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Nothing Lies On Our Hands With Such Uneasiness As Time. Wretched And Thoughtless Creatures! In The Only Place Where Covetousness Were A Virtue We Turn Prodigals.

-Joseph Addison

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Nothing Lies On Our

Joseph Addison

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Nothing Lies On Our Hands With Such Uneasiness As Time. Wretched And Thoughtless Creatures! In The Only Place Where Covetousness Were A Virtue We Turn Prodigals.

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We Are Always Doing Something For Posterity, But I Would Fain See Posterity Do Something For Us.

Tis Not My Talent To Conceal My Thoughts, Or Carry Smiles And Sunshine In My Face, When Discontent Sits Heavy At My Heart.

They Were A People So Primitive They Did Not Know How To Get Money, Except By Working For It.

If I Can In Any Way Contribute To The Diversion Or Improvement Of The Country In Which I Live, I Shall Leave It, When I Am Summoned Out Of It, With The Secret Satisfaction Of Thinking That I Have Not Lived In Vain.

An Indiscreet Man Is More Hurtful Than An Ill-natured One; For As The Latter Will Only Attack His Enemies, And Those He Wishes Ill To, The Other Injures Indifferently Both Friends And Foes.

Peaceable Times Are The Best To Live In, Though Not So Proper To Furnish Materials For A Writer.

Cunning Has Only Private Selfish Aims, And Sticks At Nothing Which May Make Them Succeed. Discretion Has Large And Extended Views, And, Like A Well-formed Eye, Commands A Whole Horizon; Cunning Is A Kind Of Shortsightedness, That Discovers The Minutest Objects Which Are Near At Hand, But Is Not Able To Discern Things At A Distance.

An Ostentatious Man Will Rather Relate A Blunder Or An Absurdity He Has Committed, Than Be Debarred From Talking Of His Own Dear Person.

Mysterious Love, Uncertain Treasure, Hast Thou More Of Pain Or Pleasure! Endless Torments Dwell About Thee: Yet Who Would Live, And Live Without Thee!

The English Writers Of Tragedy Are Possessed With A Notion, That When They Represent A Virtuous Or Innocent Person In Distress, They Ought Not To Leave Him Till They Have Delivered Him Out Of His Troubles, Or Made Him Triumph Over His Enemies.

Innocent Person

Nothing Makes A Woman More Esteemed By The Opposite Sex Than Chastity; Whether It Be That We Always Prize Those Most Who Are Hardest To Come At, Or That Nothing Besides Chastity, With Its Collateral Attendants, Truth, Fidelity, And Constancy, Gives A Man A Property In The Person He Loves, And Consequently Endears Her To Him Above All Things.

In All Thy Humours, Whether Grave Or Mellow, Thou'rt Such A Touchy, Testy, Pleasant Fellow, Hast So Much Wit And Mirth And Spleen About Thee, There Is No Living With Thee, Nor Without Thee.

Hudibras Has Defined Nonsense, As Cowley Does Wit, By Negatives. Nonsense, He Says, Is That Which Is Neither True Nor False. These Two Great Properties Of Nonsense, Which Are Always Essential To It, Give It Such A Peculiar Advantage Over All Other Writings, That It Is Incapable Of Being Either Answered Or Contradicted.

When I Consider The Question, Whether There Are Such Persons In The World As Those We Call Witches? My Mind Is Divided Between The Two Opposite Opinions; Or Rather I Believe In General That There Is, And Has Been Such A Thing As Witchcraft; But At The Same Time Can Give No Credit To Any Particular Instance Of It.

I Value My Garden More For Being Full Of Blackbirds Than Of Cherries, And Very Frankly Give Them Fruit For Their Songs.

There Is More Of Turn Than Of Truth In A Saying Of Seneca, "that Drunkenness Does Not Produce But Discover Faults." Common Experience Teaches The Contrary. Wine Throws A Man Out Of Himself, And Infuses Dualities Into The Mind Which She Is A Stranger To In Her Sober Moments.

I Think A Person Who Is Thus Terrified With The Imagination Of Ghosts And Spectres Much More Reasonable, Than One Who Contrary To The Reports Of All Historians Sacred And Profane, Ancient And Modern, And To The Traditions Of All Nations, Thinks The Appearance Of Spirits Fabulous And Groundless.

Flying Would Give Such Occasions For Intrigues As People Cannot Meet With Who Have Nothing But Legs To Carry Them.

The Memory Is Perpetually Looking Back When We Have Nothing Present To Entertain Us. It Is Like Those Repositories In Animals That Are Filled With Food, On Which They May Ruminate When Their Present Pastures Fail.

Our Delight In Any Particular Study, Art, Or Science Rises And Improves In Proportion To The Application Which We Bestow Upon It. Thus, What Was At First An Exercise Becomes At Length An Entertainment.

Among The Several Kinds Of Beauty, The Eye Takes Most Delight In Colors.

The Mind That Lies Fallow But A Single Day, Sprouts Up In Follies That Are Only To Be Killed By A Constant And Assiduous Culture.

The Circumstance Which Gives Authors An Advantage Above All These Great Masters, Is This, That They Can Multiply Their Originals; Or Rather, Can Make Copies Of Their Works, To What Number They Please, Which Shall Be As Valuable As The Originals Themselves.

There Is Nothing That More Betrays A Base Ungenerous Spirit Than The Giving Of Secret Stabs To A Man's Reputation. Lampoons And Satires That Are Written With Wit And Spirit Are Like Poisoned Darts, Which Not Only Inflict A Wound, But Make It Incurable.

That Fine Part Of Our Construction, The Eye, Seems As Much The Receptacle And Seat Of Our Passions As The Mind Itself; And At Least It Is The Outward Portal To Introduce Them To The House Within, Or Rather The Common Thoroughfare To Let Our Affections Pass In And Out.

Great Souls By Instinct To Each Other Turn, Demand Alliance, And In Friendship Burn.

Lost Friendship

Every Man In The Time Of Courtship And In The First Entrance Of Marriage, Puts On A Behavior Like My Correspondent's Holiday Suit.

There Are Greater Depths And Obscurities, Greater Intricacies And Perplexities, In An Elaborate And Well-written Piece Of Nonsense, Than In The Most Abstruse And Profound Tract Of School Divinity.

All Well-regulated Families Set Apart An Hour Every Morning For Tea And Bread And Butter

To This End, Nothing Is To Be More Carefully Consulted Than Plainness. In A Lady's Attire This Is The Single Excellence; For To Be What Some People Call Fine, Is The Same Vice, In That Case, As To Be Florid Is In Writing Or Speaking.

Mutability Of Temper And Inconsistency With Ourselves Is The Greatest Weakness Of Human Nature.

Husband A Lie, And Trump It Up In Some Extraordinary Emergency.

Men Who Cherish For Women The Highest Respect Are Seldom Popular With Them.

Whether Dark Presages Of The Night Proceed From Any Latent Power Of The Soul During Her Abstraction, Or From Any Operation Of Subordinate Spirits, Has Been A Dispute.

If You Wish Success In Life, Make Perseverance Your Bosom Friend.

Among The English Authors, Shakespeare Has Incomparably Excelled All Others. That Noble Extravagance Of Fancy, Which He Had In So Great Perfection, Thoroughly Qualified Him To Touch The Weak, Superstitious Part Of His Readers' Imagination, And Made Him Capable Of Succeeding Where He Had Nothing To Support Him Besides The Strength Of His Own Genius.

In Private Conversation Between Intimate Friends, The Wisest Men Very Often Talk Like The Weakest : For Indeed The Talking With A Friend Is Nothing Else But Thinking Aloud.

The Ungrown Glories Of His Beamy Hair.

Wit Is The Fetching Of Congruity Out Of Incongruity.

A Man Whose Extraordinary Reputation Thus Lifts Him Up To The Notice And Observation Of Mankind, Draws A Multitude Of Eyes Upon Him, That Will Narrowly Inspect Every Part Of Him.

Mere Bashfulness Without Merit Is Awkward; And Merit Without Modesty, Insolent. But Modest Merit Has A Double Claim To Acceptance, And Generally Meets With As Many Patrons As Beholders.

I Have Always Preferred Cheerfulness To Mirth. The Latter I Consider As An Act, The Former As A Habit Of Mind. Mirth Is Short And Transient, Cheerfulness Fixed And Permanent.

The Stars Shall Fade Away, The Sun Himself Grow Dim With Age, And Nature Sink In Years, But Thou Shalt Flourish In Immortal Youth, Unhurt Amidst The Wars Of Elements, The Wrecks Of Matter, And The Crush Of Worlds.

Let Echo, Too, Perform Her Part, Prolonging Every Note With Art; And In A Low Expiring Strain, Play All The Comfort O'er Again.

There Is Noting Truly Valuable Which Can Be Purchased Without Pains And Labor. The Gods Have Set A Price Upon Every Real And Noble Pleasure.

The Woman That Deliberates Is Lost.

Antidotes Are What You Take To Prevent Dotes.

We Are Apt To Rely Upon Future Prospects, And Become Really Expensive While We Are Only Rich In Possibility. We Live Up To Our Expectations, Not To Our Possessions, And Make A Figure Proportionable To What We May Be, Not What We Are.

Pride Goes Before Destruction And A Haughty Spirit Before A Fall.

With What Astonishment And Veneration May We Look Into Our Own Souls, Where There Are Such Hidden Stores Of Virtue And Knowledge, Such Inexhaustible Sources Of Perfection. We Know Not Yet What We Shall Be, Nor Will It Ever Enter Into The Heart To Conceive The Glory That Will Be Always In Reserve For It.

Loveliest Of Women! Heaven Is In Thy Soul, Beauty And Virtue Shine Forever Round Thee, Bright'ning Each Other! Thou Art All Divine!

Justice Is That Which Is Practiced By God Himself, And To Be Practiced In Its Perfection By None But Him. Omniscience And Omnipotence Are Requisite For The Full Exertion Of It.

It Generally Takes Its Rise Either From An Ill-will To Mankind, A Private Inclination To Make Ourselves Esteemed, An Ostentation Of Wit, And Vanity Of Being Thought In The Secrets Of The World; Or From A Desire Of Gratifying Any Of These Dispositions Of Mind In Those Persons With Whom We Converse.

A Man Who Has Any Relish For Fine Writing Either Discovers New Beauties Or Receives Stronger Impressions From The Masterly Strokes Of A Great Author Every Time He Peruses Him; Besides That He Naturally Wears Himself Into The Same Manner Of Speaking And Thinking.

Ridicule Is Generally Made Use Of To Laugh Men Out Of Virtue And Good Sense, By Attacking Everything Praiseworthy In Human Life.

The Transition From Cause To Effect, From Event To Event, Is Often Carried On By Secret Steps, Which Our Foresight Cannot Divine, And Our Sagacity Is Unable To Trace.

I Do Not Propose To Our British Ladies, That They Should Turn Amazons In The Service Of Their Sovereign, Nor So Much As Let Their Nails Grow For The Defence Of Their Country. The Men Will Take The Work Of The Field Off Their Hands, And Show The World, That English Valour Cannot Be Matched When It Is Animated By English Beauty.

We Cannot Be Guilty Of A Greater Act Of Uncharitableness, Than To Interpret The Afflictions Which Befall Our Neighbors As Punishments And Judgments.

Misery And Ignorance Are Always The Cause Of Great Evils. Misery Is Easily Excited To Anger, And Ignorance Soon Yields To Perfidious Counsels.

If Ridicule Were Employed To Laugh Men Out Of Vice And Folly, It Might Be Of Some Use.

The Chief Ingredients In The Composition Of Those Qualities That Gain Esteem And Praise, Are Good Nature, Truth, Good Sense, And Good Breeding.

Troops Of Heroes Undistinguished Die.

But In All Despotic Governments, Though A Particular Prince May Favour Arts And Letter, There Is A Natural Degeneracy Of Mankind.

I'm Weary Of Conjectures, - This Must End 'em. Thus Am I Doubly Armed: My Death And Life, My Bane And Antidote, Are Both Before Me: This In A Moment Brings Me To An End; But This Informs Me I Shall Never Die. The Soul, Secured In Her Existence, Smiles At The Drawn Dagger, And Defies Its Point. The Stars Shall Fade Away, The Sun Himself Grow Dim With Age, And Nature Sink In Years; But Thou Shalt Flourish In Immortal Youth, Unhurt Amidst The War Of Elements, The Wrecks Of Matter, And The Crush Of Worlds.

That He Delights In The Misery Of Others No Man Will Confess, And Yet What Other Motive Can Make A Father Cruel?

Modesty Is Not Only An Ornament, But Also A Guard To Virtue.

Yet Then From All My Grief, O Lord, Thy Mercy Set Me Free, Whilst In The Confidence Of Pray'r My Soul Took Hold On Thee.

True Happiness Arises, In The First Place, From The Enjoyment Of One's Self, And In The Next, From The Friendship And Conversation Of A Few Select Companions.

This Party Spirit Has So Ill An Effect On Our Morals, It Has Likewise A Very Great One Upon Our Judgments.

There Is Not A More Pleasing Exercise Of The Mind Than Gratitude. It Is Accompanied With Such An Inward Satisfaction That The Duty Is Sufficiently Rewarded By The Performance

It Is Of Unspeakable Advantage To Possess Our Minds With An Habitual Good Intention, And To Aim All Our Thoughts, Words, And Actions At Some Laudable End.

Good Intentions

A True Critic Ought To Dwell Upon Excellencies Rather Than Imperfections, To Discover The Concealed Beauties Of A Writer, And Communicate To The World Such Things As Are Worth Their Observation.

No Oppression Is So Heavy Or Lasting As That Which Is Inflicted By The Perversion And Exorbitance Of Legal Authority.

A Person May Be Qualified To Do Greater Good To Mankind And Become More Beneficial To The World, By Morality Without Faith Than By Faith Without Morality.

There Is A Great Amity Between Designing And Art.

When All Thy Mercies, O My God, My Rising Soul Surveys, Transported With The View I'm Lost, In Wonder, Love And Praise.

Many Actions Calculated To Procure Fame Are Not Conducive To Ultimate Happiness.

Ultimate Happiness

Soon As The Evening Shades Prevail, The Moon Takes Up The Wondrous Tale, And Nightly To The Listening Earth Repeats The Story Of Her Birth.

There Is Something Very Sublime, Though Very Fanciful, In Plato's Description Of The Supreme Being,--that Truth Is His Body And Light His Shadow. According To This Definition There Is Nothing So Contradictory To His Nature As Error And Falsehood.

The Lives Of Great Men Cannot Be Writ With Any Tolerable Degree Of Elegance Or Exactness Within A Short Time After Their Decease.

An Honest Man, That Is Not Quite Sober, Has Nothing To Fear.

Education Is A Companion Which No Misfortune Can Depress, No Crime Can Destroy, No Enemy Can Alienate, No Despotism Can Enslave. At Home, A Friend, Abroad, An Introduction, In Solitude A Solace And In Society An Ornament. It Chastens Vice, It Guides Virtue, It Gives At Once Grace And Government To Genius. Without It, What Is Man? A Splendid Slave, A Reasoning Savage.

A Cloudy Day Or A Little Sunshine Have As Great An Influence On Many Constitutions As The Most Recent Blessings Or Misfortunes.

Nature Does Nothing Without Purpose Or Uselessly.

Eternity! Thou Pleasing Dreadful Thought! Through What Variety Of Untried Being, Through What New Scenes And Changes Must We Pass!

A State Of Temperance, Sobriety And Justice Without Devotion Is A Cold, Lifeless, Insipid Condition Of Virtue, And Is Rather To Be Styled Philosophy Than Religion.

There Is No Passion That Is Not Finely Expressed In Those Parts Of The Inspired Writings Which Are Proper For Divine Songs And Anthems.

Mirth Is Like A Flash Of Lightning, That Breaks Through A Gloom Of Clouds, And Glitters For A Moment; Cheerfulness Keeps Up A Kind Of Daylight In The Mind, And Fills It With A Steady And Perpetual Serenity.

What Pity Is It That We Can Die, But Once To Serve Our Country.

Cleanliness May Be Defined To Be The Emblem Of Purity Of Mind.

The Productions Of A Great Genius, With Many Lapses And Inadvertences, Are Infinitely Preferable To The Works Of An Inferior Kind Of Author Which Are Scrupulously Exact, And Conformable To All The Rules Of Correct Writing.

The Man Who Lives By Hope, Will Die By Hunger.

In The Loss Of An Object We Do Not Proportion Our Grief To The Real Value It Bears, But To The Value Our Fancies Set Upon It.

Health And Cheerfulness Naturally Beget Each Other.

Plutarch Has Written An Essay On The Benefits Which A Man May Receive From His Enemies; And Among The Good Fruits Of Enmity, Mentions This In Particular, That By The Reproaches Which It Casts Upon Us, We See The Worst Side Of Ourselves.

For Wheresoe'er I Turn My Ravish'd Eyes, Gay Gilded Scenes And Shining Prospects Rise, Poetic Fields Encompass Me Around, And Still I Seem To Tread On Classic Ground.

The Religious Man Fears, The Man Of Honor Scorns, To Do An Ill Action.

A Man Who Is Furnished With Arguments From The Mint Will Convince His Antagonist Much Sooner Than One Who Draws Them From Reason And Philosophy.

Great Pompey's Shade Complains That We Are Slow, And Scipio's Ghost Walks Unavenged Amongst Us!

What Can That Man Fear Who Takes Care To Please A Being That Is Able To Crush All His Adversaries?

A Contemplation Of God's Works, A Generous Concern For The Good Of Mankind, And The Unfeigned Exercise Of Humility Only, Denominate Men Great And Glorious.

The Discreet Man Finds Out The Talents Of Those He Converses With, And Knows How To Apply Them To Proper Uses. Accordingly, If We Look Into Particular Communities And Divisions Of Men, We May Observe That It Is The Discreet Man, Not The Witty, Nor The Learned, Nor The Brave, Who Guides The Conversation, And Gives Measures To The Society.

Supposing All The Great Points Of Atheism Were Formed Into A Kind Of Creed, I Would Fain Ask Whether It Would Not Require An Infinite Greater Measure Of Faith Than Any Set Of Articles Which They So Violently Oppose.

From Hence, Let Fierce Contending Nations Know, What Dire Effects From Civil Discord Flow.

A Man Who Is Furnished With Arguments From The Mint, Will Convince His Antagonist Much Sooner Than One Who Draws Them From Reason And Philosophy. - Gold Is A Wonderful Clearer Of The Understanding; It Dissipates Every Doubt And Scruple In An Instant; Accommodates Itself To The Meanest Capacities; Silences The Loud And Clamorous, And Cringes Over The Most Obstinate And Inflexible. - Philip Of Macedon Was A Man Of Most Invincible Reason This Way. He Refuted By It All The Wisdom Of Athens; Confounded Their Statesmen; Struck Their Orators Dumb; And At Length Argued Them Out Of All Their Liberties.

It Must Be A Prospect Pleasing To God Himself To See His Creation Forever Beautifying In His Eyes, And Drawing Nearer Him By Greater Degrees Of Resemblance.

There Is Nobody So Weak Of Invention That Cannot Make Some Little Stories To Villify His Enemy.

There Is Not A More Melancholy Object Than A Man Who Has His Head Turned With Religious Enthusiasm.

The English Delight In Silence More Than Any Other European Nation, If The Remarks Which Are Made On Us By Foreigners Are True.

Charity Is A Virtue Of The Heart, And Not Of The Hands.

Is There Not Some Chosen Curse, Some Hidden Thunder In The Stores Of Heaven, Red With Uncommon Wrath, To Blast The Man Who Owes His Greatness To His Country's Ruin!

As Vivacity Is The Gift Of Women, Gravity Is That Of Men.

Guard Thy Heart On This Weak Side, Where Most Our Nature Fails.

The Union Of The Word And The Mind Produces That Mystery Which Is Called Life... Learn Deeply Of The Mind And Its Mystery, For Therein Lies The Secret Of Immortality.

Were A Man's Sorrows And Disquietudes Summed Up At The End Of His Life, It Would Generally Be Found That He Had Suffered More From The Apprehension Of Such Evils As Never Happened To Him Than From Those Evils Which Had Really Befallen Him.

It Must Be So,-plato, Thou Reasonest Well! Else Whence This Pleasing Hope, This Fond Desire, This Longing After Immortality? Or Whence This Secret Dread And Inward Horror Of Falling Into Naught? Why Shrinks The Soul Back On Herself, And Startles At Destruction? 't Is The Divinity That Stirs Within Us; 't Is Heaven Itself That Points Out An Hereafter, And Intimates Eternity To Man. Eternity! Thou Pleasing, Dreadful Thought!

Among All Kinds Of Writing, There Is None In Which Authors Are More Apt To Miscarry Than In Works Of Humour, As There Is None In Which They Are More Ambitious To Excel.

The Moderns Cannot Reach Their Beauties, But Can Avoid Their Imperfections.

Authors Have Established It As A Kind Of Rule, That A Man Ought To Be Dull Sometimes; As The Most Severe Reader Makes Allowances For Many Rests And Nodding-places In A Voluminous Writer.

The Great Art In Writing Advertisements Is The Finding Out Of A Proper Method To Catch The Reader's Eye; Without Which, A Good Thing May Pass Over Unobserved, Or Lost Among Commissions Of Bankrupt.

A Good Disposition Is More Valuable Than Gold, For The Latter Is The Gift Of Fortune, But The Former Is The Dower Of Nature.

Method Is Not Less Requisite In Ordinary Conversation Than In Writing, Provided A Man Would Talk To Make Himself Understood.

The Greatest Parts, Without Discretion As Observed By An Elegant Writer, May Be Fatal To Their Owner; As Polyphemus, Deprived Of His Eyes, Was Only The More Exposed On Account Of His Enormous Strength And Stature.

I Never Knew An Early-rising, Hard-working, Prudent Man, Careful Of His Earnings And Strictly Honest, Who Complained Of Hard Luck. A Good Character, Good Habits And Iron Industry Are Impregnable To The Assaults Of All Ill-luck That Fools Ever Dreamed.

It Is Certain That There Is No Other Passion Which Does Produce Such Contrary Effects In So Great A Degree. But This May Be Said For Love, That If You Strike It Out Of The Soul, Life Would Be Insipid, And Our Being But Half Animated.

The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare, And Feed Me With A Shepherd's Care; His Presence Shall My Wants Supply, And Guard Me With A Watchful Eye.

Admiration Is A Very Short Lived Passion That Immediately Decays Upon Growing Familiar With Its Object, Unless It Still Be Fed With Fresh Discoveries, And Kept Alive By A New Perpetual Succession Of Miracles Rising Up To Its View.

It Is Folly To Seek The Approbation Of Any Being Besides The Supreme.

I Shall Endeavour To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality, That My Readers May, If Possible, Both Ways Findtheir Account In The Speculation Of The Day.

It Is Odd To Consider The Connection Between Despotism And Barbarity, And How The Making One Person More Than Man Makes The Rest Less.

The Pleasantest Part Of A Man's Life Is Generally That Which Passes In Courtship, Provided His Passion Be Sincere, And The Party Beloved Kind With Discretion. Love, Desire, Hope, All The Pleasing Emotions Of The Soul, Rise In The Pursuit.

On You, My Lord, With Anxious Fear I Wait, And From Your Judgment Must Expect My Fate.

Men Of Warm Imaginations And Towering Thoughts Are Apt To Overlook The Goods Of Fortune Which Are Near Them, For Something That Glitters In The Sight At A Distance; To Neglect Solid And Substantial Happiness For What Is Showy And Superficial; And To Contemn That Good Which Lies Within Their Reach, For That Which They Are Not Capable Of Attaining. Hope Calculates Its Schemes For A Long And Durable Life; Presses Forward To Imaginary Points Of Bliss; Grasps At Impossibilities; And Consequently Very Often Ensnares Men Into Beggary, Ruin, And Dishonour.

Virtue Which Shuns, The Day.

The Greatest Sweetener Of Human Life Is Friendship. To Raise This To The Highest Pitch Of Enjoyment, Is A Secret Which But Few Discover.

There Is A Kind Of Grandeur And Respect Which The Meanest And Most Insignificant Part Of Mankind Endeavor To Procure In The Little Circle Of Their Friends And Acquaintance. The Poorest Mechanic, Nay, The Man Who Lives Upon Common Alms, Gets Him His Set Of Admirers, And Delights In That Superiority Which He Enjoys Over Those Who Are In Some Respects Beneath Him. This Ambition, Which Is Natural To The Soul Of Man, Might, Methinks, Receive A Very Happy Turn; And, If It Were Rightly Directed, Contribute As Much To A Person's Advantage, As It Generally Does To His Uneasiness And Disquiet.

Poverty Palls The Most Generous Spirits; It Cows Industry, And Casts Resolution Itself Into Despair.

Generous Spirit

God Discovers The Martyr And Confessor Without The Trial Of Flames And Tortures, And Will Hereafter Entitle Many To The Reward Of Actions Which They Had Never The Opportunity Of Performing.

Nothing Makes Men Sharper Than Want.

Should A Writer Single Out And Point His Raillery At Particular Persons, Or Satirize The Miserable, He Might Be Sure Of Pleasing A Great Part Of His Readers, But Must Be A Very Ill Man If He Could Please Himself.

Facts Are Plain Spoken; Hopes And Figures Are Its Aversion.

In Rising Sighs And Falling Tears.

The Moral Perfections Of The Deity, The More Attentively, We Consider, The More Perfectly Still Shall We Know Them.

Of All The Diversions Of Life, There Is None So Proper To Fill Up Its Empty Spaces As The Reading Of Useful And Entertaining Authors.

The Statue Lies Hid In A Block Of Marble; And The Art Of The Statuary Only Clears Away The Superfluous Matter, And Removes The Rubbish.

There Is Sometimes A Greater Judgement Shewn In Deviating From The Rules Of Art, Than In Adhering To Them; And?there Ismore Beauty Inthe Works Of A Great Genius Who Is Ignorant Of All The Rules Of Art, Than In The Works Of A Little Genius, Who Not Only Knows But Scrupulously Observes Them.

Physic Is, For The Most Part, Only A Substitute For Temperance And Exercise.

A Jealous Man Is Very Quick In His Application: He Knows How To Find A Double Edge In An Invective, And To Draw A Satire On Himself Out Of A Panegyrick On Another.

It Is Impossible For Us, Who Live In The Latter Ages Of The World, To Make Observations In Criticism, Morality, Or In Any Art Or Science, Which Have Not Been Touched Upon By Others. We Have Little Else Left Us But To Represent The Common Sense Of Mankind In More Strong, More Beautiful, Or More Uncommon Lights.

The Spacious Firmament On High, And All The Blue Ethereal Sky, And Spangled Heavens, A Shining Frame, Their Great Original Proclaim.

Gold Is A Wonderful Clearer Of The Understanding; It Dissipates Every Doubt And Scruple In An Instant.

The Obedience Of Children To Their Parents Is The Basis Of All Government, And Set Forth As The Measure Of That Obedience Which Weowe To Those Whom Providence Hath Placed Over Us.

Among Those Evils Which Befall Us, There Are Many Which Have Been More Painful To Us In The Prospect Than By Their Actual Pressure.

Tis Heaven Itself, That Points Out An Hereafter, And Intimates Eternity To Man.

Men Who Profess A State Of Neutrality In Times Of Public Danger, Desert The Common Interest Of Their Fellow Subjects; And Act With Independence To That Constitution Into Which They Are Incorporated. The Safety Of The Whole Requires Our Joint Endeavours. When This Is At Stake, The Indifferent Are Not Properly A Part Of The Community; Or Rather Are Like Dead Limbs, Which Are An Encumbrance To The Body, Instead Of Being Of Use To It.

As Addictions Go, Reading Is Among The Cleanest, Easiest To Feed, Happiest.

'tis Liberty That Crowns Britannia's Isle, And Makes Her Barren Rocks And Her Bleak Mountains Smile... 'tis Britain's Care To Watch O'er Europe's Fate, And Hold In Balance Each Contending State, To Threaten Bold Presumptuous Kings With War, And Answer Her Afflicted Neighbours' Prayer... Soon As Her Fleets Appear Their Terrors Cease.

Our Sight Is The Most Perfect And Most Delightful Of All Our Senses.

Honour's A Sacred Tie, The Law Of Kings, The Noble Mind's Distinguishing Perfection That Aids And Strengthens Virtue Where It Meets Her And Imitates Her Actions Where She Is Not: It Is Not To Be Sported With.

There Are Many More Shining Qualities In The Mind Of Man, But There Is None So Useful As Discretion.

A Man Improves More By Reading The Story Of A Person Eminent For Prudence And Virtue, Than By The Finest Rules And Precepts Of Morality.

The End Of A Man's Life Is Often Compared To The Winding Up Of A Well Written Play, Where The Principal Persons Still Act In Character, Whatever The Fate In Which They Undergo.

The Fashionable World Is Grown Free And Easie; Our Manners Sit More Loose Upon Us: Nothing Is So Modish As An Agreeable Negligence. In A Word, Good Breeding Shows It Self Most, Where To An Ordinary Eye It Appears The Least.

The Greatest Sweetener Of Human Life Is Friendship.

The Friendships Of The World Are Oft Confederacies In Vice, Or Leagues Of Pleasures.

A Virtuous Mind In A Fair Body Is Indeed A Fine Picture In A Good Light, And Therefore It Is No Wonder That It Makes The Beautiful Sex All Over Charms.

I Have Often Thought If The Minds Of Men Were Laid Open, We Should See But Little Difference Between That Of The Wise Man And That Of The Fool. There Are Infinite Reveries, Numberless Extravagances, And A Perpetual Train Of Vanities Which Pass Through Both. The Great Difference Is, That The First Knows How To Pick And Cull His Thoughts For Conversation, By Suppressing Some, And Communicating Others; Whereas The Other Lets Them All Indifferently Fly Out In Words.

It Is Wonderful To See Persons Of Sense Passing Away A Dozen Hours Together In Shuffling And Dividing A Pack Of Cards.

Knowledge Is, Indeed, That Which, Next To Virtue, Truly And Essentially Raises One Man Above Another.

Three Grand Essentials To Happiness In This Life Are Something To Do, Something To Love, And Something To Hope For.

Men May Change Their Climate, But They Cannot Change Their Nature. A Man That Goes Out A Fool Cannot Ride Or Sail Himself Into Common Sense.

A Great Large Book Is A Great Evil.

I Am Wonderfully Pleased When I Meet With Any Passage In An Old Greek Or Latin Author, That Is Not Blown Upon, And Which I Have Never Met With In Any Quotation.

The Only Way Therefore To Try A Piece Of Wit, Is To Translate It Into A Different Language: If It Bears The Test You May Pronounceit True; But If It Vanishes In The Experiment You May Conclude It To Have Been A Punn.

Colors Speak All Languages.

Allegories, When Well Chosen, Are Like So Many Tracks Of Light In A Discourse, That Make Everything About Them Clear And Beautiful.

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good.

Our Real Blessings Often Appear To Us In The Shape Of Pains, Losses And Disappointments; But Let Us Have Patience And We Soon Shall See Them In Their Proper Figures.

It Is Only Imperfection That Complains Of What Is Imperfect. The More Perfect We Are The More Gentle And Quiet We Become Towards The Defects Of Others.

When A Man Is Made Up Wholly Of The Dove, Without The Least Grain Of The Serpent In His Composition, He Becomes Ridiculous In Many Circumstances Of Life, And Very Often Discredits His Best Actions.

An Evil Intention Perverts The Best Actions, And Makes Them Sins.

The Utmost We Can Hope For In This World Is Contentment; If We Aim At Anything Higher, We Shall Meet With Nothing But Grief And Disappointment. A Man Should Direct All His Studies And Endeavors At Making Himself Easy Now And Happy Hereafter.

A Man That Has A Taste Of Music, Painting, Or Architecture, Is Like One That Has Another Sense, When Compared With Such As Have No Relish Of Those Arts

The Dawn Is Overcast, The Morning Lowers, And Heavily In Clouds Brings On The Day, The Great, The Important Day, Big With The Fate Of Cato And Of Rome.

The Utmost Extent Of Man's Knowledge, Is To Know That He Knows Nothing.

A Satire Should Expose Nothing But What Is Corrigible, And Should Make A Due Discrimination Between Those That Are And Those That Are Not The Proper Objects Of It.

A Wealthy Doctor Who Can Help A Poor Man, And Will Not Without A Fee, Has Less Sense Of Humanity Than A Poor Ruffian, Who Kills A Rich Man To Supply His Necessities.

Content Has A Kindly Influence On The Soul Of Man, In Respect Of Every Being To Whom He Stands Related. It Extinguishes All Murmuring, Repining, And Ingratitude Toward That Being Who Has Allotted Us Our Part To Act In The World. It Destroys All Inordinate Ambition; Gives Sweetness To The Conversation, And Serenity To All The Thoughts; And If It Does Not Bring Riches, It Does The Same Thing By Banishing The Desire Of Them.

Talking With A Friend Is Nothing Else But Thinking Aloud.

The Most Violent Appetites In All Creatures Are Lust And Hunger; The First Is A Perpetual Call Upon Them To Propagate Their Kind, The Latter To Preserve Themselves.

Reason Shows Itself In All Occurrences Of Life; Whereas The Brute Makes No Discovery Of Such A Talent, But In What Immediately Regards His Own Preservation Or The Continuance Of His Species.

How Is It Possible For Those Who Are Men Of Honor In Their Persons, Thus To Become Notorious Liars In Their Party

Marriage Enlarges The Scene Of Our Happiness And Miseries. A Marriage Of Love Is Pleasant; A Marriage Of Interest, Easy; And A Marriage Where Both Meet, Happy. A Happy Marriage Has In It All The Pleasures Of Friendship, All The Enjoyments Of Sense And Reason, And, Indeed, All The Sweets Of Life.

It Is Usual For A Man Who Loves Country Sports To Preserve The Game In His Own Grounds, And Divert Himself Upon Those That Belongto His Neighbour.

The Man Who Will Live Above His Present Circumstances, Is In Great Danger Of Soon Living Beneath Them; Or As The Italian Proverb Says, "the Man That Lives By Hope, Will Die By Despair.

What Sculpture Is To A Block Of Marble, Education Is To The Human Soul.

Friendships, In General, Are Suddenly Contracted; And Therefore It Is No Wonder They Are Easily Dissolved.

A Solid And Substantial Greatness Of Soul Looks Down With Neglect On The Censures And Applauses Of The Multitude.

Words, When Well Chosen, Have So Great A Force In Them, That A Description Often Gives Us More Lively Ideas Than The Sight Of Things Themselves.

The Great Number Of The Jews Furnishes Us With A Sufficient Cloud Of Witnesses That Attest The Truth Of The Bible.

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