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Some People Have A Foolish Way Of Not Minding, Or Pretending Not To Mind, What They Eat. For My Part, I Mind My Belly Very Studiously, And Very Carefully; For I Look Upon It, That He Who Does Not Mind His Belly Will Hardly Mind Anything Else.

-Samuel Johnson

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Some People Have A

Samuel Johnson

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Some People Have A Foolish Way Of Not Minding, Or Pretending Not To Mind, What They Eat. For My Part, I Mind My Belly Very Studiously, And Very Carefully; For I Look Upon It, That He Who Does Not Mind His Belly Will Hardly Mind Anything Else.

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Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

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

The Pleasure Of Expecting Enjoyment Is Often Greater Than That Of Obtaining It, And The Completion Of Almost Every Wish Is Found A Disappointment.

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

From Thee, Great God, We Spring, To Thee We Tend,- Path, Motive, Guide, Original, And End.

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

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

A Decent Provision For The Poor Is The True Test Of Civilization.

Books To Judicious Compilers, Are Useful; To Particular Arts And Professions, They Are Absolutely Necessary; To Men Of Real Science, They Are Tools: But More Are Tools To Them.

When Two Eglishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather.

Shakespeare Never Had More Than 6 Lines Together Without A Fault.

The Happiest Part Of A Man's Life Is What He Passes Lying Awake In Bed In The Morning.

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

The Feeling Of Friendship Is Like That Of Being Comfortably Filled With Roast Beef; Love, Like Being Enlivened With Champagne.

He Was So Generally Civil, That Nobody Thanked Him For It.

To Be Free It Is Not Enough To Beat The System, One Must Beat The System Every Day

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure, That Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure! Still To Ourselves In Every Place Consigned, Our Own Felicity We Make Or Find. With Secret Course, Which No Loud Storms Annoy, Glides The Smooth Current Of Domestic Joy.

Preserve Me From Unseasonable And Immoderate Sleep.

Sir, If You Wish To Have A Just Notion Of The Magnitude Of This City, You Must Not Be Satisfied With Seeing Its Great Streets And Squares, But Must Survey The Innumerable Little Lanes And Courts. It Is Not In The Showy Evolutions Of Buildings, But In The Multiplicity Of Human Habitations Which Are Crowded Together, That The Wonderful Immensity Of London Consists.

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.

Combinations Of Wickedness Would Overwhelm The World, By The Advantage Which Licentious Principles Afford, Did Not Those Who Have Long Practised Perfidy Grow Faithless To Each Other.

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

The Finest Landscape In The World Is Improved By A Good Inn In The Foreground.

You May Abuse A Tragedy, Though You Cannot Write One. You May Scold A Carpenter Who Has Made You A Bad Table, Though You Cannot Make A Table. It Is Not Your Trade To Make Tables.

In The Bottle Discontent Seeks For Comfort, Cowardice For Courage, And Bashfulness For Confidence.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

Abstinence Is As Easy To Me As Temperance Would Be Difficult.

Year Chases Year, Decay Pursues Decay, Still Drops Some Joy From With'ring Life Away; New Forms Arise, And Diff'rent Views Engage

When We See Our Enemies And Friends Gliding Away Before Us, Let Us Not Forget That We Are Subject To The General Law Of Mortality, And Shall Soon Be Where Our Doom Will Be Fixed Forever.

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

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

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

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.

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

To Buried Merit Rise The Tardy Bust.

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

There Are, Indeed, Few Kinds Of Composition From Which An Author, However Learned Or Ingenious, Can Hope A Long Continuance Of Fame.

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.

Glory, The Casual Gift Of Thoughtless Crowds! Glory, The Bribe Of Avaricious Virtue!

All Unnecessary Vows Are Folly, Because They Suppose A Prescience Of The Future, Which Has Not Been Given Us.

In Solitude We Have Our Dreams To Ourselves, And In Company We Agree To Dream In Concert.

Sir, It Is Wrong To Stir Up Law-suits; But When Once It Is Certain That A Law-suit Is To Go On, There Is Nothing Wrong In A Lawyer's Endeavouring That He Shall Have The Benefit, Rather Than Another.

Genius Now And Then Produces A Lucky Trifle. We Still Read The Dove Of Anacreon, And Sparrow Of Catullus; And A Writer Naturally Pleases Himself With A Performance Which Owes Nothing To The Subject.

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

Human Happiness Has Always Its Abatements; The Brightest Sunshine Of Success Is Not Without A Cloud.

The Necessities Of Our Condition Require A Thousand Offices Of Tenderness, Which Mere Regard For The Species Will Never Dictate.

Moderation Is Commonly Firm, And Firmness Is Commonly Successful.

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

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.

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow, But There Is Something In It So Like Virtue, That He Who Is Wholly Without It Cannot Be Loved.

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

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.

It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.

Do Not Accustom Yourself To Consider Debt Only As An Inconvenience; You Will Find It A Calamity.

When A Friend Is Carried To His Grave, We At Once Find Excuses For Every Weakness, And Palliation Of Every Fault. We Recollect A Thousand Endearments, Which Before Glided Off Our Minds Without Impression, A Thousand Favors Unrepaid, A Thousand Duties Unperformed; And Wish, Vainly Wish, For His Return, Not So Much That We May Receive As That We May Bestow Happiness, And Recompense That Kindness Which Before We Never Understood.

Piety Is The Only Proper And Adequate Relief Of Decaying Man. He That Grows Old Without Religions Hopes, As He Declines Into Imbecility, And Feels Pains And Sorrows Incessantly Crowding Upon Him, Falls Into A Gulf Of Bottomless Misery, In Which Every Reflection Must Plunge Him Deeper And Deeper.

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

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

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal.

Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

An Old Friend Never Can Be Found, And Nature Has Provided That He Cannot Easily Be Lost.

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

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

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

Critics, Like The Rest Of Mankind, Are Very Frequently Misled By Interest.

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

This Man [chesterfield], I Thought, Had Been A Lord Among Wits; But I Find He Is Only A Wit Among Lords.

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous. Religion, Of Which The Rewards Are Distant, And Which Is Animated Only By Faith And Hope, Will Glide By Degrees Out Of The Mind Unless It Be Invigorated And Reimpressed By External Ordinances, By Stated Calls To Worship, And The Salutary Influence Of Example.

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.

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.

Virtue Is Too Often Merely Local.

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.

The Imaginations Excited By The View Of An Unknown And Untravelled Wilderness Are Not Such As Arise In The Artificial Solitude Of Parks And Gardens... The Phantoms Which Haunt A Desert Are Want, And Misery, And Danger; The Evils Of Dereliction Rush Upon The Thoughts; Man Is Made Unwillingly Acquainted With His Own Weakness, And Meditation Shows Him Only How Little He Can Sustain, And How Little He Can Perform.

All Intellectual Improvement Arises From Leisure.

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

The Man Who Is Asked By An Author What He Thinks Of His Work Is Put To The Torture And Is Not Obliged To Speak The Truth.

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

No Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.... There Is A Remedy In Human Nature Against Tyranny, That Will Keep Us Safe Under Every Form Of Government.

It Is Observed Of Gold, By An Old Epigrammatist, That To Have It Is To Be In Fear, And To Want It Is To Be In Sorrow.

He That Is Pushing His Predecessors Into The Gulf Of Obscurity, Cannot But Sometimes Suspect, That He Must Himself Sink In Like Manner, And, As He Stands Upon The Same Precipice, Be Swept Away With The Same Violence.

Few Moments Are More Pleasing Than Those In Which The Mind Is Concerting Measures For A New Undertaking.

Knowledge Always Desires Increase, It Is Like Fire, Which Must First Be Kindled By Some External Agent, But Which Will Afterwards Propagate Itself.

Works Of Imagination Excel By Their Allurement And Delight; By Their Power Of Attracting And Detaining The Attention. That Book Is Good In Vain Which The Reader Throws Away. He Only Is The Master Who Keeps The Mind In Pleasing Captivity; Whose Pages Are Perused With Eagerness, And In Hope Of New Pleasure Are Perused Again; And Whose Conclusion Is Perceived With An Eye Of Sorrow, Such As The Traveller Casts Upon Departing Day.

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

To Scatter Praise Or Blame Without Regard To Justice Is To Destroy The Distinction Of Good And Evil. Many Have No Other Test Of Actions Than General Opinion; And All Are So Far Influenced By A Sense Of Reputation That They Are Often Restrained By Fear Of Reproach, And Excited By Hope Of Honour, When Other Principles Have Lost Their Power.

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

In A Man's Letters You Know, Madam, His Soul Lies Naked, His Letters Are Only The Mirrour Of His Breast.

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?

Difference Of Thoughts Will Produce Difference Of Language. He That Thinks With More Extent Than Another, Will Want Words Of A Larger Meaning; He That Thinks With More Subtilty Will Seek For Terms Of More Nice Discrimination; And Where Is The Wonder, Since Words Are But The Images Of Things, That He Who Never Knew The Original Should Not Know The Copies?

We May Take Fancy For A Companion, But Must Follow Reason As Our Guide.

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

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

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments.

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

Scarce Any Man Becomes Eminently Disagreeable But By A Departure From His Real Character, And An Attempt At Something For Which Nature Or Education Has Left Him Unqualified.

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

I Wish You Would Add An Index Rerum, That When The Reader Recollects Any Incident He May Easily Find It.

Every Old Man Complains Of The Growing Depravity Of The World, Of The Petulance And Insolence Of The Rising Generation.

The Resolution Of The Combat Is Seldom Equal To The Vehemence Of The Charge.

The Commodiousness Of Money Is Indeed Great; But There Are Some Advantages Which Money Cannot Buy, And Which Therefore No Wise Man Will By The Love Of Money Be Tempted To Forego.

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

There Is Nothing Against Which An Old Man Should Be So Much Upon His Guard As Putting Himself To Nurse.

Sir, He Throws Away His Money Without Thought And Without Merit. I Do Not Call A Tree Generous That Sheds Its Fruit At Every Breeze.

There Is A Certain Degree Of Temptation Which Will Overcome Any Virtue. Now, In So Far As You Approach Temptation To A Man, You Do Him An Injury; And, If He Is Overcome, You Share His Guilt.

Sorrow Is Properly That State Of The Mind In Which Our Desires Are Fixed Upon The Past Without Looking Forward To The Future.

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.

Knowledge Is More Than Equivalent To Force. The Master Of Mechanics Laughs At Strength.

Without Good Humour, Learning And Bravery Can Only Confer That Superiority Which Swells The Heart Of The Lion In The Desert, Where He Roars Without Reply, And Ravages Without Resistance. Without Good Humour Virtue May Awe By Its Dignity And Amaze By Its Brightness, But Must Always Be Viewed At A Distance, And Will Scarcely Gain A Friend Or Attract An Imitator.

He That Wishes To See His Country Robbed Of Its Rights Cannot Be A Patriot.

He Is A Benefactor Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into The Short Sentences, That May Be Easily Impressed On The Memory, And So Recur Habitually To The Mind.

No Man Is Much Regarded By The Rest Of The World. He That Considers How Little He Dwells Upon The Condition Of Others, Will Learn How Little The Attention Of Others Is Attracted By Himself. While We See Multitudes Passing Before Us, Of Whom Perhaps Not One Appears To Deserve Our Notice Or Excites Our Sympathy, We Should Remember, That We Likewise Are Lost In The Same Throng, That The Eye Which Happens To Glance Upon Us Is Turned In A Moment On Him That Follows Us, And That The Utmost Which We Can Reasonably Hope Or Fear Is To Fill A Vacant Hour With Prattle, And Be Forgotten.

To Go And See One Druidical Temple Is Only To See That It Is Nothing, For There Is Neither Art Nor Power In It; And Seeing One Is Quite Enough.

Don't Think Of Retiring From The World Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire. I Hate A Fellow Whom Pride Or Cowardice Or Laziness Drive Into A Corner, And Who Does Nothing When He Is There But Sit And Growl. Let Him Come Out As I Do, And Bark.

If In An Actor There Appears An Utter Vacancy Of Meaning, A Frigid Equality, A Stupid Languor, A Torpid Apathy, The Greatest Kindness That Can Be Shown Him Is A Speedy Sentence Of Expulsion.

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

To Revenge Reasonable Incredulity By Refusing Evidence, Is A Degree Of Insolence With Which The World Is Not Yet Acquainted; And Stubborn Audacity Is The Last Refuge Of Guilt.

No Cause More Frequently Produces Bashfulness Than Too High An Opinion Of Our Own Importance. He That Imagines An Assembly Filled With His Merit, Panting With Expectation, And Hushed With Attention, Easily Terrifies Himself With The Dread Of Disappointing Them, And Strains His Imagination In Pursuit Of Something That May Vindicate The Veracity Of Fame, And Show That His Reputation Was Not Gained By Chance.

Of The Blessings Set Before You Make Your Choice, And Be Content. No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of The Spring: No Man Can, At The Same Time, Fill His Cup From The Source And From The Mouth Of The Nile.

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

A Blaze First Pleases And Then Tires The Sight.

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

There Is Such A Difference Between The Pursuits Of Men In Great Cities That One Part Of The Inhabitants Lives To Little Other Purpose Than To Wonder At The Rest. Some Have Hopes And Fears, Wishes And Aversions, Which Never Enter Into The Thoughts Of Others, And Inquiry Is Laboriously Exerted To Gain That Which Those Who Possess It Are Ready To Throw Away.

I Believe Marriages Would In General Be As Happy, And Often More So, If They Were All Made By The Lord Chancellor, Upon A Due Consideration Of The Characters And Circumstances, Without The Parties Having Any Choice In The Matter.

I Would Advise You, Sir, To Study Algebra, If You Are Not An Adept Already In It: Your Head Would Get Less Muddy, And You Will Leave Off Tormenting Your Neighbours About Paper And Packthread, While We All Live Together In A World That Is Bursting With Sin And Sorrow.

Never Speak Of A Man In His Own Presence. It Is Always Indelicate, And May Be Offensive .

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

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 Dreadsul Than Its Extinction.

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

If We Consider The Manner In Which Those Who Assume The Office Of Directing The Conduct Of Others Execute Their Undertaking, It Will Not Be Very Wonderful That Their Labours, However Zealous Or Affectionate, Are Frequently Useless. For What Is The Advice That Is Commonly Given? A Few General Maxims, Enforced With Vehemence, And Inculcated With Importunity, But Failing For Want Of Particular Reference And Immediate Application.

As Every One Is Pleased With Imagining That He Knows Something Not Yet Commonly Divulged, Secret History Easily Gains Credit; But It Is For The Most Part Believed Only While It Circulates In Whispers, And When Once It Is Openly Told, Is Openly Refuted.

One Of The Amusements Of Idleness Is Reading Without Fatigue Of Close Attention; And The World, Therefore, Swarms With Writers Whose Wish Is Not To Be Studied, But To Be Read.

The Vicious Count Their Years; Virtuous, Their Acts.

Making A Difference

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

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

No Money Is Better Spent Than What Is Laid Out For Domestic Satisfaction.

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

Inspiring Travel

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.

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

Fine Clothes Are Good Only As They Supply The Want Of Other Means Of Procuring Respect.

Sir, As A Man Advances In Life, He Gets What Is Better Than Admiration, - Judgement, To Estimate Things At Their True Value.

Exercise Cannot Secure Us From That Dissolution To Which We Are Decreed; But While The Soul And Body Continue United, It Can Make The Association Pleasing, And Give Probable Hopes That They Shall Be Disciplined By An Easy Separation...to Die Is The Fate Of Man; But To Die With Lingering Anguish Is Generally His Folly.

Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

Those Who Have No Power To Judge Of Past Times But By Their Own, Should Always Doubt Their Conclusions

Courage Is The Greatest Of All Virtues, Because If You Haven't Courage, You May Not Have An Opportunity To Use Any Of The Others.

The Mind Is Seldom Quickened To Very Vigorous Operations But By Pain, Or The Dread Of Pain. We Do Not Disturb Ourselves With The Detection Of Fallacies Which Do Us No Harm.

Games Are Good Or Bad As To Their Nature; All May Be Perverted.

Vanity Is So Frequently The Apparent Motive Of Advice That We, For The Most Part, Summon Our Powers To Oppose It Without Very Accurate Inquiry Whether It Is Right. It Is Sufficient That Another Is Growing Great In His Own Eyes At Our Expense, And Assumes Authority Over Us Without Our Permission; For Many Would Contentedly Suffer The Consequences Of Their Own Mistakes, Rather Than The Insolence Of Him Who Triumphs As Their Deliverer.

That What Cannot Be Repaired Is Not To Be Regretted.

A Writer Who Obtains His Full Purpose Loses Himself In His Own Lustre.

Were It Not For Imagination A Man Would Be As Happy In The Arms Of A Chambermaid As Of A Duchess.

It Is Wonderful When A Calculation Is Made, How Little The Mind Is Actually Employed In The Discharge Of Any Profession.

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

The Great Effect Of Friendship Is Beneficence, Yet By The First Act Of Uncommon Kindness It Is Endangered.

Lost Friendship

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.

If We Require More Perfection From Women Than From Ourselves, It Is Doing Them Honor.

We Have Less Reason To Be Surprised Or Offended When We Find Others Differ From Us In Opinion, Because We Very Often Differ From Ourselves.

He That Has Once Concluded It Lawful To Resist Power, When It Wants Merit, Will Soon Find A Want Of Merit, To Justify His Resistance To Power.

Knowledge Is Praised And Desired By Multitudes Whom Her Charms Could Never Rouse From The Couch Of Sloth; Whom The Faintest Invitation Of Pleasure Draws Away From Their Studies; To Whom Any Other Method Of Wearing The Day Is More Eligible Than The Use Of Books, And Who Are More Easily Engaged By Any Conversation Than Such As May Rectify Their Notions Or Enlarge Their Comprehension.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

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.

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.

As To Precedents, To Be Sure They Will Increase In Course Of Time; But The More Precedents There Are, The Less Occasion Is There For Law; That Is To Say, The Less Occasion Is There For Investigating Principles.

Whosoever Shall Look Heedfully Upon Those Who Are Eminent For Their Riches Will Not Think Their Condition Such As That He Should Hazard His Quiet, And Much Less His Virtue, To Obtain It, For All That Great Wealth Generally Gives Above A Moderate Fortune Is More Room For The Freaks Of Caprice, And More Privilege For Ignorance And Vice, A Quicker Succession Of Flatteries, And A Larger Circle Of Voluptuousness.

Depend Upon It, Sir, It Is When You Come Close To A Man In Conservation That You Discover What His Real Abilities Are; To Make A Speech In A Public Assembly Is A Knack.

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

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

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

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.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

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.

Many Need No Other Provocation To Enmity Than That They Find Themselves Excelled.

Their Origin Is Commonly Unknown; For The Practice Often Continues When The Cause Has Ceased, And Concerning Superstitious Ceremonies It Is In Vain To Conjecture; For What Reason Did Not Dictate, Reason Cannot Explain.

The Man Who Feels Himself Ignorant Should, At Least, Be Modest.

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

Sir, A Man Who Cannot Get To Heaven In A Green Coat, Will Not Find His Way Thither The Sooner In A Grey One.

Wine Gives Great Pleasure; And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. It Is A Good, Unless Counterbalanced By Evil.

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.

The Most Useful Truths Are Always Universal, And Unconnected With Accidents And Customs.

Every Man Has Something To Do Which He Neglects, Every Man Has Faults To Conquer Which He Delays To Combat.

The Insolence Of Wealth Will Creep Out.

The Present Is Never A Happy State To Any Human Being.

What Makes All Doctrines Plain And Clear? About Two Hundred Pounds A Year. And That Which Was Proved True Before, Prove False Again? Two Hundred More.

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.

In Bed We Laugh, In Bed We Cry, And Born In Bed, In Bed We Die; The Near Approach A Bed May Show Of Human Bliss To Human Woe.

Truth Allows No Choice.

Whatever You Have Spend Less.

Pleasure Itself Is Not A Vice

Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.

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

Among The Many Inconsistencies Which Folly Produces Or Infirmity Suffers In The Human Mind, There Has Often Been Observed A Manifest And Striking Contrariety Between The Life Of An Author And His Writings... Those Whom The Appearance Of Virtue Or The Evidence Of Genius Has Tempted To A Nearer Knowledge Of The Writer, In Whose Performances They May Be Found, Have Indeed Had Frequent Reason To Repent Their Curiosity.

They Whose Activity Of Imagination Is Often Shifting The Scenes Of Expectation, Are Frequently Subject To Such Sallies Of Caprice As Make All Their Actions Fortuitous, Destroy The Value Of Their Friendship, Obstruct The Efficacy Of Their Virtues, And Set Them Below The Meanest Of Those Who Persist In Their Resolutions, Execute What They Design, And Perform What They Have Promised.

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.

When People Find A Man Of The Most Distinguished Abilities As A Writer Their Inferior While He Is With Them, It Must Be Highly Gratifying To Them.

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

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.

The Best Part Of Every Author Is In General To Be Found In His Book, I Assure You.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

What We Read With Inclination Makes A Much Stronger Impression. If We Read Without Inclination, Half The Mind Is Employed In Fixing The Attention; So There Is But One Half To Be Employed On What We Read.

Hunger Is Never Delicate.

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause Awhile From Letters, To Be Wise.

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