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Sir, When You Have Seen One Green Field, You Have Seen All Green Fields. Let Us Walk Down Cheapside.
-Samuel Johnson
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Sir, When You Have

Samuel Johnson
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Sir, When You Have Seen One Green Field, You Have Seen All Green Fields. Let Us Walk Down Cheapside.

Understanding the Quote: "sir, when you have seen one green field, you have seen all..."

This quote by Samuel Johnson reflects deeply on the theme of country. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Country, Green Fields, Walks, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Samuel Johnson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on country and green fields. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Country
Green Fields
Walks
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While An Author Is Yet Living, We Estimate His Powers By His Worst Performance; And When He Is Dead, We Rate Him By His Best.
Writing
Worst
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There Is Less Flogging In Our Great Schools Than Formerly-but Then Less Is Learned There; So What The Boys Get At One End They Lose At The Other.
Education
Learning
School
It Is A Common Error, And The Greater And More Mischievous For Being So Common, To Believe That Repentance Best Becomes And Most Concerns Dying Men. Indeed, What Is Necessary Every Hour Of Our Life Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too, And As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance, And Therefore It Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too; But He Who Hath Constantly Exercised Himself In It In His Health And Vigor, Will Do It With Less Pain In His Sickness And Weakness; And He Who Hath Practiced It All His Life, Will Do It With More Ease And Less Perplexity In The Hour Of His Death.
Pain
Believe
Men
Whoever Wishes To Attain An English Style, Familiar But Not Coarse, And Elegant But Not Ostentatious, Must Give His Days And Nights To The Volumes Of Addison.
Night
Giving
Style
Men Hate More Steadily Than They Love.
Love
Hate
Men
No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.
Greatness
Imitation
Among The Calamities Of War May Be Justly Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth By Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates And Credulity Encourages. A Peace Will Equally Leave The Warrior And The Relater Of Wars Destitute Of Employment; And I Know Not Whether More Is To Be Dreaded From Streets Filled With Soldiers Accustomed To Plunder, Or From Garrets Filled With Scribblers Accustomed To Lie.
War
Lying
Soldier
By Forbearing To Do What May Innocently Be Done, We May Add Hourly New Vigor To Resolution.
Add
Vigor
Done
As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.
Humility
Pride
Sometimes
Truth, Sir, Is A Cow Which Will Yield Such People No More Milk, And So They Are Gone To Milk The Bull.
Truth
Yield
People
Don't, Sir, Accustom Yourself To Use Big Words For Little Matters.
Inspirational
Language Words
Plain Language
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
Self
Giving
Growth
Men Are Like Stone Jugs - You May Lug Them Where You Like By The Ears.
Men
Jugs
Ears
There Is Nothing Which Has Yet Been Contrived By Man, By Which So Much Happiness Is Produced As By A Good Tavern.
Happiness
Beer
Men
Nay, Sir, Those Who Write In Them, Write Well, In Order To Be Paid Well.
Writing
Order
Wells
It Is Not True That People Are Naturally Equal For No Two People Can Be Together For Even A Half An Hour Without One Acquiring An Evident Superiority Over The Other.
Equality
Two
People
It Is Not Difficult To Conceive, However, That For Many Reasons A Man Writes Much Better Than He Lives. For Without Entering Into Refined Speculations, It May Be Shown Much Easier To Design Than To Perform. A Man Proposes His Schemes Of Life In A State Of Abstraction And Disengagement, Exempt From The Enticements Of Hope, The Solicitations Of Affection, The Importunities Of Appetite, Or The Depressions Of Fear.
Writing
Men
Design
Trust As Little As You Can To Report, And Examine All You Can By Your Own Senses.
Trust
Littles
Senses
Complaints Are Vain; We Will Try To. Do Better Another Time. To-morrow And To-morrow. A Few Designs And A Few Failures, And The Time Of Designing Is Past.
Failure
Past
Design
A Country Is In A Bad State, Which Is Governed Only By Laws; Because A Thousand Things Occur For Which Laws Cannot Provide, And Where Authority Ought To Interpose.
Country
Law
Prison
Every Man Wishes To Be Wise, And They Who Cannot Be Wise Are Almost Always Cunning.
Wise
Men
Wish
The Process Is The Reality.
Reality
Process
This Man [chesterfield], I Thought, Had Been A Lord Among Wits; But I Find He Is Only A Wit Among Lords.
Men
Lord
Wit
All Intellectual Improvement Arises From Leisure.
Work
Intellectual
Statistics
Depend Upon It That If A Man Talks Of His Misfortunes There Is Something In Them That Is Not Disagreeable To Him; For Where There Is Nothing But Pure Misery There Never Is Any Recourse To The Mention Of It.
Failure
Men
Misery
Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded, For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadful Than Its Extinction.
Hope
Frustration
Extinction
I Do Not See, Sir, That It Is Reasonable For A Man To Be Angry At Another, Whom A Woman Has Preferred To Him; But Angry He Is, No Doubt; And He Is Loath To Be Angry At Himself.
Science
Men
Doubt
Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present.
Debt
Flattery
Praise
The Disturbers Of Our Happiness, In This World, Are Our Desires, Our Griefs, And Our Fears.
Life
Happiness
Grief
A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.
Littles
Kingdoms
Revolution
Guilt Has Always Its Horrors And Solicitudes; And, To Make It Yet More Shameful And Detestable, It Is Doomed Often To Stand In Awe Of Those To Whom Nothing Could Give Influence Or Weight But Their Power Of Betraying.
Giving
Guilt
Weight
Life Is A Pill Which None Of Us Can Bear To Swallow Without Gilding.
Life
Pills
Bears
In The Description Of Night In Macbeth, The Beetle And The Bat Detract From The General Idea Of Darkness - Inspissated Gloom.
Night
Ideas
Darkness
In Civilized Society We All Depend Upon Each Other, And Our Happiness Is Very Much Owing To The Good Opinion Of Mankind.
Society
Owing
Opinion
Pleasure That Is Obtained By Unreasonable And Unsuitable Cost Must Always End In Pain.
Pain
Cost
Pleasure
Sir, There Is No End Of Negative Criticism.
Criticism
Negative
Negative Criticism
Parents Are By No Means Exempt From The Intoxication Of Dominion.
Mean
Parent
Dominion
Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Giving Him An Advantage To Which He Is Not Entitled.
Respect
Giving
Advantage
Riches, Perhaps, Do Not So Often Produce Crimes As Incite Accusers.
Riches
Crime
Produce
I Never Have Sought The World; The World Was Not To Seek Me.
World
His Death Eclipsed The Gayety Of Nations, And Impoverished The Public Stock Of Harmless Pleasure.
Death
Pleasure
Nations
There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.
Wisdom
Sorrow
Useless
It Seems Not More Reasonable To Leave The Right Of Printing Unrestrained, Because Writers May Be Afterwards Censured, Than It Would Be To Sleep With Doors Unbolted, Because By Our Laws We Can Hang A Thief.
Sleep
Doors
Law
I Do Not Wonder That, Where The Monastick Life Is Permitted, Every Order Finds Votaries, And Every Monastery Inhabitants. Men Will Submit To Any Rule, By Which They May Be Exempted From The Tyranny Of Caprice And Of Chance. They Are Glad To Supply By External Authority Their Own Want Of Constancy And Resolution, And Court The Government Of Others, When Long Experience Has Convinced Them Of Their Own Inability To Govern Themselves.
Men
Order
Discipline
Instead Of Rating The Man By His Performances, We Rate Too Frequently The Performances By The Man.
Men
He Man
Rating
The Wickedness Of A Loose Or Profane Author Is More Atrocious Than That Of A Giddy Libertine Or Drunken Ravisher, Not Only Because It Extends Its Effects Wider, As A Pestilence That Taints The Air Is More Destructive Than Poison Infused In A Draught, But Because It Is Committed With Cool Deliberation.
Writing
Air
Poison
Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence.
Manners
Politeness
Benevolence
As To The Rout That Is Made About People Who Are Ruined By Extravagance, It Is No Matter To The Nation That Some Individuals Suffer. When So Much General Productive Exertion Is The Consequence Of Luxury, The Nation Does Not Care Though There Are Debtors; Nay, They Would Not Care Though Their Creditors Were There Too.
Luxury
People
Suffering
A Newswriter Is A Man Without Virtue, Who Lies At Home For His Own Profit.
Lying
Home
Men
Why, Sir, Sherry Is Dull, Naturally Dull; But It Must Have Taken Him A Great Deal Of Pains To Become What We Now See Him. Such An Excess Of Stupidity, Sir, Is Not In Nature.
Pain
Stupid
Taken
The Power Of Punishment Is To Silence, Not To Confute.
Punishment
Silence
He That Writes May Be Considered As A Kind Of General Challenger, Whom Every One Has A Right To Attack; Since He Quits The Common Rank Of Life, Steps Forward Beyond The Lists, And Offers His Merit To The Public Judgement. To Commence Author Is To Claim Praise, And No Man Can Justly Aspire To Honour, But At The Hazard Of Disgrace.
Writing
Men
May
A Continual Feast Of Commendation Is Only To Be Obtained By Merit Or By Wealth: Many Are Therefore Obliged To Content Themselves With Single Morsels, And Recompense The Infrequency Of Their Enjoyment By Excess And Riot, Whenever Fortune Sets The Banquet Before Them.
Excess
Merit
Wealth
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.]
Authorship
Touched
Left
Levellers Wish To Level Down As Far As Themselves; But They Cannot Bear Levelling Up To Themselves.
Wish
Levels
Bears
The Rules That I Shall Propose Concerning Secrecy, And From Which I Think It Not Safe To Deviate Without Long And Exact Deliberation, Are, Never To Solicit The Knowledge Of A Secret,--not Willingly, Nor Without Many Limitations, To Accept Such Confidence When It Is Offered; When A Secret Is Once Admitted, To Consider The Trust As Of A Very High Nature, Important As Society And Sacred As Truth, And Therefore Not To Be Violated For Any Incidental Convenience, Or Slight Appearance Of Contrary Fitness.
Thinking
Long
Secret
Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition.
Hope
Anticipation
Conditions
It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.
Chiefs
Policy
Avarice
He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.
Stupid
People
Intelligence
Truth Allows No Choice.
Truth
Choices
He Who Fails To Please In His Salutation And Address Is At Once Rejected, And Never Obtains An Opportunity Of Showing His Latest Excellences Or Essential Qualities.
Opportunity
Excellence
Quality
Human Happiness Has Always Its Abatements; The Brightest Sunshine Of Success Is Not Without A Cloud.
Sunshine
Clouds
Humanity
Providence Has Fixed The Limits Of Human Enjoyment By Immovable Boundaries, And Has Set Different Gratifications At Such A Distance From Each Other, That No Art Or Power Can Bring Them Together. This Great Law It Is The Business Of Every Rational Being To Understand, That Life May Not Pass Away In An Attempt To Make Contradictions Consistent, To Combine Opposite Qualities, And To Unite Things Which The Nature Of Their Being Must Always Keep Asunder.
Art
Distance
Law
Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.
Evil
Secret
Vices
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.
School
Mind
Radiation
Must Helpless Man, In Ignorance Sedate, Roll Darkly Down The Torrent Of His Fate.
Ignorance
Fate
Destiny
Gloomy Calm Of Idle Vacancy.
Vacancy
Calm
Gloomy
Commerce However We May Please Ourselves With The Contrary Opinion, Is One Of The Daughters Of Fortune, Inconstant And Deceitful As Her Mother. She Chooses Her Residence Where She Is Least Expected, And Shifts Her Abode When Her Continuance Is, In Appearance, Most Firmly Settled.
Daughter
Mother
May
No Man Is Without Some Quality, By The Due Application Of Which He Might Deserve Well Of The World; And Whoever He Be That Has But Little In His Power Should Be In Haste To Do That Little, Lest He Be Confounded With Him That Can Do Nothing.
Men
Quality
World
To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.
Dull
Dictionary
Human Reason Borrowed Many Arts From The Instinct Of Animals.
Art
Animal
Reason
Disappointment, When It Involves Neither Shame Nor Loss, Is As Good As Success; For It Supplies As Many Images To The Mind, And As Many Topics To The Tongue.
Success
Disappointment
Loss
It Seems To Be Remarkable That Death Increases Our Veneration For The Good, And Extenuates Our Hatred For The Bad.
Death
Hatred
Increase
That Is The Happiest Conversation Where There Is No Competition, No Vanity, But A Calm, Quiet Interchange Of Sentiments...
Communication
Vanity
Competition
The Coquette Has Companions, Indeed, But No Lovers,--for Love Is Respectful And Timorous; And Where Among Her Followers Will She Find A Husband?
Husband
Love Is
Coquette
There Is Not, Perhaps, To A Mind Well Instructed, A More Painful Occurrence, Than The Death Of One We Have Injured Without Reparation.
Mind
Painful
Human Condition
Every Man Is, Or Hopes To Be, An Idler.
Men
Idlers
Every Man
No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of Spring.
Appreciation
Spring
Flower
A Generous And Elevated Mind Is Distinguished By Nothing More Certainly Than An Eminent Degree Of Curiosity.
Curiosity
Mind
Degrees
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.
Kindness
Heart
Wish
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.
Men
Care
Littles
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.
Men
Mind
Weakness
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.
Country
Sleep
Humanity
All Envy Would Be Extinguished, If It Were Universally Known That There Are None To Be Envied.
Envy
Humanity
Would Be
I Have Always Considered A Clergyman As The Father Of A Larger Family Than He Is Able To Maintain.
Father
Able
Clergymen
The Imitator Treads A Beaten Walk, And With All His Diligence Can Only Find A Few Flowers Or Branches Untouched By His Predecessor, The Refuse Of Contempt, Or The Omissions Of Negligence.
Flower
Omission
Branches
Tediousness Is The Most Fatal Of All Faults.
Writing
Faults
No Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.
Government
Long
Revolution
The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendour Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate; Those Soft Intervals Of Unbended Amusement, In Which A Man Shrinks To His Natural Dimensions, And Throws Aside The Ornaments Or Disguises Which He Feels In Privacy To Be Useless Incumbrances, And To Lose All Effect When They Become Familiar. To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labour Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.
Home
Ambition
Men
I Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.
Enemy
Citizens
Honorable
When The Desire Of Wealth Is Taking Hold Of The Heart, Let Us Look Round And See How It Operates Upon Than Whose Industry Or Fortune Has Obtained It. When We Find Them Oppressed With Their Own Abundance, Luxurious Without Pleasure, Idle Without Ease, Impatient And Querulous In Themselves, And Despised Or Hated By The Rest Of Mankind, We Shall Soon Be Convinced That If The Real Wants Of Our Condition Are Satisfied, There Remains Little To Be Sought With Solicitude Or Desired With Eagerness.
Real
Heart
Desire
The World Will Never Be Long Without Some Good Reason To Hate The Unhappy; Their Real Faults Are Immediately Detected; And If Those Are Not Sufficient To Sink Them Into Infamy, An Individual Weight Of Calumny Will Be Super-added.
Happiness
Hate
Real
The First Years Of Man Must Make Provision For The Last.
Men
Years
Lasts
Large Offers And Sturdy Rejections Are Among The Most Common Topics Of Falsehood.
Rejection
Topics
Common
About Things On Which The Public Thinks Long It Commonly Attains To Think Right.
Thinking
Long
Public Opinion
Commerce Can Never Be At A Stop While One Man Wants What Another Can Supply; And Credit Will Never Be Denied, While It Is Likely To Be Repaid With Profit.
Men
Credit
Want
Whoever Rises Above Those Who Once Pleased Themselves With Equality, Will Have Many Malevolent Gazers At His Eminence.
Rise Above
Eminence
Superiority
There Ambush Here Relentless Ruffians Lay, And Here The Fell Attorney Prowls For Prey.
Law
Ruffian
Relentless
When Desperate Ills Demand A Speedy Cure, Distrust Is Cowardice, And Prudence Folly.
Demand
Desperate
Cowardice
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
Writing
Practice
Mind
Now ... That You Are Going To Marry, Do Not Expect More From Life, Than Life Will Afford.
We Love To Overlook The Boundaries Which We Do Not Wish To Pass.
Love
Temptation
Wish
Admiration And Love Are Like Being Intoxicated With Champagne; Judgment And Friendship Are Like Being Enlivened.
And Love
Admiration
Judgment
Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.
Successful
Moderation
Firmness
Whoever Envies Another Confesses His Superiority.
Jealousy
Envy
Your Jealous
What We Hope Ever To Do With Ease, We Must Learn First To Do With Diligence.
Success
Dance
Life And Love
I Am A Hardened And Shameless Tea Drinker, Who Has, For Twenty Years, Diluted His Meals With Only The Infusion Of This Fascinating Plant; Whose Kettle Has Scarcely Time To Cool; Who With Tea Amuses The Evening, With Tea Solaces The Midnight, And, With Tea, Welcomes The Morning.
Morning
Food
Tea Drinking
Memory Is The Primary And Fundamental Power, Without Which There Could Be No Other Intellectual Operation.
Memories
Intellectual
Fundamentals
We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.
Ignorance
Instruction
Delighted
It Is Wonderful To Think How Men Of Very Large Estates Not Only Spend Their Yearly Income, But Are Often Actually In Want Of Money. It Is Clear, They Have Not Value For What They Spend.
Money
Men
Thinking
A Horse That Can Count To Ten Is A Remarkable Horse, Not A Remarkable Mathematician.
Horse
Animal
Mathematician
Much Mischief Is Done In The World With Very Little Interest Or Design.
Design
Done
World
But Though It Cannot Be Reasonable Not To Gain Happiness For Fear Of Losing It, Yet It Must Be Confessed, That In Proportion To The Pleasure Of Possession, Will Be For Some Time Our Sorrow For The Loss.
Loss
Sorrow
Gains
Hoc Age ['do This'] Is The Great Rule, Whether You Are Serious Or Merry; Whether ... Learning Science Or Duty From A Folio, Or Floating On The Thames. Intentions Must Be Gathered From Acts.
Science
Age
Serious
Round Numbers Are Always False.
Science
Numbers
Statistics
Courtesy And Good-humour Are Often Found With Little Real Worth.
Real
Littles
Courtesy
Still We Love The Evil We Do, Until We Suffer It.
Evil
Suffering
Stills
I Have Protracted My Work Till Most Of Those Whom I Wished To Please Have Sunk Into The Grave, And Success And Miscarriage Are Empty Sounds: I Therefore Dismiss It With Frigid Tranquillity, Having Little To Fear Or Hope From Censure Or From Praise.
Miscarriage
Sound
Apathy
There Are Goods So Opposed That We Cannot Seize Both, But, By Too Much Prudence, May Pass Between Them At Too Great A Distance To Reach Either.
Distance
May
Too Much
If You Want To Be A Writer, Then Write. Write Every Day!
Writing
Want
Ifs
Happiness Is Enjoyed Only In Proportion As It Is Known; And Such Is The State Or Folly Of Man, That It Is Known Only By Experience Of Its Contrary.
Happiness
Men
Joy
Let Him Go Abroad To A Distant Country; Let Him Go To Some Place Where He Is Not Known. Don't Let Him Go To The Devil, Where He Is Known.
Country
Evil
Let Him Go
A Man Who Has Not Been In Italy, Is Always Conscious Of An Inferiority.
Travel
Men
Inferiority
All Travel Has Its Advantages. If The Passenger Visits Better Countries, He May Learn To Improve His Own. And If Fortune Carries Him To Worse, He May Learn To Enjoy It.
Country
Gratitude
Travel
Players, Sir! I Look On Them As No Better Than Creatures Set Upon Tables And Joint Stools To Make Faces And Produce Laughter, Like Dancing Dogs.
Dog
Laughter
Player
To Dread No Eye And To Suspect No Tongue Is The Great Prerogative Of Innocence--an Exemption Granted Only To Invariable Virtue.
Eye
Tongue
Innocence
They Who Most Loudly Clamour For Liberty Do Not Most Liberally Grant It.
Liberty
Clamour
Grants
Lichfield, England. Swallows Certainly Sleep All Winter. A Number Of Them Conglobulate Together, By Flying Round And Round, And Then All In A Heap Throw Themselves Under Water, And Lye In The Bed Of A River.
Sleep
Winter
Rivers
But The Distant Hope Of Being One Day Useful Or Eminent Ought Not To Mislead Us Too Far From That Study Which Is Equally Requisite To The Great And Mean, To The Celebrated And Obscure; The Art Of Moderating The Desires, Of Repressing The Appetites; And Of Conciliating Or Retaining The Favour Of Mankind.
Art
Mean
Mislead Us
All Argument Is Against It; But All Belief Is For It.
Atheism
Belief
Argument
Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.
Musical
Sensual
Vices
To Tell Of Disappointment And Misery, To Thicken The Darkness Of Futurity, And Perplex The Labyrinth Of Uncertainty, Has Been Always A Delicious Employment Of The Poets
Disappointment
Darkness
Labyrinth
He That Thinks He Can Afford To Be Negligent Is Not Far From Being Poor.
Thinking
Poverty
Poor
Knowledge Is Of Two Kinds. We Know A Subject Ourselves, Or We Know Where We Can Find Information Upon It.
Inspirational
Teaching
Learning
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.
Fear
Women
Thinking
The King Who Makes War On His Enemies Tenderly Distresses His Subjects Most Cruelly.
Kings
War
Enemy
There Are Minds So Impatient Of Inferiority That Their Gratitude Is A Species Of Revenge, And They Return Benefits, Not Because Recompense Is A Pleasure, But Because Obligation Is A Pain.
Gratitude
Pain
Revenge
He Was So Generally Civil, That Nobody Thanked Him For It.
Courtesy
Manners
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.
Money
Men
Yesterday
Friends Are Often Chosen For Similitude Of Manners, And Therefore Each Palliates The Other's Failings Because They Are His Own.
Friends
Failing
Manners
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.
Eye
Imagination
Doubt
A Coxcomb Is Ugly All Over With The Effectation Of A Fine Gentleman.
Ignorance
Gentleman
Ugly
A Country Gentleman Should Bring His Lady To Visit London As Soon As He Can, That They May Have Agreeable Topicks For Conversation When They Are By Themselves.
Country
Gentleman
May
Life, To Be Worthy Of A Rational Being, Must Be Always In Progression; We Must Always Purpose To Do More Or Better Than In Time Past.
Past
Purpose
Progression
Fate Wings, With Every Wish, The Afflictive Dart, Each Gift Of Nature, And Each Grace Of Art.
Art
Fate
Wings
If I Have Said Something To Hurt A Man Once, I Shall Not Get The Better Of This By Saying Many Things To Please Him.
Hurt
Men
Persuasion
He Who Has So Little Knowledge Of Human Nature As To Seek Happiness By Changing Anything But His Own Disposition Will Waste His Life In Fruitless Efforts.
Change
Positive
Attitude
We Must Consider How Very Little History There Is--i Mean Real, Authentic History. That Certain Kings Reigned And Certain Battles Were Fought, We Can Depend Upon As True; But All The Coloring, All The Philosophy, Of History Is Conjecture.
Kings
Philosophy
Real
Every Man Speaks And Writes With Intent To Be Understood; And It Can Seldom Happen But He That Understands Himself, Might Convey His Notions To Another, If, Content To Be Understood, He Did Not Seek To Be Admired; But When Once He Begins To Contrive How His Sentiments May Be Received, Not With Most Ease To His Reader, But With Most Advantage To Himself, He Then Transfers His Consideration From Words To Sounds, From Sentences To Periods, And, As He Grows More Elegant, Becomes Less Intelligible.
Writing
Men
Ease
When The Eye Or The Imagination Is Struck With An Uncommon Work, The Next Transition Of An Active Mind Is To The Means By Which It Was Performed
Mean
Eye
Imagination
To Love Their Country Has Been Considered As Virtue In Men, Whose Love Could Not Be Otherwise Than Blind, Because Their Preference Was Made Without, A Comparison; But It Has Never Been My Fortune To Find, Either In Ancient Or Modern Writers, Any Honourable Mention Of Those, Who Have, With Equal Blindness, Hated Their Country.
Country
Men
Ancient
Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.
Progress
Desire
Want
You Think I Love Flattery (says Dr. Johnson), And So I Do; But A Little Too Much Always Disgusts Me: That Fellow Richardson, On The Contrary, Could Not Be Contented To Sail Quietly Down The Stream Of Reputation, Without Longing To Taste The Froth From Every Stroke Of The Oar.
Thinking
Drs
Littles
I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.
Sorry
Kindness
Gambling
There Is No Observation More Frequently Made By Such As Employ Themselves In Surveying The Conduct Of Mankind, Than That Marriage, Though The Dictate Of Nature, And The Institution Of Providence, Is Yet Very Often The Cause Of Misery, And That Those Who Enter Into That State Can Seldom Forbear To Express Their Repentance, And Their Envy Of Those Whom Either Chance Or Caution Hath Withheld From It.
Envy
Causes
Chance
Falsehoods Of Convenience Or Vanity, Falsehoods From Which No Evil Immediately Visible Ensues, Except The General Degradation Of Human Testimony, Are Very Lightly Uttered, And Once Uttered Are Sullenly Supported.
Vanity
Evil
Deceit
In General Those Parents Have The Most Reverence Who Most Deserve It; For He That Lives Well Cannot Be Despised.
Parent
Reverence
Wells
Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.
Beauty
Kindness
Dies
Language Is The Dress Of Thought; Every Time You Talk Your Mind Is On Parade.
Time
Mind
Dresses
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.
Education
Book
Boys
The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.
Enemy
Relief
Affection
Philosophy Has Often Attempted To Repress Insolence By Asserting That All Conditions Are Leveled By Death; A Position Which, However It May Defect The Happy, Will Seldom Afford Much Comfort To The Wretched.
Death
Philosophy
Comfort
The End Of Writing Is To Instruct; The End Of Poetry Is To Instruct By Pleasing.
Art
Writing
Poetry
When Any Anxiety Or Gloom Of The Mind Takes Hold Of You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaining; But Exert Yourselves To Hide It, And By Endeavoring To Hide It You Drive It Away.
Power
Anxiety
Mind
Every Quotation Contributes Something To The Stability Or Enlargement Of Language.
Enlargement
Language
Stability
Whatever You Have Spend Less.
Money
A Man Who Both Spends And Saves Money Is The Happiest Man, Because He Has Both Enjoyments.
Money
Men
Happiest Man
To Set The Mind Above The Appetites Is The End Of Abstinence, Which One Of The Fathers Observes To Be Not A Virtue, But The Groundwork Of Virtue.
Mind
Virtue
Abstinence
Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.
Happiness
Animal
Equality
A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write.
Writing
Successful
Fame
The Business Of Life Is To Go Forward; He Who Sees Evil In Prospect Meets It In His Way, And He Who Catches It By Retrospection Turns Back To Find It. That Which Is Feared May Sometimes Be Avoided, But That Which Is Regretted To-day May Be Regretted Again To-morrow.
Regret
Evil
May
An Exotic And Irrational Entertainment.
Funny
Humorous
Exotic
Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace.
Peace
Cowardice
Mutual
The Triumph Of Hope Over Experience.
Marriage
Funny Love
Hope
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.
Hands
Mind
Guilt
The Habit Of Looking On The Bright Side Of Every Event Is Worth More Than A Thousand Pounds A Year.
Optimistic
Positive Thinking
Years
Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions. The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.
Inspirational
Self Improvement
Desire
In Youth, It Is Common To Measure Right And Wrong By The Opinion Of The World, And In Age, To Act Without Any Measure But Interest, And To Lose Shame Without Substituting Virtue.
Age
World
Opinion
I Have All My Life Long Been Lying In Bed Till Noon; Yet I Tell All Young Men, And Tell Them With Great Sincerity, That Nobody Who Does Not Rise Early Will Ever Do Any Good.
Lying
Men
Long
Hunting Was The Labour Of The Savages Of North America, But The Amusement Of The Gentlemen Of England.
Hunting
America
Gentleman
To Build Is To Be Robbed.
Architecture
Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.
Compromise
Reciprocal
Concessions
Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.
Happiness
Advice
Failing
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.
Lying
Doubt
Mind
The Labor Of Rising From The Ground Will Be Great, ... But As We Mount Higher, The Earth's Attraction, And The Body's Gravity, Will Be Gradually Diminished Till We Arrive At A Region Where The Man Will Float In The Air Without Any Tendency To Fall.
Fall
Men
Air
It Is A Most Mortifying Reflection For A Man To Consider What He Has Done, Compared To What He Might Have Done.
Wisdom
Reflection
Men
Books, Says Lord Bacon, Can Never Teach Us The Use Of Books; The Student Must Learn By Commerce With Mankind To Reduce His Speculations To Practice. No Man Should Think So Highly Of Himself As To Think He Can Receive But Little Light From Books; No One So Meanly, As To Believe He Can Discover Nothing But What Is To Be Learned From Them.
Believe
Book
Men
A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.
Fishing
Hook
Fool
Every Man Prefers Virtue, When There Is Not Some Strong Incitement To Transgress Its Precepts.
Strong
Men
Virtue
Even Those To Whom Providence Has Allotted Greater Strength Of Understanding, Can Expect Only To Improve A Single Science. In Every Other Part Of Learning, They Must Be Content To Follow Opinions, Which They Are Not Able To Examine; And, Even In That Which They Claim As Peculiarly Their Own, Can Seldom Add More Than Some Small Particle Of Knowledge, To The Hereditary Stock Devolved To Them From Ancient Times, The Collective Labour Of A Thousand Intellects.
Knowledge
Science
Understanding
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.
Party
Believe
Eye
In Questions Of Law Or Of Fact Conscience Is Very Often Confounded With Opinion. No Man's Conscience Can Tell Him The Rights Of Another Man; They Must Be Known By Rational Investigation Or Historical Inquiry.
Wisdom
Men
Rights
The Expense Is Damnable, The Position Is Ridiculous, And The Pleasure Fleeting.
Fleeting
Ridiculous
Pleasure
No Man Likes To Live Under The Eye Of Perpetual Disapprobation.
Eye
Men
Likes
Prejudice, Not Being Founded On Reason, Cannot Be Removed By Argument.
Religion
Atheism
Prejudice
Let Him That Desires To See Others Happy, Make Haste To Give While His Gift Can Be Enjoyed, And Remember That Every Moment Of Delay Takes Away Something From The Value Of His Benefaction.
Giving
Desire
Haste
Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.
Evil
Wickedness
Moral
That All Who Are Happy Are Equally Happy Is Not True. A Peasant And A Philosopher May Be Equally Satisfied, But Not Equally Happy. A Small Drinking Glass And A Large One May Be Equally Full, But The Large One Holds More Than The Small.
Happiness
Drinking
Insperational
It Is Very Common For Us To Desire Most What We Are Least Qualified To Obtain.
Desire
Common
Qualified
The Business Of Life Summons Us Away From Useless Grief, And Calls Us To The Exercise Of Those Virtues Of Which We Are Lamenting Our Deprivation.
Grief
Exercise
Useless
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