Would Complete Any Arduous And Intricate Enterprise, Should, As Soon As His Imagination Can Cool After The First Blaze Of Hope, Place Before His Own Eyes Every Possible Embarrassment That May Retard Or Defeat Him. He Should First Question The Probability Of Success, And Then Endeavour To Remove The Objections That He Has Raised.

The Uniform Necessities Of Human Nature Produce In A Great Measure Uniformity Of Life, And For Part Of The Day Make One Place Like Another; To Dress And To Undress, To Eat And To Sleep, Are The Same In London As In The Country.

For Sorrow There Is No Remedy Provided By Nature; It Is Often Occasioned By Accidents Irreparable, And Dwells Upon Objects That Have Lost Or Changed Their Existence; It Requires What It Cannot Hope, That The Laws Of The Universe Should Be Repealed; That The Dead Should Return, Or The Past Should Be Recalled.

Was There Ever Yet Anything Written By Mere Man That Was Wished Longer By Its Readers, Excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, And The Pilgrim's Progress?

Robinson Crusoe

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.

Piety Practiced In Solitude, Like The Flower That Blooms In The Desert, May Give Its Fragrance To The Winds Of Heaven, And Delight Those Unbodied Spirits That Survey The Works Of God And The Actions Of Men; But It Bestows No Assistance Upon Earthly Beings, And However Free From Taints Of Impurity, Yet Wants The Sacred Splendor Of Beneficence.

Let Me Rejoice In The Light Which Thou Hast Imparted; Let Me Serve Thee With Active Zeal, Humbled Confidence, And Wait With Patient Expectation For The Time In Which The Soul Which Thou Receivest Shall Be Satisfied With Knowledge.

At Length Weariness Succeeds To Labor, And The Mind Lies At Ease In The Contemplation Of Her Own Attainments Without Any Desire Of New Conquests Or Excursions. This Is The Age Of Recollection And Narrative; The Opinions Are Settled, And The Avenues Of Apprehension Shut Against Any New Intelligence; The Days That Are To Follow Must Pass In The Inculcation Of Precepts Already Collected, And Assertion Of Tenets Already Received; Nothing Is Henceforward So Odious As Opposition, So Insolent As Doubt, Or So Dangerous As Novelty.

No, Sir, You Will Have Much More Influence By Giving Or Lending Money Where It Is Wanted, Than By Hospitality.

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

I Remember A Passage In Goldsmith's "vicar Of Wakefield," Which He Was Afterwards Fool Enough To Expunge: "i Do Not Love A Man Who Is Zealous For Nothing.

The Difference Between Coarse And Refined Abuse Is The Difference Between Being Bruised By A Club And Wounded By A Poisoned Arrow.

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.

Slavery Is Now Nowhere More Patiently Endured, Than In Countries Once Inhabited By The Zealots Of Liberty.

One Cause, Which Is Not Always Observed, Of The Insufficiency Of Riches, Is That They Very Seldom Make Their Owner Rich.

Wealth Is Nothing In Itself; It Is Not Useful But When It Departs From Us.

A Man Is Not Obliged Honestly To Answer A Question Which Should Not Properly Be Put.

Enlarge My Life With Multitude Of Days, In Health, In Sickness, Thus The Suppliant Prays; Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know, That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe. Time Hovers O'er, Impatient To Destroy, And Shuts Up All The Passages Of Joy.

The First Step To Greatness Is To Be Honest.

Leisure And Curiosity Might Soon Make Great Advances In Useful Knowledge, Were They Not Diverted By Minute Emulation And Laborious Trifles.

None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.

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William Lloyd Garrison

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