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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.

-Samuel Johnson

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Solitude Is The Surest

Samuel Johnson

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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.

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

Life Is But Short; No Time Can Be Afforded But For The Indulgence Of Real Sorry, Or Contests Upon Questions Seriously Momentous. Let Us Not Throw Away Any Of Our Days Upon Useless Resentment, Or Contend Who Shall Hold Out Longest In Stubborn Malignity. It Is Best Not To Be Angry; And Best, In The Next Place, To Be Quickly Reconciled.

It Is More Reasonable To Wish For Reputation While It May Be Enjoyed, As Anacreon Calls Upon His Companions To Give Him For Present Use The Wine And Garlands Which They Propose To Bestow Upon His Tomb.

Nay, Madam, When You Are Declaiming, Declaim; And When You Are Calculating, Calculate.

Learn The Leading Precognita Of All Things-no Need To Turn Over Leaf By Leaf, But Grasp The Trunk Hard And You Will Shake All The Branches. Advice Cherished By Samuel Johnson That That, If One Is To Master Any Subject, One Must First Discover Its General Principles.

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.

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

Indolence Is The Devil's Cushion.

Excellence In Any Department Can Be Attained Only By The Labor Of A Lifetime; It Is Not To Be Purchased At A Lesser Price.

Security Will Produce Danger.

The Time Will Come To Every Human Being When It Must Be Known How Well He Can Bear To Die.

The Gratification Of Curiosity Rather Frees Us From Uneasiness Than Confers Pleasure; We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction. Curiosity Is The Thirst Of The Soul; It Inflames And Torments Us, And Makes Us Taste Every Thing With Joy, However Otherwise Insipid, By Which It May Be Quenched.

Genius, That Power Which Constitutes A Poet; That Quality Without Which Judgment Is Cold, And Knowledge Is Inert; That Energy Which Collects, Combines, Amplifies And Animates.

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

A Man Has No More Right To Say An Uncivil Thing Than To Act One; No More Right To Say A Rude Thing To Another Than To Knock Him Down.

A Short Letter To A Distant Friend Is, In My Opinion, An Insult Like That Of A Slight Bow Or Cursory Salutation - A Proof Of Unwillingness To Do Much, Even Where There Is A Necessity Of Doing Something.

Much May Be Made Of A Scotchman, If He Be Caught Young.

Fly-fishing May Be A Very Pleasant Amusement; But Angling Or Float Fishing I Can Only Compare To A Stick And A String, With A Worm At One End And A Fool At The Other.

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

To Read, Write, And Converse In Due Proportions, Is, Therefore, The Business Of A Man Of Letters.

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

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

Among The Numerous Stratagems By Which Pride Endeavors To Recommend Folly To Regard, There Is Scarcely One That Meets With Less Success Than Affectation, Or A Perpetual Disguise Of The Real Character By Fictitious Appearances.

The Main Of Life Is Composed Of Small Incidents And Petty Occurrences; Of Wishes For Objects Not Remote, And Grief For Disappointments Of No Fatal Consequence.

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.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

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

The Complaint, Therefore, That All Topicks Are Preoccupied, Is Nothing More Than The Murmur Of Ignorance Or Idleness, By Which Some Discourage Others, And Some Themselves; The Mutability Of Mankind Will Always Furnish Writers With New Images, And The Luxuriance Of Fancy May Always Embellish Them With New Decorations.

No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of Spring.

Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.

A Woman Of Fortune Being Used The Handling Of Money, Spends It Judiciously; But A Woman Who Gets The Command Of Money For The First Time Upon Her Marriage, Has Such A Gust In Spending It, That She Throws It Away With Great Profusion.

Small Debts Are Like Small Shot; They Are Rattling On Every Side, And Can Scarcely Be Escaped Without A Wound: Great Debts Are Like Cannon; Of Loud Noise, But Little Danger.

To Be Flattered Is Grateful, Even When We Know That Our Praises Are Not Believed By Those Who Pronounce Them; For They Prove, At Least, Our Power, And Show That Our Favour Is Valued, Since It Is Purchased By The Meanness Of Falsehood.

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.

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

A Man Is In General Better Pleased When He Has A Good Dinner Upon His Table, Than When His Wife Talks Greek.

Frequent Discontent Must Proceed From Frequent Hardships.

The Appearance And Retirement Of Actors Are The Great Events Of The Theatrical World; And Their First Performances Fill The Pit With Conjecture And Prognostication, As The First Actions Of A New Monarch Agitate Nations With Hope And Fear.

It Is Not From Reason And Prudence That People Marry, But From Inclination.

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

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

It 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.

Such Is The Common Process Of Marriage. A Youth And Maiden Exchange Meeting By Chance, Or Brought Together By Artifice, Exchange Glances, Reciprocate Civilities, Go Home, And Dream Of One Another. Having Little To Divert Attention, Or Diversify Thought, They Find Themselves Uneasy When They Are Apart, And Therefore Conclude That They Shall Be Happy Together. They Marry, And Discover What Nothing But Voluntary Blindness Had Before Concealed; They Wear Out Life In Altercations, And Charge Nature With Cruelty.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet. From Those Sounds Which We Hear On Small Or On Coarse Occasions, We Do Not Easily Receive Strong Impressions, Or Delightful Images; And Words To Which We Are Nearly Strangers, Whenever They Occur, Draw That Attention On Themselves Which They Should Transmit To Other Things.

Parents And Children Seldom Act In Concert: Each Child Endeavors To Appropriate The Esteem Or Fondness Of The Parents, And The Parents, With Yet Less Temptation, Betray Each Other To Their Children.

But To The Particular Species Of Excellence Men Are Directed, Not By An Ascendant Planet Or Predominating Humour, But By The First Book Which They Read, Some Early Conversation Which They Heard, Or Some Accident Which Excited Ardour And Emulation.

The Animadversions Of Critics Are Commonly Such As May Easily Provoke The Sedatest Writer To Some Quickness Of Resentment And Asperity Of Reply.

Frugality May Be Termed The Daughter Of Prudence, The Sister Of Temperance, And The Parent Of Liberty.

Though The Discoveries Or Acquisitions Of Man Are Not Always Adequate To The Expectations Of His Pride, They Are At Least Sufficient To Animate His Industry.

As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance.

Read Over Your Compositions And Whenever You Meet With A Passage Which You Think Is Particularly Fine, Strike It Out.

Among Many Parallels Which Men Of Imagination Have Drawn Between The Natural And Moral State Of The World, It Has Been Observed That Happiness As Well As Virtue Consists In Mediocrity.

An Italian Philosopher Said That "time Was His Estate"; An Estate Indeed Which Will Produce Nothing Without Cultivation, But Will Always Abundantly Repay The Labors Of Industry, And Generally Satisfy The Most Extensive Desires, If No Part Of It Be Suffered To Lie In Waste By Negligence, To Be Overrun With Noxious Plants, Or Laid Out For Show Rather Than For Use.

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.

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

The Return Of My Birthday, If I Remember It, Fills Me With Thoughts Which It Seems To Be The General Care Of Humanity To Escape.

If Misery Be The Effect Of Virtue, It Ought To Be Reverenced; If Of Ill-fortune, To Be Pitied; And If Of Vice, Not To Be Insulted, Because It Is Perhaps Itself A Punishment Adequate To The Crime By Which It Was Produced.

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.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

When A Man Knows He Is To Be Hanged In A Fortnight, It Concentrates His Mind Wonderfully.

But, Perhaps, The Flatterer Is Not Often Detected; For An Honest Mind Is Not Apt To Suspect, And No One Exerts The Power Of Discernment With Much Vigour When Selflove Favors The Deceit.

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

Cautious Age Suspects The Flattering Form, And Only Credits What Experience Tells.

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.

Hope Is An Amusement Rather Than A Good, And Adapted To None But Very Tranquil Minds.

When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was

In All Pleasures Hope Is A Considerable Part.

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

A Man Should Be Careful Never To Tell Tales Of Himself To His Own Disadvantage. People May Be Amused At The Time, But They Will Be Remembered, And Brought Out Against Him Upon Some Subsequent Occasion.

Claret Is The Liquor For Boys; Port For Men; But He Who Aspires To Be A Hero Must Drink Brandy.

Nothing Is Little To Him That Feels It With Great Sensibility.

In All Evils Which Admit A Remedy, Impatience Is To Be Avoided, Because It Wastes That Time And Attention In Complaints, That, If Properly Applied Might Remove The Cause.

Too Much Vigor In The Beginning Of An Undertaking Often Intercepts And Prevents The Steadiness And Perseverance Always Necessary In The Conduct Of A Complicated Scheme.

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

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.

You Raise Your Voice When You Should Reinforce Your Argument.

To Hear Complaints Is Wearisome Alike To The Wretched And The Happy.

The Richest Author That Ever Grazed The Common Of Literature.

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.

If, Sir, Men Were All Virtuous, I Should With Great Alacrity Teach Them All To Fly. But What Would Be The Security Of The Good If The Bad Could At Pleasure Invade Them From The Sky? Against An Army Sailing Through The Clouds Neither Wall, Nor Mountains, Nor Seas Could Afford Any Security.

Criticism, Though Dignified From The Earliest Ages By The Labours Of Men Eminent For Knowledge And Sagacity, Has Not Yet Attained The Certainty And Stability Of Science.

All Knowledge Is Of Itself Of Some Value. There Is Nothing So Minute Or Inconsiderable, That I Would Not Rather Know It Than Not. In The Same Manner, All Power, Of Whatever Sort, Is Of Itself Desirable. A Man Would Not Submit To Learn To Hem A Ruffle, Of His Wife, Or His Wife's Maid; But If A Mere Wish Could Attain It, He Would Rather Wish To Be Able To Hem A Ruffle.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity. It Becomes Cheap As It Becomes Vulgar, And Will No Longer Raise Expectation Or Animate Enterprise.

We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.

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

Studious To Please, Yet Not Ashamed To Fail.

Friendship Is Seldom Lasting But Between Equals, Or Where The Superiority On One Side Is Reduced By Some Equivalent Advantage On The Other.

Had I Learned To Fiddle, I Should Have Done Nothing Else.

London! The Needy Villain's General Home, The Common Sewer Of Paris And Of Rome! With Eager Thirst, By Folly Or By Fate, Sucks In The Dregs Of Each Corrupted State.

Such Seems To Be The Disposition Of Man, That Whatever Makes A Distinction Produces Rivalry.

To Write Is, Indeed, No Unpleasing Employment, When One Sentiment Readily Produces Another, And Both Ideas And Expressions Present Themselves At The First Summons; But Such Happiness, The Greatest Genius Does Not Always Obtain; And Common Writers Know It Only To Such A Degree, As To Credit Its Possibility. Composition Is, For The Most Part, An Effort Of Slow Diligence And Steady Perseverance, To Which The Mind Is Dragged By Necessity Or Resolution, And From Which The Attention Is Every Moment Starting To More Delightful Amusements.

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Sickness And Captivity Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable.

The Dependant Who Cultivates Delicacy In Himself Very Little Consults His Own Tranquillity.

The Power, Indeed, Of Every Individual Is Small, And The Consequence Of His Endeavours Imperceptible, In A General Prospect Of The World. Providence Has Given No Man Ability To Do Much, That Something Might Be Left For Every Man To Do. The Business Of Life Is Carried On By A General Co-operation; In Which The Part Of Any Single Man Can Be No More Distinguished, Than The Effect Of A Particular Drop When The Meadows Are Floated By A Summer Shower: Yet Every Drop Increases The Inundation, And Every Hand Adds To The Happiness Or Misery Of Mankind.

The Chief Art Of Learning, As Locke Has Observed, Is To Attempt But Little At A Time. The Widest Excursions Of The Mind Are Made By Short Flights Frequently Repeated; The Most Lofty Fabrics Of Science Are Formed By The Continued Accumulation Of Single Propositions.

What Is The Reason That Women Servants ... Have Much Lower Wages Than Men Servants ... When In Fact Our Female House Servants Work Much Harder Than The Male?

Bashfulness May Sometimes Exclude Pleasure, But Seldom Opens Any Avenue To Sorrow Or Remorse.

It Seems To Be Remarkable That Death Increases Our Veneration For The Good, And Extenuates Our Hatred For The Bad.

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

When Female Minds Are Embittered By Age Or Solitude, Their Malignity Is Generally Exerted In A Rigorous And Spiteful Superintendence Of Domestic Trifles.

I Never Desire To Converse With A Man Who Has Written More Than He Has Read.

He That Resigns His Peace To Little Casualties, And Suffers The Course Of His Life To Be Interrupted For Fortuitous Inadvertencies Or Offences, Delivers Up Himself To The Direction Of The Wind, And Loses All That Constancy And Equanimity Which Constitutes The Chief Praise Of A Wise Man.

As All Error Is Meanness, It Is Incumbent On Every Man Who Consults His Own Dignity, To Retract It As Soon As He Discovers It.

In Civilized Society We All Depend Upon Each Other, And Our Happiness Is Very Much Owing To The Good Opinion Of Mankind.

Women Have Two Weapons - Cosmetics And Tears

The Disturbers Of Our Happiness, In This World, Are Our Desires, Our Griefs, And Our Fears.

Other Things May Be Seized By Might, Or Purchased With Money, But Knowledge Is To Be Gained Only By Study, And Study To Be Prosecuted Only In Retirement.

Idleness Is Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry. He That Neglects His Known Duty And Real Employment Naturally Endeavours To Crowd His Mind With Something That May Bar Out The Remembrance Of His Own Folly, And Does Any Thing But What He Ought To Do With Eager Diligence, That He May Keep Himself In His Own Favour.

...a Common Observation, That Few Are Mended By Imprisonment, And That He, Whose Crimes Have Made Confinement Necessary, Seldom Makes Any Other Use Of His Enlargement, Than To Do, With Greater Cunning, What He Did Before With Less.

Riches Exclude Only One Inconvenience,--that Is, Poverty.

It Is The Care Of A Very Great Part Of Mankind To Conceal Their Indigence From The Rest. They Support Themselves By Temporary Expedients, And Every Day Is Lost In Contriving For To-morrow.

Gaiety Is To Good-humor As Animal Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance. The One Overpowers Weak Spirits, The Other Recreates And Revives Them. Gaiety Seldom Fails To Give Some Pain; Good-humor Boasts No Faculties Which Every One Does Not Believe In His Own Power, And Pleases Principally By Not Offending.

Never Mind The Use--do It!

Time Is, Of All Modes Of Existence, Most Obsequious To The Imagination.

Many Things Difficult To Design Prove Easy To Performance.

Happiness," Said He, "must Be Something Solid And Permanent, Without Fear And Without Uncertainty.

The Majority Of A Society Is The True Definition Of The Public.

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.

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.

There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness Than To Be Able To Look Back On A Life Usefully And Virtuously Employed, To Trace Our Own Progress In Existence, By Such Tokens As Excite Neither Shame Nor Sorrow.

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

Without Frugality None Can Be Rich, And With It Very Few Would Be Poor.

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.

No Man Likes To Live Under The Eye Of Perpetual Disapprobation.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

There Are People Whom One Should Like Very Well To Drop, But Would Not Wish To Be Dropped By.

Life, However Short, Is Made Still Shorter By Waste Of Time.

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

No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance.

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

Those Writers Who Lie On The Watch For Novelty Can Have Little Hope Of Greatness; For Great Things Cannot Have Escaped Former Observation.

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.

No Money Is Better Spent Than What Is Laid Out For Domestic Satisfaction. A Man Is Pleased That His Wife Is Dressed As Well As Other People, And The Wife Is Pleased That She Is Dressed.

Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.

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

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

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.

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

Nothing Is Difficult, When Gain And Honour Unite Their Influence.

Whatever Professes To Benefit By Pleasing Must Please At Once. The Pleasures Of The Mind Imply Something Sudden And Unexpected; That Which Elevates Must Always Surprise.

Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

Here Lies Our Good Edmund, Whose Genius Was Such, We Scarcely Can Praise It Or Blame It Too Much; Who, Born For The Universe, Narrowed His Mind, And To Party Gave Up What Was Meant For Mankind.

An Infallible Characteristic Of Meanness Is Cruelty.

Characteristics

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

All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire.

The Arguments For Purity Of Life Fail Of Their Due Influence, Not Because They Have Been Considered And Confuted, But Because They Have Been Passed Over Without Consideration.

Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

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

Life Has No Pleasure Higher Or Nobler Than That Of Friendship.

We May Have Many Acquaintances, But We Can Have But Few Friends; This Made Aristotle Say That He That Hath Many Friends Hath None.

Of Many, Imagined Blessings It May Be Doubted Whether He That Wants Or Possesses Them Had More Reason To Be Satisfied With His Lot.

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.

Gratitude Is A Fruit Of Great Cultivation; You Do Not Find It Among Gross People.

Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.

We Are Long Before We Are Convinced That Happiness Is Never To Be Found, And Each Believes It Possessed By Others, To Keep Alive The Hope Of Obtaining It For Himself.

Sir, You Must Not Neglect Doing A Thing Immediately Good From Fear Of Remote Evil; - From Fear Of Its Being Abused.

It Is Natural For Every Man Uninstructed To Murmur At His Condition, Because, In The General Infelicity Of Life, He Feels His Own Miseries Without Knowing That They Are Common To All The Rest Of The Species; And, Therefore, Though He Will Not Be Less Sensible Of Pain By Being Told That Others Are Equally Tormented, He Will At Least Be Freed From The Temptation Of Seeking, By Perpetual Changes, That Ease Which Is No Where To Be Found, And Though His Diseases Still Continue, He Escapes The Hazard Of Exasperating It By Remedies.

...a Man Estimable For His Learning, Amiable For His Life, And Venerable For His Piety. Arbuthnot Was A Man Of Great Comprehension, Skilful In His Profession, Versed In The Sciences, Acquainted With Ancient Literature, And Able To Animate His Mass Of Knowledge By A Bright And Active Imagination; A Scholar With Great Brilliance Of Wit; A Wit Who, In The Crowd Of Life, Retained And Discovered A Noble Ardour Of Religious Zeal.

It Is Generally Allowed, That No Man Ever Found The Happiness Of Possession Proportionate To That Expectation Which Incited His Desire, And Invigorated His Pursuit; Nor Has Any Man Found The Evils Of Life So Formidable In Reality, As They Were Described To Him By His Own Imagination; Every Species Of Distress Brings With It Some Peculiar Supports, Some Unforeseen Means Of Resisting, Or Powers Of Enduring.

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

A Man With A Good Coat Upon His Back Meets With A Better Reception Than He Who Has A Bad One.

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.

No Wonder, Sir, That He Is Vain; A Man Who Is Perpetually Flattered In Every Mode That Can Be Conceived. So Many Bellows Have Blown The Fire, That One Wonders He Is Not By This Time Become A Cinder.

None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.

To Prevent Evil Is The Great End Of Government, The End For Which Vigilance And Severity Are Properly Employed.

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.

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

I Would Be Loath To Speak Ill Of Any Person Who I Do Not Know Deserves It, But I Am Afraid He Is An Attorney.

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.

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

Ignorance Cannot Always Be Inferred From Inaccuracy; Knowledge Is Not Always Present.

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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

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

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

Riches, Perhaps, Do Not So Often Produce Crimes As Incite Accusers.

Reason Will By Degrees Submit To Absurdity, As The Eye Is In Time Accommodated To Darkness.

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.

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

The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.

I Know Not Why Any One But A School Boy In His Declamation Would Whine Over The Commonwealth Of Rome, Which Grew Great Only By The Misery Of The Rest Of Mankind. The Romans, Like Others, As Soon As They Were Rich, Grew Corrupt; And In Their Corruption Sold The Lives And Freedoms Of Themselves And Of One Another.

All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise. It Is In Order To Show How Much He Can Spare.

Most Vices May Be Committed Very Genteelly: A Man May Debauch His Friend's Wife Genteelly: He May Cheat At Cards Genteelly

It Is Not Possible To Be Regarded With Tenderness, Except By A Few. That Merit Which Gives Greatness And Renown Diffuses Its Influence To A Wide Compass, But Acts Weakly On Every Single Breast; It Is Placed At A Distance From Common Spectators, And Shines Like One Of The Remote Stars, Of Which The Light Reaches Us, But Not The Heat.

Shame Arises From The Fear Of Men, Conscience From The Fear Of God.

Among The Innumerable Mortifications Which Waylay Human Arrogance On Every Side May Well Be Reckoned Our Ignorance Of The Most Common Objects And Effects, A Defect Of Which We Become More Sensible By Every Attempt To Supply It. Vulgar And Inactive Minds Confound Familiarity With Knowledge And Conceive Themselves Informed Of The Whole Nature Of Things When They Are Shown Their Form Or Told Their Use; But The Speculatist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity, And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

He That Has Too Much To Do Will Do Something Wrong.

Books Like Friends, Should Be Few And Well-chosen.

Do Not Discourage Your Children From Hoarding, If They Have A Taste To It; Whoever Lays Up His Penny Rather Than Part With It For A Cake, At Least Is Not The Slave Of Gross Appetite; And Shows Besides A Preference Always To Be Esteemed, Of The Future To The Present Moment.

The World Is Like A Grand Staircase, Some Are Going Up And Some Are Going Down.

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

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

Rags Will Always Make Their Appearance Where They Have A Right To Do It.

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings.

It May Be Laid Down As A Position Which Seldom Deceives, That When A Man Cannot Bear His Own Company, There Is Something Wrong.

In Writing, As In Life, Faults Are Endured Without Disgust When They Are Associated With Transcendent Merit, And May Be Sometimes Recommended To Weak Judgments By The Lustre Which They Obtain From Their Union With Excellence; But It Is The Business Of Those Who Presume To Superintend The Taste Or Morals Of Mankind To Separate Delusive Combinations, And Distinguish That Which May Be Praised From That Which Can Only Be Excused.

He That Travels In Theory Has No Inconveniences.

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