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The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendour Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate; Those Soft Intervals Of Unbended Amusement, In Which A Man Shrinks To His Natural Dimensions, And Throws Aside The Ornaments Or Disguises Which He Feels In Privacy To Be Useless Incumbrances, And To Lose All Effect When They Become Familiar. To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labour Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.

-Samuel Johnson

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The Great End Of

Samuel Johnson

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The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendour Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate; Those Soft Intervals Of Unbended Amusement, In Which A Man Shrinks To His Natural Dimensions, And Throws Aside The Ornaments Or Disguises Which He Feels In Privacy To Be Useless Incumbrances, And To Lose All Effect When They Become Familiar. To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labour Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.

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The Power Of Punishment Is To Silence, Not To Confute.

If He Does Really Think That There Is No Distinction Between Virtue And Vice, Why, Sir, When He Leaves Our Houses Let Us Count Our Spoons.

What Ever The Motive For The Insult, It Is Always Best To Overlook It; For Folly Doesn't Deserve Resentment, And Malice Is Punished By Neglect.

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.

Poetry Cannot Be Translation

No Man Should Attempt To Teach Others What He Has Never Learned Himself

Wine Gives Great Pleasure, And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. And A Man Should Cultivate His Mind So As To Have That Confidence And Readiness Without Wine, Which Wine Gives.

Celestial Wisdom Calms The Mind.

As Any Action Or Posture, Long Continued, Will Distort And Disfigure The Limbs, So The Mind Likewise Is Crippled And Contracted By Perpetual Application To The Same Set Of Ideas.

That Is The Happiest Conversation Where There Is No Competition, No Vanity, But A Calm, Quiet Interchange Of Sentiments...

As Every Writer Has His Use, Every Writer Ought To Have His Patrons; And Since No Man, However High He May Now Stand, Can Be Certain That He Shall Not Be Soon Thrown Down From His Elevation By Criticism Or Caprice, The Common Interest Of Learning Requires That Her Sons Should Cease From Intestine Hostilities, And, Instead Of Sacrificing Each Other To Malice And Contempt, Endeavour To Avert Persecution From The Meanest Of Their Fraternity.

Extended Empires Are Like Expanded Gold, Exchanging Solid Strength For Feeble Splendor.

Books That You May Carry To The Fire, And Hold Readily In Your Hand, Are The Most Useful After All.

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

Courage Is A Quality So Necessary For Maintaining Virtue, That It Is Always Respected, Even When It Is Associated With Vice.

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.

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

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

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.

No Mind Is Much Employed Upon The Present; Recollection And Anticipation Fill Up Almost All Our Moments.

The Real Satisfaction Which Praise Can Afford, Is When What Is Repeated Aloud Agrees With The Whispers Of Conscience, By Showing Us That We Have Not Endeavored To Deserve Well In Vain.

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.

Labor's Face Is Wrinkled With The Wind, And Swarthy With The Sun.

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

Invention Is Almost The Only Literary Labour Which Blindness Cannot Obstruct.

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.

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.

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

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

Such Are The Vicissitudes Of The World, Through All Its Parts, That Day And Night, Labor And Rest, Hurry And Retirement, Endear Each Other; Such Are The Changes That Keep The Mind In Action: We Desire, We Pursue, We Obtain, We Are Satiated; We Desire Something Else And Begin A New Pursuit.

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

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

Babies Do Not Want To Hear About Babies; They Like To Be Told Of Giants And Castles.

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.

We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.

Officious, Innocent, Sincere, Of Every Friendless Name The Friend.

In Life's Last Scene What Prodigies Surprise, Fears Of The Brave, And Follies Of The Wise! From Marlborough's Eyes The Streams Of Dotage Flow, And Swift Expires A Driveller And A Show.

In General Those Parents Have The Most Reverence Who Most Deserve It; For He That Lives Well Cannot Be Despised.

Nobody Has The Right To Put Another Under Such A Difficulty That He Must Either Hurt The Person By Telling The Truth Or Hurt Himself By Telling What Is Not True.

Telling The Truth

Of All Noises, I Think Music Is The Least Disagreeable.

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.

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.

Many A Man Is Mad In Certain Instances, And Goes Through Life Without Having It Perceived. For Example, A Madness Has Seized A Person Of Supposing Himself Obliged Literally To Pray Continually; Had The Madness Turned The Opposite Way, And The Person Thought It A Crime Ever To Pray, It Might Not Improbably Have Continued Unobserved.

I Am A Hardened And Shameless Tea Drinker, Who Has, For Twenty Years, Diluted His Meals With Only The Infusion Of This Fascinating Plant; Whose Kettle Has Scarcely Time To Cool; Who With Tea Amuses The Evening, With Tea Solaces The Midnight, And, With Tea, Welcomes The Morning.

I Deny The Lawfulness Of Telling A Lie To A Sick Man For Fear Of Alarming Him; You Have No Business With Consequences, You Are To Tell The Truth.

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

It Is Very Natural For Young Men To Be Vehement, Acrimonious And Severe. For As They Seldom Comprehend At Once All The Consequences Of A Position, Or Perceive The Difficulties By Which Cooler And More Experienced Reasoners Are Restrained From Confidence, They Form Their Conclusions With Great Precipitance. Seeing Nothing That Can Darken Or Embarrass The Question, They Expect To Find Their Own Opinion Universally Prevalent, And Are Inclined To Impute Uncertainty And Hesitation To Want Of Honesty, Rather Than Of Knowledge.

There Is A Frightful Interval Between The Seed And The Timber.

Flattery Pleases Very Generally. In The First Place, The Flatterer May Think What He Says To Be True; But, In The Second Place, Whether He Thinks So Or Not, He Certainly Thinks Those Whom He Flatters Of Consequence Enough To Be Flattered.

To Keep Your Secret Is Wisdom; But To Expect Others To Keep It Is Folly.

Keeping Secrets

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present. The Acknowledgment Of Those Virtues On Which Conscience Congratulates Us Is A Tribute That We Can At Any Tine Exact With Confidence; But The Celebration Of Those Which We Only Feign, Or Desire Without Any Vigorous Endeavours To Attain Them, Is Received As A Confession Of Sovereignty Over Regions Never Conquered, As A Favourable Decision Of Disputable Claims, And Is More Welcome As More Gratuitous.

The Imitator Treads A Beaten Walk, And With All His Diligence Can Only Find A Few Flowers Or Branches Untouched By His Predecessor, The Refuse Of Contempt, Or The Omissions Of Negligence.

Don't, Sir, Accustom Yourself To Use Big Words For Little Matters.

The Liberty Of The Press Is A Blessing When We Are Inclined To Write Against Others, And A Calamity When We Find Ourselves Overborne By The Multitude Of Our Assailants.

John Wesley's Conversation Is Good, But He Is Never At Leisure. He Is Always Obliged To Go At A Certain Hour. This Is Very Disagreeable To A Man Who Loves To Fold His Legs And Have His Talk Out As I Do.

When Speculation Has Done Its Worst, Two And Two Still Make Four.

We Love To Expect, And When Expectation Is Either Disappointed Or Gratified, We Want To Be Again Expecting.

To Embarrass Justice By Multiplicity Of Laws, Or To Hazard It By Confidence In Judges, Seem To Be The Opposite Rocks On Which All Civil Institutions Have Been Wrecked, And Between Which Legislative Wisdom Has Never Yet Found An Open Passage.

He That Can Swim Needs Not Despair To Fly; To Swim Is To Fly In A Grosser Fluid, And To Fly Is To Swim In A Subtler. We Are Only To Proportion Our Power Of Resistance To The Different Density Of Matter Through Which We Are To Pass. You Will Be Necessarily Upborne By The Air If You Can Renew Any Impulse Upon It Faster Than The Air Can Recede From The Pressure.

Every Quotation Contributes Something To The Stability Or Enlargement Of Language.

It Is Advantageous To An Author That His Book Should Be Attacked As Well As Praised. Fame Is A Shuttlecock. If It Be Struck At One End Of The Room, It Will Soon Fall To The Ground. To Keep It Up, It Must Be Struck At Both Ends.

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

Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, Possession By Disgust, And The Malicious Remark Of The Greek Epigrammatist On Marriage May Be Applied To Many Another Course Of Life, That Its Two Days Of Happiness Are The First And The Last

Friends Are Often Chosen For Similitude Of Manners, And Therefore Each Palliates The Other's Failings Because They Are His Own.

Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.

The Usual Fortune Of Complaint Is To Excite Contempt More Than Pity.

The Present Time Is Seldom Able To Fill Desire Or Imagination With Immediate Enjoyment, And We Are Forced To Supply Its Deficiencies By Recollection Or Anticipation.

What Is Easy Is Seldom Excellent.

Misery Is Caused For The Most Part, Not By A Heavy Crush Of Disaster, But By The Corrosion Of Less Visible Evils, Which Canker Enjoyment, And Undermine Security. The Visit Of An Invader Is Necessarily Rare, But Domestic Animosities Allow No Cessation.

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.

Wisdom And Virtue Are By No Means Sufficient, Without The Supplemental Laws Of Good-breeding, To Secure Freedom From Degenerating Into Rudeness, Or Self Esteem From Swelling Into Insolence. A Thousand Incivilities May Be Committed, And A Thousand Offices Neglected. Without Any Remorse Of Conscience, Or Reproach From Reason.

When I Was As You Are Now, Towering In The Confidence Of Twenty-one, Little Did I Suspect That I Should Be At Forty-nine, What I Now Am.

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.

It Matters Not How A Man Dies, But How He Lives.

It Is The Condition Of Our Present State To See More Than We Can Attain; The Exactest Vigilance And Caution Can Never Maintain A Single Day Of Unmingled Innocence.

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

Those Who Attain Any Excellence, Commonly Spend Life In One Pursuit; For Excellence Is Not Often Gained Upon Easier Terms.

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

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.

He That Reads And Grows No Wiser Seldom Suspects His Own Deficiency, But Complains Of Hard Words And Obscure Sentences, And Asks Why Books Are Written Which Cannot Be Understood.

Friendship, Like Love, Is Destroyed By Long Absence, Though It May Be Increased By Short Intermissions.

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

Many Things Difficult To Design Prove Easy To Performance.

The Roads Of Science Are Narrow, So That They Who Travel Them, Must Wither Follow Or Meet One Another.

High People, Sir, Are The Best; Take A Hundred Ladies Of Quality, You'll Find Them Better Wives, Better Mothers, More Willing To Sacrifice Their Own Pleasures To Their Children, Than A Hundred Other Woman.

It Was The Peculiar Artifice Of Habit Not To Suffer Her Power To Be Felt At First. Those Whom She Led, She Had The Address Of Appearing Only To Attend, But Was Continually Doubling Her Chains Upon Her Companions; Which Were So Slender In Themselves, And So Silently Fastened, That While The Attention Was Engaged By Other Objects, They Were Not Easily Perceived. Each Link Grew Tighter As It Had Been Longer Worn; And When By Continual Additions They Became So Heavy As To Be Felt, They Were Very Frequently Too Strong To Be Broken.

I Am Not So Lost In Lexicography As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven.

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

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

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

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

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

Those Who Attempt Nothing Themselves Think Every Thing Easily Performed, And Consider The Unsuccessful Always As Criminal.

The Great Source Of Pleasure Is Variety.

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

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

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.

You May Translate Books Of Science Exactly. ... The Beauties Of Poetry Cannot Be Preserved In Any Language Except That In Which It Was Originally Written.

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.

You Think I Love Flattery (says Dr. Johnson), And So I Do; But A Little Too Much Always Disgusts Me: That Fellow Richardson, On The Contrary, Could Not Be Contented To Sail Quietly Down The Stream Of Reputation, Without Longing To Taste The Froth From Every Stroke Of The Oar.

What Is Read Twice Is Usually Remembered More Than What Is Once Written.

He That Travels In Theory Has No Inconveniences.

Nothing Is More Idle Than To Inquire After Happiness, Which Nature Has Kindly Placed Within Our Reach.

...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.

There Are Certain Topicks Which Are Never Exhausted. Of Some Images And Sentiments The Mind Of Man May Be Said To Be Enamoured; It Meets Them, However Often They Occur, With The Same Ardour Which A Lover Feels At The Sight Of His Mistress, And Parts From Them With The Same Regret When They Can No Longer Be Enjoyed.

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.

Studious To Please, Yet Not Ashamed To Fail.

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition.

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

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

None Are Happy But By Anticipation Of Change.

Do Not ... Hope Wholly To Reason Away Your Troubles; Do Not Feed Them With Attention, And They Will Die Imperceptibly Away. Fix Your Thoughts Upon Your Business, Fill Your Intervals With Company, And Sunshine Will Again Break In Upon Your Mind.

It Is To Be Steadily Inculcated, That Virtue Is The Highest Proof Of Understanding, And The Only Solid Basis Of Greatness.

Still We Love The Evil We Do, Until We Suffer It.

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.

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

The True Effect Of Genuine Politeness Seems To Be Rather Ease Than Pleasure.

I Am Not Yet So Lost In Lexicography, As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of The Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven. Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas: I Wish, However, That The Instrument Might Be Less Apt To Decay, And That Signs Might Be Permanent, Like The Things Which They Denote.

There Prevails Among Men Of Letters, An Opinion, That All Appearance Of Science Is Particularly Hateful To Women; And That Therefore Whoever Desires To Be Well Received In Female Assemblies, Must Qualify Himself By A Total Rejection Of All That Is Serious, Rational, Or Important; Must Consider Argument Or Criticism As Perpetually Interdicted; And Devote All His Attention To Trifles, And All His Eloquence To Compliment.

He Was Dull In A New Way, And That Made Many Think Him Great.

It Is The Quality Of Patriotism To Be Jealous And Watchful, To Observe All Secret Machinations, And To See Publick Dangers At A Distance. The True Lover Of His Country Is Ready To Communicate His Fears, And To Sound The Alarm, Whenever He Perceives The Approach Of Mischief. But He Sounds No Alarm, When There Is No Enemy; He Never Terrifies His Countrymen Till He Is Terrified Himself. The Patriotism, Therefore, May Be Justly Doubted Of Him, Who Professes To Be Disturbed By Incredibilities.

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

A Man May Be Very Sincere In Good Principles, Without Having Good Practice.

Who Drives Fat Oxen Should Himself Be Fat.

By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.

When A Poet Mentions The Spring, We Know That The Zephyrs Are About To Whisper, That The Groves Are To Recover Their Verdure, The Linnets To Warble Forth Their Notes Of Love, And The Flocks And Herds To Frisk Over Vales Painted With Flowers: Yet, Who Is There So Insensible Of The Beauties Of Nature, So Little Delighted With The Renovation Of The World, As Not To Feel His Heart Bound At The Mention Of The Spring?

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

Grief Is A Species Of Idleness.

It Is Commonly Observed, That When Two Englishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather; They Are In Haste To Tell Each Other, What Each Must Already Know, That It Is Hot Or Cold, Bright Or Cloudy, Windy Or Calm.

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

There Is Nothing Which Has Yet Been Contrived By Man, By Which So Much Happiness Is Produced As By A Good Tavern.

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.

It Is So Far From Being Natural For A Man And Woman To Live In A State Of Marriage, That We Find All The Motives Which They Have For Remaining In That Connection, And The Restraints Which Civilised Society Imposes To Prevent Separation, Are Hardly Sufficient To Keep Them Together.

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.

A Man Had Rather Have A Hundred Lies Told Of Him Than One Truth Which He Does Not Wish Should Be Told.

Idleness And Timidity Often Despair Without Being Overcome, And Forbear Attempts For Fear Of Being Defeated; And We May Promote The Invigoration Of Faint Endeavors, By Showing What Has Already Been Performed.

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

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

Censure Is Willingly Indulged, Because It Always Implies Some Superiority: Men Please Themselves With Imagining That They Have Made A Deeper Search, Or Wider Survey Than Others, And Detected Faults And Follies Which Escape Vulgar Observation.

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

Of A Thousand Shavers, Two Do Not Shave So Much Alike As Not To Be Distinguished.

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

The World Is Not Yet Exhausted: Let Me See Something Tomorrow Which I Never Saw Before.

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

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

Whoever Envies Another Confesses His Superiority.

Unless A Woman Has An Amorous Heart, She Is A Dull Companion.

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

The Equity Of Providence Has Balanced Peculiar Sufferings With Peculiar Enjoyments.

Every State Of Society Is As Luxurious As It Can Be. Men Always Take The Best They Can Get.

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

What Is Twice Read Is Commonly Better Remembered That What Is Transcribed.

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

Unconstraint Is The Grace Of Conversation.

"i Fly From Pleasure," Said The Prince, "because Pleasure Has Ceased To Please; I Am Lonely Because I Am Miserable, And Am Unwilling To Cloud With My Presence The Happiness Of Others."

Credulity Is The Common Failing Of Inexperienced Virtue; And He Who Is Spontaneously Suspicious May Justly Be Charged With Radical Corruption.

There Is No Observation More Frequently Made By Such As Employ Themselves In Surveying The Conduct Of Mankind, Than That Marriage, Though The Dictate Of Nature, And The Institution Of Providence, Is Yet Very Often The Cause Of Misery, And That Those Who Enter Into That State Can Seldom Forbear To Express Their Repentance, And Their Envy Of Those Whom Either Chance Or Caution Hath Withheld From It.

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.

Misery And Shame Are Nearly Allied.

The Happiness Of London Is Not To Be Conceived But By Those Who Have Been In It.

Frequent Discontent Must Proceed From Frequent Hardships.

The True Genius Is A Mind Of Large General Powers, Accidentally Determined To Some Particular Direction.

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.

I Never Take A Nap After Dinner But When I Have Had A Bad Night, And Then The Nap Takes Me.

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

Courtesy And Good-humour Are Often Found With Little Real Worth.

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

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.

So Scanty Is Our Present Allowance Of Happiness That In Many Situations Life Could Scarcely Be Supported If Hope Were Not Allowed To Relieve The Present Hour By Pleasures Borrowed From The Future.

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.

To Expect That The Intricacies Of Science Will Be Pierced By A Careless Glance, Or The Eminences Of Fame Ascended Without Labour, Is To Expect A Peculiar Privilege, A Power Denied To The Rest Of Mankind; But To Suppose That The Maze Is Inscrutable To Diligence, Or The Heights Inaccessible To Perseverance, Is To Submit Tamely To The Tyranny Of Fancy, And Enchain The Mind In Voluntary Shackles.

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.

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.

When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life; For There Is In London All That Life Can Afford.

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

Lost Friendship

Differences, We Know, Are Never So Effectually Laid Asleep As By Some Common Calamity; An Enemy Unites All To Whom He Threatens Danger.

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

I Fancy Mankind May Come, In Time, To Write All Aphoristically, Except In Narrative; Grow Weary Of Preparation, And Connection, And Illustration, And All Those Arts By Which A Big Book Is Made.

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.

How Many May A Man Of Diffusive Conversation Count Among His Acquaintances, Whose Lives Have Been Signalized By Numberless Escapes; Who Never Cross The River But In A Storm, Or Take A Journey Into The Country Without More Adventures Than Befel The Knights-errant Of Ancient Times In Pathless Forests Or Enchanted Castles! How Many Must He Know, To Whom Portents And Prodigies Are Of Daily Occurrence; And For Whom Nature Is Hourly Working Wonders Invisible To Every Other Eye, Only To Supply Them With Subjects Of Conversation?

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

The Round Of A Passionate Man's Life Is In Contracting Debts In His Passion, Which His Virtue Obliges Him To Pay. He Spends His Time In Outrage And Acknowledgment, Injury And Reparation.

Curiosity Is One Of The Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect. Every Advance Into Knowledge Opens New Prospects, And Produces New Incitements To Farther Progress.

Nothing Is More Hopeless Than A Scheme Of Merriment.

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

Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.

The True Art Of Memory Is The Art Of Attention.

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

Turn On The Prudent Ant, Thy Heedful Eyes, Observe Her Labours, Sluggard, And Be Wise.

Golf Is A Game In Which You Claim The Privileges Of Age, And Retain The Playthings Of Childhood.

Be Not Too Hasty To Trust Or To Admire The Teachers Of Morality; They Discourse Like Angels, But They Live Like Men.

The Law Is The Last Result Of Human Wisdom Acting Upon Human Experience For The Benefit Of The Public.

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

I Have Already Enjoyed Too Much; Give Me Something To Desire.

Applause Abates Diligence.

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

That Fellow Seems To Me To Possess But One Idea, And That Is A Wrong One.

Catch, Then, Oh! Catch The Transient Hour, Improve Each Moment As It Flies; Life's A Short Summer-man A Flower; He Dies-alas! How Soon He Dies!

The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.

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