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The Faults Of A Writer Of Acknowledged Excellence Are More Dangerous, Because The Influence Of His Example Is More Extensive; And The Interest Of Learning Requires That They Should Be Discovered And Stigmatized, Before They Have The Sanction Of Antiquity Conferred Upon Them, And Become Precedents Of Indisputable Authority.

-Samuel Johnson

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The Faults Of A

Samuel Johnson

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The Faults Of A Writer Of Acknowledged Excellence Are More Dangerous, Because The Influence Of His Example Is More Extensive; And The Interest Of Learning Requires That They Should Be Discovered And Stigmatized, Before They Have The Sanction Of Antiquity Conferred Upon Them, And Become Precedents Of Indisputable Authority.

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There Is No Crime More Infamous Than The Violation Of Truth. It Is Apparent That Men Can Be Social Beings No Longer Than They Believe Each Other. When Speech Is Employed Only As The Vehicle Of Falsehood, Every Man Must Disunite Himself From Others, Inhabit His Own Cave And Seek Prey Only For Himself.

A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

I Do Not Envy A Clergyman's Life As An Easy Life, Nor Do I Envy The Clergyman Who Makes It An Easy Life.

There Is Not, Perhaps, To A Mind Well Instructed, A More Painful Occurrence, Than The Death Of One We Have Injured Without Reparation.

Human Condition

Never Believe Extraordinary Characters Which You Hear Of People. Depend Upon It, They Are Exaggerated. You Do Not See One Man Shoot A Great Deal Higher Than Another.

Deceit And Falsehood, Whatever Conveniences They May For A Time Promise Or Produce, Are, In The Sum Of Life, Obstacles To Happiness. Those Who Profit By The Cheat Distrust The Deceiver; And The Act By Which Kindness Was Sought Puts An End To Confidence.

Suspicion Is Very Often A Useless Pain.

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

It Is Very Common For Us To Desire Most What We Are Least Qualified To Obtain.

To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise.

When A Language Begins To Teem With Books, It Is Tending To Refinement; As Those Who Undertake To Teach Others Must Have Undergone Some Labour In Improving Themselves, They Set A Proportionate Value On Their Own Thoughts, And Wish To Enforce Them By Efficacious Expressions; Speech Becomes Embodied And Permanent; Different Modes And Phrases Are Compared, And The Best Obtains An Establishment. By Degrees One Age Improves Upon Another.

One Cause, Which Is Not Always Observed, Of The Insufficiency Of Riches, Is That They Very Seldom Make Their Owner Rich.

If You Want To Be A Writer, Then Write. Write Every Day!

The Mind Is Refrigerated By Interruption; The Thoughts Are Diverted From The Principle Subject; The Reader Is Weary, He Suspects Not Why; And At Last Throws Away The Book, Which He Has Too Diligently Studied.

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Always Are Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel.

Self-love Is Often Rather Arrogant Than Blind; It Does Not Hide Our Faults From Ourselves, But Persuades Us That They Escape The Notice Of Others.

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

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.

As The Greatest Liar Tells More Truths Than Falsehoods, So May It Be Said Of The Worst Man, That He Does More Good Than Evil.

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

Wealth Is Nothing In Itself; It Is Not Useful But When It Departs From Us.

The Liberty Of Using Harmless Pleasure Will Not Be Disputed; But It Is Still To Be Examined What Pleasures Are Harmless.

People Have Now A-days Got A Strange Opinion That Every Thing Should Be Taught By Lectures. Now, I Cannot See That Lectures Can Do As Much Good As Reading The Books From Which The Lectures Are Taken.

The Next Best Thing To Knowing Something Is Knowing Where To Find It.

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.

What Is Said Upon A Subject Is Gathered From An Hundred People.

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

Try And Forget Our Cares And Sickness, And Contribute, As We Can To The Happiness Of Each Other.

In This Work Are Exhibited, In A Very High Degree, The Two Most Engaging Powers Of An Author. New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.

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.

Integrity Without Knowledge Is Weak And Useless, And Knowledge Without Integrity Is Dangerous And Dreadful.

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

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.

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.

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.

They That Have Grown Old In A Single State Are Generally Found To Be Morose, Fretful And Captious; Tenacious Of Their Own Practices And Maxims; Soon Offended By Contradiction Or Negligence; And Impatient Of Any Association But With Those That Will Watch Their Nod, And Submit Themselves To Unlimited Authority.

Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.

It Is Commonly A Weak Man Who Marries For Love.

He Who Praises Everybody, Praises Nobody.

The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England.

Power Is Not Sufficient Evidence Of Truth.

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

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.

Greece Appears To Be The Fountain Of Knowledge; Rome Of Elegance

Sir, He [bolingbroke] Was A Scoundrel And A Coward: A Scoundrel For Charging A Blunderbuss Against Religion And Morality; A Coward, Because He Had Not Resolution To Fire It Off Himself, But Left Half A Crown To A Beggarly Scotsman To Draw The Trigger At His Death.

The Triumph Of Hope Over Experience.

I Believe It Will Be Found That Those Who Marry Late Are Best Pleased With Their Children; And Those Who Marry Early, With Their Partners.

In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.

Condemned To Hope's Delusive Mine, As On We Toil From Day To Day, By Sudden Blasts Or Slow Decline Our Social Comforts Drop Away.

Friendship, Compounded Of Esteem And Love, Derives From One Its Tenderness And Its Permanence From The Other.

Lost Friendship

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.

A Man Who Exposes Himself When He Is Intoxicated, Has Not The Art Of Getting Drunk.

Revenge Is An Act Of Passion; Vengeance Of Justice. Injuries Are Revenged; Crimes Are Avenged.

In All Pointed Sentences, Some Degree Of Accuracy Must Be Sacrificed To Conciseness.

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

By Those Who Look Close To The Ground Dirt Will Be Seen. I Hope I See Things From A Greater Distance.

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

Once A Coxcomb, Always A Coxcomb.

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

Sir, I Have No Objection To A Man's Drinking Wine, If He Can Do It In Moderation. I Found Myself Apt To Go To Excess In It, And Therefore, After Having Been For Some Time Without It, On Account Of Illness, I Thought It Better Not To Return To It. Every Man Is To Judge For Himself, According To The Effects Which He Experiences.

No Man Hates Him At Whom He Can Laugh.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; And As The Noblest Mien Or Most Graceful Action Would Be Degraded And Obscured By A Garb Appropriated To The Gross Employments Of Rusticks Or Mechanics, So The Most Heroick Sentiments Will Lose Their Efficacy

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

Consider What Importance To Society The Chastity Of Women Is. Upon That All The Property In The World Depends. We Hang A Thief For Stealing A Sheep; But The Unchastity Of A Woman Transfers Sheep And Farm And All From The Right Owner.

When Once A Man Has Made Celebrity Necessary To His Happiness, He Has Put It In The Power Of The Weakest And Most Timorous Malignity, If Not To Take Away His Satisfaction, At Least To Withhold It. His Enemies May Indulge Their Pride By Airy Negligence And Gratify Their Malice By Quiet Neutrality.

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

The Authors That In Any Nation Last From Age To Age Are Very Few, Because There Are Very Few That Have Any Other Claim To Notice Than That They Catch Hold On Present Curiosity, And Gratify Some Accidental Desire, Or Produce Some Temporary Conveniency.

He Endearing Elegance Of Female Friendship.

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.

Sleep Undisturbed Within This Peaceful Shrine, Till Angels Wake Thee With A Note Like Thine.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself, And, Therefore, In His Own Opinion, To Others; And, Supposing The World Already Acquainted With His Pleasures And His Pains, Is Perhaps The First To Publish Injuries Or Misfortunes Which Had Never Been Known Unless Related By Himself, And At Which Those That Hear Them Will Only Laugh, For No Man Sympathises With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

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

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

Advice Is Seldom Welcome. Those Who Need It Most, Like It Least.

Modern Writers Are The Moons Of Literature; They Shine With Reflected Light, With Light Borrowed From The Ancients.

Read The Book You Do Honestly Feel A Wish And Curiosity To Read.

Every Reader Should Remember The Diffidence Of Socrates, And Repair By His Candour The Injuries Of Time: He Should Impute The Seeming Defects Of His Author To Some Chasm Of Intelligence, And Suppose That The Sense Which Is Now Weak Was Once Forcible

Sir, If A Man Has A Mind To Prance, He Must Study At Christ Church And All Souls.

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

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.

Laws Teach Us To Know When We Commit Injury And When We Suffer It.

It Is Justly Considered As The Greatest Excellency Of Art To Imitate Nature; But It Is Necessary To Distinguish Those Parts Of Nature Which Are Most Proper For Imitation: Greater Care Is Still Required In Representing Life, Which Is So Often Discoloured By Passion Or Deformed By Wickedness. If The World Be Promiscuously Described, I Cannot See Of What Use It Can Be To Read The Account; Or Why It May Not Be As Safe To Turn The Eye Immediately Upon Mankind, As Upon A Mirror Which Shows All That Presents Itself Without Discrimination.

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

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.

The Work Of A Correct And Regular Writer Is A Garden Accurately Formed And Diligently Planted, Varied With Shades, And Scented With Flowers.

His Death Eclipsed The Gayety Of Nations, And Impoverished The Public Stock Of Harmless Pleasure.

He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.

To Hear Complaints With Patience, Even When Complaints Are Vain, Is One Of The Duties Of Friendship.

Men, However Distinguished By External Accidents Or Intrinsick Qualities, Have All The Same Wants, The Same Pains, And, As Far As The Senses Are Consulted, The Same Pleasures.

Men Do Not Suspect Faults Which They Do Not Commit

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.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

There Is In This World No Real Delight (excepting Those Of Sensuality), But Exchange Of Ideas In Conversation.

Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries, But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.

Civilized Nations

Sir, I Think All Christians, Whether Papists Or Protestants, Agree In The Essential Articles, And That Their Differences Are Trivial, And Rather Political Than Religious.

A Tavern Chair Is The Throne Of Human Felicity.

It Very Seldom Happens To A Man That His Business Is His Pleasure.

Sleep Is A State In Which A Great Part Of Every Life Is Passed. No Animal Has Yet Been Discovered, Whose Existence Is Not Varied With Intervals Of Insensibility; And Some Late Philosophers Have Extended The Empire Of Sleep Over The Vegetable World.

Some Desire Is Necessary To Keep Life In Motion.

My Diseases Are An Asthma And A Dropsy And, What Is Less Curable, Seventy-five.

Presumption Will Be Easily Corrected; But Timidity Is A Disease Of The Mind More Obstinate And Fatal.

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.

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

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

Every Man Thinks Meanly Of Himself For Not Having Been A Soldier, Or Not Having Been At Sea.

The Advice That Is Wanted Is Commonly Not Welcome And That Which Is Not Wanted, Evidently An Effrontery.

Money And Time Are The Heaviest Burdens Of Life, And... The Unhappiest Of All Mortals Are Those Who Have More Of Either Than They Know How To Use.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

From Bard, To Bard, The Frigid Caution Crept, Till Declamation Roar'd, While Passion Slept.

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

To Be Idle And To Be Poor Have Always Been Reproaches, And Therefore Every Man Endeavors With His Utmost Care To Hide His Poverty From Others, And His Idleness From Himself.

Misfortunes Should Always Be Expected.

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.

Most Men Think Indistinctly, And Therefore Cannot Speak With Exactness . . .

Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not For Man.

To Let Friendship Die Away By Negligence And Silence Is Certainly Not Wise. It Is Voluntarily To Throw Away One Of The Greatest Comforts Of The Weary Pilgrimage.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak; Yet There Are Prejudices So Near To Laudable That They Have Been Often Praised And Are Always Pardoned.

It Is One Of The Maxims Of The Civil Law, That Definitions Are Hazardous.

All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.

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

They Make A Rout About Universal Liberty, Without Considering That All That Is To Be Valued, Or Indeed Can Be Enjoyed By Individuals, Is Private Liberty.

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

How Is It That We Hear The Loudest Yelps For Liberty Among The Drivers Of Negroes?

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

Language Is The Dress Of Thought.

When The Original Is Well Chosen And Judiciously Copied, The Imitator Often Arrives At Excellence Which He Could Never Have Attained Without Direction; For Few Are Formed With Abilities To Discover New Possibilities Of Excellence, And To Distinguish Themselves By Means Never Tried Before.

It May Be Observed In General That The Future Is Purchased By The Present. It Is Not Possible To Secure Distant Or Permanent Happiness But By The Forbearance Of Some Immediate Gratification. This Is So Evidently True With Regard To The Whole Of Our Existence That All Precepts Of Theology Have No Other Tendency Than To Enforce A Life Of Faith; A Life Regulated Not By Our Senses But By Our Belief; A Life In Which Pleasures Are To Be Refused For Fear Of Invisible Punishments, And Calamities Sometimes To Be Sought, And Always Endured, In Hope Of Rewards That Shall Be Obtained In Another State.

Critics Ought Never To Be Consulted, But While Errors May Yet Be Rectified Or Insipidity Suppressed. But When The Book Has Once Been Dismissed Into The World, And Can Be No More Retouched, I Know Not Whether A Very Different Conduct Should Not Be Prescribed, And Whether Firmness And Spirit May Not Sometimes Be Of Use To Overpower Arrogance And Repel Brutality.

Celestial Wisdom Calms The Mind.

A Wise Man Will Make Haste To Forgive, Because He Knows The True Value Of Time, And Will Not Suffer It To Pass Away In Unnecessary Pain.

Sir, Sorrow Is Inherent In Humanity. As You Cannot Judge Two And Two To Be Either Five, Or Three, But Certainly Four, So, When Comparing A Worse Present State With A Better Which Is Past, You Cannot But Feel Sorrow. It Is Not Cured By Reason, But By The Incursion Of Present Objects, Which Bear Out The Past.

Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.

Men Hate More Steadily Than They Love.

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

Justice Is Indispensably And Universally Necessary, And What Is Necessary Must Always Be Limited, Uniform, And Distinct

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

A Book Should Teach Us To Enjoy Life, Or To Endure It.

I Am Always For Getting A Boy Forward In His Learning, For That Is Sure Good. I Would Let Him At First Read Any English Book Which Happens To Engage His Attention; Because You Have Done A Great Deal When You Have Brought Him To Have Entertainment From A Book. He'll Get Better Books Afterwards.

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

Lexicographer: A Writer Of Dictionaries, A Harmless Drudge, That Busies Himself In Tracing The Original, And Detailing The Signification Of Words.

If We Estimate Dignity By Immediate Usefulness, Agriculture Is Undoubtedly The First And Noblest Science.

Classical Quotation Is The Parole Of Literary Men All Over The World.

Diffidence May Check Resolution And Obstruct Performance, But Compensates Its Embarrassments By More Important Advantages; It Conciliates The Proud, And Softens The Severe; Averts Envy From Excellence, And Censure From Miscarriage.

We Are All Prompted By The Same Motives, All Deceived By The Same Fallacies, All Animated By Hope, Obstructed By Danger, Entangled By Desire, And Seduced By Pleasure.

Let Me Rejoice In The Light Which Thou Hast Imparted; Let Me Serve Thee With Active Zeal, Humbled Confidence, And Wait With Patient Expectation For The Time In Which The Soul Which Thou Receivest Shall Be Satisfied With Knowledge.

Dogs Have Not The Power Of Comparing. A Dog Will Take A Small Piece Of Meat As Readily As A Large, When Both Are Before Him.

Cowardice Encroaches Fast Upon Such As Spend Their Lives In Company Of Persons Higher Than Themselves.

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.

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.

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

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

Learn That The Present Hour Alone Is Man's.

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

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.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.

No Man, However Enslaved To His Appetites, Or Hurried By His Passions, Can, While He Preserves His Intellects Unimpaired, Please Himself With Promoting The Corruption Of Others. He Whose Merit Has Enlarged His Influence Would Surely Wish To Exert It For The Benefit Of Mankind. Yet Such Will Be The Effect Of His Reputation, While He Suffers Himself To Indulge In Any Favourite Fault, That They Who Have No Hope To Reach His Excellence Will Catch At His Failings, And His Virtues Will Be Cited To Justify The Copiers Of His Vices.

All This [wealth] Excludes But One Evil, Poverty.

Sir, What Is Poetry? Why, Sir, It Is Much Easier To Say What It Is Not. We All Know What Light Is; But It Is Not Easy To Tell What It Is.

To Tell Your Own Secrets Is Generally Folly, But That Folly Is Without Guilt; To Communicate Those With Which We Are Intrusted Is Always Treachery, And Treachery For The Most Part Combined With Folly.

I Know Not Anything More Pleasant, Or More Instructive, Than To Compare Experience With Expectation, Or To Register From Time To Time The Difference Between Idea And Reality. It Is By This Kind Of Observation That We Grow Daily Less Liable To Be Disappointed.

A Blaze First Pleases And Then Tires The Sight.

It Is Not Easy To Surround Life With Any Circumstances In Which Youth Will Not Be Delightful.

Nothing Concentrates One's Mind So Much As The Realization That One Is Going To Be Hanged In The Morning!

Bounty Always Receives Part Of Its Value From The Manner In Which It Is Bestowed.

Men Go To Sea, Before They Know The Unhappiness Of That Way Of Life; And When They Have Come To Know It, They Cannot Escape From It, Because It Is Then Too Late To Choose Another Profession; As Indeed Is Generally The Case With Men, When They Have Once Engaged In Any Particular Way Of Life.

The Truly Strong And Sound Mind Is The Mind That Can Embrace Equally Great Things And Small.

Forgetfulness Is Necessary To Remembrance. Ideas Are Retained By Renovation Of That Impression Which Time Is Always Wearing Away,and Which New Images Are Striving To Obliterate. If Useless Thoughts Could Be Expelled From The Mind, All The Valuable Parts Of Our Knowledge Would More Frequently Recur, And Every Recurrence Would Reinstate Them In Their Former Place.

Pension: An Allowance Made To Anyone Without An Equivalent. In England It Is Generally Understood To Mean Pay Given To A State Hireling For Treason To His Country.

Curiosity, Like All Other Desires, Produces Pain As Well As Pleasure.

Lectures Were Once Useful; But Now When All Can Read, And Books Are So Numerous, Lectures Are Unnecessary.

No Man Reads A Book Of Science From Pure Inclination. The Books That We Do Read With Pleasure Are Light Compositions, Which Contain A Quick Succession Of Events.

The Two Offices Of Memory Are Collection And Distribution.

Get Together A Hundred Or Two Men, However Sensible They May Be, And You Are Very Likely To Have A Mob.

Hunger Is Never Delicate; They Who Are Seldom Gorged To The Full With Praise May Be Safely Fed With Gross Compliments, For The Appetite Must Be Satisfied Before It Is Disgusted.

Some Read For Style, And Some For Argument: One Has Little Care About The Sentiment, He Observes Only How It Is Expressed; Another Regards Not The Conclusion, But Is Diligent To Mark How It Is Inferred; They Read For Other Purposes Than The Attainment Of Practical Knowledge; And Are No More Likely To Grow Wise By An Examination Of A Treatise Of Moral Prudence, Than An Architect To Inflame His Devotion By Considering Attentively The Proportions Of A Temple.

Profuseness Is A Cruel And Crafty Demon, That Gradually Involves Her Followers In Dependence And Debt; That Is, Fetters Them With Irons That Enter Into Their Souls.

There Is Nothing More Dreadful To An Author Than Neglect; Compared With Which Reproach, Hatred, And Opposition Are Names Of Happiness; Yet This Worst, This Meanest Fate, Every One Who Dares To Write Has Reason To Fear.

It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.

To Mean Understandings, It Is Sufficient Honour To Be Numbered Amongst The Lowest Labourers Of Learning; But Different Abilities Must Find Different Tasks. To Hew Stone, Would Have Been Unworthy Of Palladio; And To Have Rambled In Search Of Shells And Flowers, Had But Ill Suited With The Capacity Of Newton.

These Papers Of The Day Have Uses More Adequate To The Purposes Of Common Life Than More Pompous And Durable Volumes.

Life Is Surely Given Us For Higher Purposes Than To Gather What Our Ancestors Have Wisely Thrown Away, And To Learn What Is Of No Value But Because It Has Been Forgotten.

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.

Of All The Griefs That Harass The Distress'd, Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest; Fate Never Wounds More Deep The Generous Heart, Than When A Blockhead's Insult Points The Dart.

There Is No Book So Poor That It Would Not Be A Prodigy If Wholly Made By A Single Man.

Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy.

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

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.

People May Be Taken In Once, Who Imagine That An Author Is Greater In Private Life Than Other Men.

Our Minds Should Not Be Empty Because If They Are Not Preoccupied By Good, Evil Will Break In Upon Them.

The Business Of A Poet Is To Examine Not The Individual But The Species; To Remark General Properties And Large Appearances.

We Are Not Here To Sell A Parcel Of Boilers And Vats, But The Potentiality Of Growing Rich Beyond The Dreams Of Avarice.

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

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

I Am Very Fond Of The Company Of Ladies. I Like Their Beauty, I Like Their Delicacy, I Like Their Vivacity, And I Like Their Silence.

Poverty Has, In Large Cities, Very Different Appearances; It Is Often Concealed In Splendour, And Often In Extravagance.

Advice, As It Always Gives A Temporary Appearance Of Superiority, Can Never Be Very Grateful, Even When It Is Most Necessary Or Most Judicious. But For The Same Reason Everyone Is Eager To Instruct His Neighbours. To Be Wise Or To Be Virtuous Is To Buy Dignity And Importance At A High Price; But When Nothing Is Necessary To Elevation But Detection Of The Follies Or Faults Of Others, No Man Is So Insensible To The Voice Of Fame As To Linger On The Ground.

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

A Cow Is A Very Good Animal In The Field; But We Turn Her Out Of A Garden.

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