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Plenty Is The Original Cause Of Many Of Our Needs; And Even The Poverty, Which Is So Frequent And Distressful In Civilized Nations, Proceeds Often From That Change Of Manners Which Opulence Has Produced. Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries; But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.

-Samuel Johnson

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Plenty Is The Original

Samuel Johnson

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Plenty Is The Original Cause Of Many Of Our Needs; And Even The Poverty, Which Is So Frequent And Distressful In Civilized Nations, Proceeds Often From That Change Of Manners Which Opulence Has Produced. Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries; But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.

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Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance.

History Can Be Formed From Permanent Monuments And Records; But Lives Can Only Be Written From Personal Knowledge, Which Is Growing Every Day Less, And In A Short Time Is Lost Forever.

Personal Knowledge

We Are Unreasonably Desirous To Separate The Goods Of Life From Those Evils Which Providence Has Connected With Them, And To Catch Advantages Without Paying The Price At Which They Are Offered To Us. Every Man Wishes To Be Rich, But Very Few Have The Powers Necessary To Raise A Sudden Fortune, Either By New Discoveries, Or By Superiority Of Skill In Any Necessary Employment; And Among Lower Understandings Many Want The Firmness And Industry Requisite To Regular Gain And Gradual Acquisitions.

There Must Always Be Some Advantage On One Side Or The Other, And It Is Better That Advantage Should Be Had By Talents Than By Chance.

Great Works Are Performed, Not By Strength, But By Perseverance. Those That Walk With Vigor, Three Hours A Day, Will Pass In Seven Years A Space Equal To The Circumference Of The Globe.

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.

Long Customs Are Not Easily Broken; He That Attempts To Change The Course Of His Own Life Very Often Labors In Vain; And How Shall We Do That For Others, Which We Are Seldom Able To Do For Ourselves.

The Love Of Fame Is A Passion Natural And Universal, Which No Man, However High Or Mean, However Wise Or Ignorant, Was Yet Able To Despise.

No Man Can Enjoy Happiness Without Thinking That He Enjoys It.

Happiness Consists In The Multiplicity Of Agreeable Consciousness.

Cunning Has Effect From The Credulity Of Others, Rather Than From The Abilities Of Those Who Are Cunning. It Requires No Extraordinary Talents To Lie And Deceive.

An Exotic And Irrational Entertainment, Which Has Been Always Combated, And Always Has Prevailed.

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.

No Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.

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.

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

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

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

Worth Seeing, Yes; But Not Worth Going To See.

Inspiring Travel

I Am A Friend To Subordination, As Most Conducive To The Happiness Of Society. There Is A Reciprocal Pleasure In Governing And Being Governed.

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

No Man Will Be Found In Whose Mind Airy Notions Do Not Sometimes Tyrannize, And Force Him To Hope Or Fear Beyond The Limits Of Sober Probability.

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

Truth, Such As Is Necessary To The Reputation Of Life, Is Always Found Where It Is Honestly Sought.

Criticism Is A Study By Which Men Grow Important And Formidable At Very Small Expense. The Power Of Invention Has Been Conferred By Nature Upon Few, And The Labour Of Learning Those Sciences Which May, By Mere Labour, Be Obtained, Is Too Great To Be Willingly Endured; But Every Man Can Exert Some Judgment As He Has Upon The Works Of Others; And He Whom Nature Has Made Weak, And Idleness Keeps Ignorant, May Yet Support His Vanity By The Name Of Critic.

Every Government Is Perpetually Degenerating Towards Corruption, From Which It Must Be Rescued At Certain Periods By The Resuscitation Of Its First Principles, And The Re-establishment Of Its Original Constitution.

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.

The Really Happy Woman Is The One Who Can Enjoy The Scenery When She Has To Take A Detour. Happiness Is Not A State To Arrive At, But Rather A Manner Of Traveling.

No Evil Is Insupportable But That Which Is Accompanied With Consciousness Of Wrong.

Our Senses, Our Appetite, And Our Passions Are Our Lawful And Faithful Guides In Things That Relate Solely To This Life.

None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.

If A Man Could Say Nothing Against A Character But What He Can Prove, History Could Not Be Written.

Must Helpless Man, In Ignorance Sedate, Roll Darkly Down The Torrent Of His Fate.

He Who Expects Much Will Be Often Disappointed; Yet Disappointment Seldom Cures Us Of Expectation, Or Has Any Other Effect Than That Of Producing A Moral Sentence Or Peevish Exclamation.

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

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

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

If A Man Has A Science To Learn He Must Regularly And Resolutely Advance.

I Know Not Any Crime So Great That A Man Could Contrive To Commit As Poisoning The Sources Of Eternal Truth.

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

Politeness Is One Of Those Advantages Which We Never Estimate Rightly But By The Inconvenience Of Its Loss.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City, After A Distant Prospect. Remotely, We See Nothing But Spires Of Temples And Turrets Of Palaces, And Imagine It The Residence Of Splendour, Grandeur, And Magnificence; But When We Have Passed The Gates, We Find It Perplexed With Narrow Passages, Disgraced With Despicable Cottages, Embarrassed With Obstructions, And Clouded With Smoke.

Prosperity's Right Hand Is Industry And Her Left Hand Is Frugality.

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.

Pain And Disease Awaken Us To Convictions Which Are Necessary To Our Moral Condition.

Marriage Is The Strictest Tie Of Perpetual Friendship, And There Can Be No Friendship Without Confidence, And No Confidence Without Integrity; And He Must Expect To Be Wretched, Who Pays To Beauty, Riches, Or Politeness That Regard Which Only Virtue And Piety Can Claim.

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.

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.

He Endearing Elegance Of Female Friendship.

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

A Man Of Genius Has Been Seldom Ruined But By Himself.

Allegories Drawn To Great Length Will Always Break.

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

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

The King Who Makes War On His Enemies Tenderly Distresses His Subjects Most Cruelly.

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

I Have No More Pleasure In Hearing A Man Attempting Wit And Failing, Than In Seeing A Man Trying To Leap Over A Ditch And Tumbling Into It

Tediousness Is The Most Fatal Of All Faults.

The Process Is The Reality.

The Ambition Of Superior Sensibility And Superior Eloquence Disposes The Lovers Of Arts To Receive Rapture At One Time, And Communicate It At Another; And Each Labors First To Impose Upon Himself And Then To Propagate The Imposture.

Where No Man Thinks Himself Under Any Obligation To Submit To Another, And, Instead Of Co-operating In One Great Scheme, Every One Hastens Through By-paths To Private Profit, No Great Change Can Suddenly Be Made; Nor Is Superior Knowledge Of Much Effect, Where Every Man Resolves To Use His Own Eyes And His Own Judgment, And Every One Applauds His Own Dexterity And Diligence, In Proportion As He Becomes Rich Sooner Than His Neighbour.

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

The Mathematicians Are Well Acquainted With The Difference Between Pure Science, Which Has Only To Do With Ideas, And The Application Of Its Laws To The Use Of Life, In Which They Are Constrained To Submit To The Imperfections Of Matter And The Influence Of Accidents.

When Desperate Ills Demand A Speedy Cure, Distrust Is Cowardice, And Prudence Folly.

Don't Tell Me Of Deception; A Lie Is A Lie, Whether It Be A Lie To The Eye Or A Lie To The Ear.

Every Man Has Frequent Grievances Which Only The Solicitude Of Friendship Will Discover And Remedy, And Which Would Remain For Ever Unheeded In The Mighty Heap Of Human Calamity, Were It Only Surveyed By The Eye Of General Benevolence Equally Attentive To Every Misery.

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

The Only End Of Writing Is To Enable Readers Better To Enjoy Life Or Better To Endure It.

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.

That Distrust Which Intrudes So Often On Your Mind Is A Mode Of Melancholy, Which, If It Be The Business Of A Wise Man To Be Happy, It Is Foolish To Indulge; And If It Be A Duty To Preserve Our Faculties Entire For Their Proper Use, It Is Criminal. Suspicion Is Very Often An Useless Pain.

Fate Wings, With Every Wish, The Afflictive Dart, Each Gift Of Nature, And Each Grace Of Art.

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.

Prudence Operates On Life In The Same Manner As Rule Of Composition; It Produces Vigilance Rather Than Elevation; Rather Prevents Loss Than Procures Advantage; And Often Miscarriages, But Seldom Reaches Either Power Or Honor.

Tea's Proper Use Is To Amuse The Idle, And Relax The Studious, And Dilute The Full Meals Of Those Who Cannot Use Exercise, And Will Not Use Abstinence.

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

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Are Always Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel. Pity Is Acquired And Improved By The Cultivation Of Reason. We May Have Uneasy Sensations From Seeing A Creature In Distress, Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

Criticism, As It Was First Instituted By Aristotle, Was Meant As A Standard Of Judging Well.

A Blade Of Grass Is Always A Blade Of Grass, Whether In One Country Or Another.

In Such A Government As Ours No Man Is Appointed To An Office Because He Is The Fittest For It--nor Hardly In Any Other Government--because There Are So Many Connections And Dependencies To Be Studied.

How Gloomy Would Be The Mansions Of The Dead To Him Who Did Not Know That He Should Never Die: That What Now Acts Shall Continue Its Agency, And What Now Thinks Shall Think On Forever!

Every Man Is Prompted By The Love Of Himself To Imagine That He Possesses Some Qualities Superior, Either In Kind Or Degree, To Those Which He Sees Allotted To The Rest Of The World.

You Teach Your Daughters The Diameters Of The Planets And Wonder When You Are Done That They Do Not Delight In Your Company.

You Raise Your Voice When You Should Reinforce Your Argument.

The Blaze Of Reputation Cannot Be Blown Out, But It Often Dies In The Socket; A Very Few Names May Be Considered As Perpetual Lamps That Shine Unconsumed.

There Are Some Works Which The Authors Must Consign Unpublished To Posterity, However Uncertain Be The Event, However Hopeless Be The Trust. He That Writes The History Of His Own Times, If He Adhere Steadily To Truth, Will Write That Which His Own Times Will Not Easily Endure. He Must Be Content To Reposite His Book Till All Private Passions Shall Cease, And Love And Hatred Give Way To Curiosity.

No Weakness Of The Human Mind Has More Frequently Incurred Animadversion, Than The Negligence With Which Men Overlook Their Own Faults, However Flagrant, And The Easiness With Which They Pardon Them, However Frequently Repeated.

Labor, If It Were Not Necessary For Existence, Would Be Indispensable For The Happiness Of Man.

The Whole Power Of Cunning Is Privative; To Say Nothing, And To Do Nothing , Is The Utmost Of Its Reach. Yet Men, Thus Narrow By Nature And Mean By Art, Are Sometimes Able To Rise By The Miscarriages Of Bravery And The Openness Of Integrity, And, Watching Failures And Snatching Opportunities, Obtain Advantages Which Belong To Higher Characters.

I Have Always Said The First Whig Was The Devil.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

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.

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

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

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

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.

When A Man Feel The Reprehension Of A Friend Seconded By His Own Heart, He Is Easily Heated Into Resentment.

One Of The Most Pernicious Effects Of Haste Is Obscurity.

Every Man Wishes To Be Wise, And They Who Cannot Be Wise Are Almost Always Cunning.

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

The Life Of A Solitary Man Will Be Certainly Miserable, But Not Certainly Devout.

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

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

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

All To Whom Want Is Terrible, Upon Whatever Principle, Ought To Think Themselves Obliged To Learn The Sage Maxims Of Our Parsimonious Ancestors, And Attain The Salutary Arts Of Contracting Expense; For Without Economy None Can Be Rich, And With It Few Can Be Poor.

Who Left Nothing Of Authorship Untouched, And Touched Nothing Which He Did Not Adorn. [lat., Qui Nullum Fere Scribendi Genus Non Tetigit; Nullum Quod Tetigit Non Ornavit.]

If Your Determination Is Fixed, I Do Not Counsel You To Despair. Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill. Great Works Are Performed Not By Strength, But Perseverance.

No Man Can Have Much Kindness For Him By Whom He Does Not Believe Himself Esteemed, And Nothing So Evidently Proves Esteem As Imitation.

Reflect That Life, Like Every Other Blessing, Derives Its Value From Its Use Alone.

Sorrow Is The Mere Rust Of The Soul. Activity Will Cleanse And Brighten It.

Corneille Is To Shakespeare As A Clipped Hedge Is To A Forest.

A Wise Man Is Cured Of Ambition By Ambition Itself; His Aim Is So Exalted That Riches, Office, Fortune And Favour Cannot Satisfy Him.

Our Minds, Like Our Bodies, Are In Continual Flux; Something Is Hourly Lost, And Something Acquired.... Do Not Suffer Life To Stagnate; It Will Grow Muddy For Want Of Motion: Commit Yourself Again To The Current Of The World.

Like An Image In A Dream The World Is Troubled By Love, Hatred, And Other Poisons. So Long As The Dream Lasts, The Image Appears To Be Real; But On Awaking It Vanishes.

Is Not A Patron, My Lord, One Who Looks With Unconcern On A Man Struggling For Life In The Water, And When He Has Reached Ground Encumbers Him With Help? The Notice Which You Have Been Pleased To Take Care Of My Labors, Had It Been Early, Had Been Kind; But It Has Been Delayed Till I Am Indifferent, And Cannot Enjoy It; Till I Am Solitary, And Cannot Impart It; Till I Am Known, And Do Not Want It.

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

I Hope I Shall Never Be Deterred From Detecting What I Think A Cheat, By The Menaces Of A Ruffian.

An Englishman Is Content To Say Nothing When He Has Nothing To Say.

English Language

Every Man Has A Right To Utter What He Thinks Truth, And Every Other Man Has A Right To Knock Him Down For It. Martyrdom Is The Test.

Freedom Of Speech

To Forget, Or Pretend To Do So, To Return A Borrowed Article, Is The Meanest Sort Of Petty Theft.

A Coxcomb Is Ugly All Over With The Effectation Of A Fine Gentleman.

Prepare For Death, If Here At Night You Roam, And Sign Your Will Before You Sup From Home.

Whatever Enlarges Hope Will Also Exalt Courage.

To Do Nothing Is In Everyone's Power.

Pleasure Is Very Seldom Found Where It Is Sought. Our Brightest Blazes Of Gladness Are Commonly Kindled By Unexpected Sparks. The Flowers Which Scatter Their Odours From Time To Time In The Paths Of Life, Grow Up Without Culture From Seeds Scattered By Chance.

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

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

If One Was To Think Constantly Of Death, The Business Of Life Would Stand Still

To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise... Let Him Take A Course Of Chemistry, Or A Course Of Rope-dance, Or A Course Of Any Thing To Which He Is Inclined At The Time. Let Him Contrive To Have As Many Retreats For His Mind As He Can, As Many Things To Which It Can Fly From Itself.

You Despise A Man For Avarice; But You Do Not Hate Him.

Advice, As It Always Gives A Temporary Appearance Of Superiority, Can Never Be Very Grateful, Even When It Is Most Necessary Or Most Judicious; But, For The Same Reason, Every One Is Eager To Instruct His Neighbors.

Unintelligible Language Is A Lantern Without A Light.

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

A Simile, To Be Perfect, Must Both Illustrate And Ennoble The Subject; Must Show It To The Understanding In A Clearer View, And Display It To The Fancy With Greater Dignity; But Either Of These Qualities May Be Sufficient To Recommend It.... That It May Be Complete, It Is Required To Exhibit, Independently Of Its References, A Pleasing Image; For A Simile Is Said To Be A Short Episode.

There Lurks, Perhaps, In Every Human Heart A Desire Of Distinction, Which Inclines Every Man First To Hope, And Then To Believe, That Nature Has Given Him Something Peculiar To Himself.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought.

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

No Man Tells His Opinion So Freely As When He Imagines It Received With Implicit Veneration.

In Order That All Men Might Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It.

His Most Frequent Ailment Was The Headache Which He Used To Relieve By Inhaling The Steam Of Coffee.

Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.

If A Madman Were To Come Into This Room With A Stick In His Hand, No Doubt We Should Pity The State Of His Mind; But Our Primary Consideration Would Be To Take Care Of Ourselves. We Should Knock Him Down First, And Pity Him Afterwards.

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.

The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.

I Am Willing To Love All Of Mankind, Except An American.

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

Political Liberty Is Only Good Insofar As It Produces Private Liberty.

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.

Prejudice, Not Being Founded On Reason, Cannot Be Removed By Argument.

There Is Nothing, Sir, Too Little For So Little A Creature As Man. It Is By Studying Little Things That We Attain The Great Art Of Having As Little Misery And As Much Happiness As Possible.

Then With No Throbs Of Fiery Pain, No Cold Gradations Of Decay, Death Broke At Once The Vital Chain, And Freed His Soul The Nearest Way.

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write.

Solitude Is The Surest Nurse Of All Prurient Passions, And A Girl In The Hurry Of Preparation, Or Tumult Of Gaiety, Has Neither Inclination Nor Leisure To Let Tender Expressions Soften Or Sink Into Her Heart. The Ball, The Show, Are Not The Dangerous Places: No, 'tis The Private Friend, The Kind Consoler, The Companion Of The Easy Vacant Hour, Whose Compliance With Her Opinions Can Flatter Her Vanity, And Whose Conversation Can Sooth, Without Ever Stretching Her Mind, That Is The Lover To Be Feared: He Who Buzzes In Her Ear At Court, Or At The Opera, Must Be Contented To Buzz In Vain.

Misfortunes Should Always Be Expected.

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

Hides From Himself His State, And Shuns To Know That Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

For Who Is Pleased With Himself.

It Is Wonderful What A Difference Learning Makes Upon People Even In The Common Intercourse Of Life, Which Does Not Appear To Be Much Connected With It.

In Civilized Society External Advantages Make Us More Respected. A Man With A Good Coat Upon His Back Meets With A Better Reception Than He Who Has A Bad One. You May Analyze This And Say, What Is There In It? But That Will Avail You Nothing, For It Is A Part Of A General System.

No Man Can Perform So Little As Not To Have Reason To Congratulate Himself On His Merits, When He Beholds The Multitude That Live In Total Idleness, And Have Never Yet Endeavoured To Be Useful.

What Signifies Protesting So Against Flattery When A Person Speaks Well Of One, It Must Either Be True Or False, You Know If True, Let Us Rejoice In His Good Opinion If He Lies, It Is A Proof At Least That He Loves More To Please Me, Than To Sit S

I Have Always Suspected That The Reading Is Right, Which Requires Many Words To Prove It Wrong; And The Emendation Wrong, That Cannot Without So Much Labour Appear To He Right.

Of All Kinds Of Credulity, The Most Obstinate Is That Of Party-spirit; Of Men, Who, Being Numbered, They Know Not Why, In Any Party, Resign The Use Of Their Own Eyes And Ears, And Resolve To Believe Nothing That Does Not Favor Those Whom They Profess To Follow.

If Lawyers Were To Undertake No Causes Till They Were Sure They Were Just, A Man Might Be Precluded Altogether From A Trial Of His Claim, Though, Were It Judicially Examined, It Might Be Found A Very Just Claim.

Few Men Survey Themselves With So Much Severity As Not To Admit Prejudices In Their Own Favour, Which An Artful Flatterer May Gradually Strengthen, Till Wishes For A Particular Qualification Are Improved To Hopes Of Attainment, And Hopes Of Attainment To Belief Of Possession.

The Mere Power Of Saving What Is Already In Our Hands Must Be Of Easy Acquisition To Every Mind; And As The Example Of Lord Bacon May Show That The Highest Intellect Cannot Safely Neglect It, A Thousand Instances Every Day Prove That The Humblest May Practise It With Success.

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

Whoever Commits A Fraud Is Guilty Not Only Of The Particular Injury To Him Who He Deceives, But Of The Diminution Of That Confidence Which Constitutes Not Only The Ease But The Existence Of Society.

No Estimate Is More In Danger Of Erroneous Calculations Than Those By Which A Man Computes The Force Of His Own Genius.

A Small Country Town Is Not The Place In Which One Would Choose To Quarrel With A Wife; Every Human Being In Such Places Is A Spy.

Order Is A Lovely Nymph, The Child Of Beauty And Wisdom; Her Attendants Are Comfort, Neatness, And Activity; Her Abode Is The Valley Of Happiness: She Is Always To Be Found When Sought For, And Never Appears So Lovely As When Contrasted With Her Opponent, Disorder.

Though The Wisdom Or Virtue Of One Can Very Rarely Make Many Happy, The Folly Or Vice Of One Man Often Make Many Miserable.

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

Sir, I Did Not Count Your Glasses Of Wine, Why Should You Number Up My Cups Of Tea?

To Fix The Thoughts By Writing, And Subject Them To Frequent Examinations And Reviews, Is The Best Method Of Enabling The Mind To Detect Its Own Sophisms, And Keep It On Guard Against The Fallacies Which It Practices On Others

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

We Frequently Fall Into Error And Folly, Not Because The True Principles Of Action Are Not Known, But Because For A Time They Are Not Remembered; He May, Therefore, Justly Be Numbered Among The Benefactors Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into Short Sentences That May Early Be Impressed On The Memory, And Taught By Frequent Recollection To Occur Habitually To The Mind.

Smoking Is A Shocking Thing - Blowing Smoke Out Of Our Mouths Into Other People's Mouths, Eyes, And Noses, And Having The Same Thing Done To Us.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet.

Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness. He Whose Inclination Prompts Him To Cultivate Your Friendship Of His Own Accord, Will Love You More Than One Whom You Have Been At Pains To Attach To You.

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

He That Pines With Hunger, Is In Little Care How Others Shall Be Fed. The Poor Man Is Seldom Studious To Make His Grandson Rich.

1. Turn All Care Out Of Your Head As Soon As You Mount The Chaise. 2. Do Not Think About Frugality: Your Health Is Worth More Than It Can Cost. 3. Do Not Continue Any Day's Journey To Fatigue. 4. Take Now And Then A Day's Rest. 5. Get A Smart Seasickness If You Can. 6. Cast Away All Anxiety, And Keep Your Mind Easy. This Last Direction Is The Principal; With An Unquiet Mind Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physic Can Be Of Much Use.

Judgment Is Forced Upon Us By Experience

The Whole Of Life Is But Keeping Away The Thoughts Of Death.

Thoughts Of Death

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

A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make One Book.

Shakespeare Never Had Six Lines Together Without A Fault. Perhaps You May Find Seven, But This Does Not Refute My General Assertion.

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

The Booksellers Are Generous Liberal-minded Men.

Silence Propagates Itself, And The Longer Talk Has Been Suspended, The More Difficult It Is To Find Anything To Say.

A Blaze First Pleases And Then Tires The Sight.

There Are Few So Free From Vanity As Not To Dictate To Those Who Will Hear Their Instructions With A Visible Sense Of Their Own Beneficence.

A Few Men Are Sufficient To Broach Falsehoods, Which Are Afterwards Innocently Diffused By Successive Relaters.

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

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

A Lexicographer, A Writer Of Dictionaries, A Harmless Drudge.

All Argument Is Against It; But All Belief Is For It.

People In General Do Not Willingly Read If They Have Anything Else To Amuse Them.

One Of The Aged Greatest Miseries Is That They Cannot Easily Find A Companion Able To Share The Memories Of The Past.

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Anthony Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins

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