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The Greatest Human Virtue Bears No Proportion To Human Vanity. We Always Think Ourselves Better Than We Are, And Are Generally Desirous That Others Should Think Us Still Better Than We Think Ourselves. To Praise Us For Actions Or Dispositions Which Deserve Praise Is Not To Confer A Benefit, But To Pay A Tribute. We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable, And Which We Are Desirous To Strengthen By A New Suffrage; We Have Always Hopes Which We Suspect To Be Fallacious, And Of Which We Eagerly Snatch At Every Confirmation.

-Samuel Johnson

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The Greatest Human Virtue

Samuel Johnson

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The Greatest Human Virtue Bears No Proportion To Human Vanity. We Always Think Ourselves Better Than We Are, And Are Generally Desirous That Others Should Think Us Still Better Than We Think Ourselves. To Praise Us For Actions Or Dispositions Which Deserve Praise Is Not To Confer A Benefit, But To Pay A Tribute. We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable, And Which We Are Desirous To Strengthen By A New Suffrage; We Have Always Hopes Which We Suspect To Be Fallacious, And Of Which We Eagerly Snatch At Every Confirmation.

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The Mental Disease Of The Present Generation Is Impatience Of Study, Contempt Of The Great Masters Of Ancient Wisdom, And A Disposition To Rely Wholly Upon Unassisted Genius And Natural Sagacity. The Wits Of These Happy Days Have Discovered A Way To Fame, Which The Dull Caution Of Our Laborious Ancestors Durst Never Attempt; They Cut The Knots Of Sophistry, Which It Was Formerly The Business Of Years To Untie, Solve Difficulties By Sudden Irradiations Of Intelligence, And Comprehend Long Processes Of Argument By Immediate Intuition.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

Men Who Stand In The Highest Ranks Of Society Seldom Hear Of Their Faults; If By Any Accident An Opprobrious Clamour Reaches Their Ears, Flattery Is Always At Hand To Pour In Her Opiates, To Quiet Conviction And Obtund Remorse.

A Man Of Sense And Education Should Meet A Suitable Companion In A Wife. It Is A Miserable Thing When The Conversation Can Only Be Such As Whether The Mutton Should Be Boiled Or Roasted, And Probably A Dispute About That.

I Do Not See, Sir, That It Is Reasonable For A Man To Be Angry At Another, Whom A Woman Has Preferred To Him; But Angry He Is, No Doubt; And He Is Loath To Be Angry At Himself.

These Are The Men Who, Without Virtue, Labour, Or Hazard, Are Growing Rich, As Their Country Is Impoverished; They Rejoice, When Obstinacy Or Ambition Adds Another Year To Slaughter And Devastation; And Laugh, From Their Desks, At Bravery And Science, While They Are Adding Figure To Figure, And Cipher To Cipher, Hoping For A New Contract From A New Armament, And Computing The Profits Of A Siege Or Tempest.

The Authour Who Imitates His Predecessors Only By Furnishing Himself With Thoughts And Elegances Out Of The Same General Magazine Of Literature, Can With Little More Propriety Be Reproached As A Plagiary, Than The Architect Can Be Censured As A Mean Copier Of Angelo Or Wren, Because He Digs His Marble Out Of The Same Quarry, Squares His Stones By The Same Art, And Unites Them In Columns Of The Same Orders.

That Observation Which Is Called Knowledge Of The World Will Be Found Much More Frequently To Make Men Cunning Than Good.

In All Political Regulations, Good Cannot Be Complete, It Can Only Be Predominant.

Every Desire Is A Viper In The Bosom, Who While He Was Chill Was Harmless; But When Warmth Gave Him Strength, Exerted It In Poison.

When First The College Rolls Receive His Name, The Young Enthusiast Quilts His Ease For Fame; Through All His Veins The Fever Of Renown Burns From The Strong Contagion Of The Gown

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.

The Future Is Bought With The Present.

The Prosperity Of A People Is Proportionate To The Number Of Hands And Minds Usefully Employed. To The Community, Sedition Is A Fever, Corruption Is A Gangrene, And Idleness Is An Atrophy. Whatever Body Or Society Wastes More Than It Acquires, Must Gradually Decay, And Every Being That Continues To Be Fed, And Eases To Labor, Takes Away Something From The Public Stock.

No People Can Be Great Who Have Ceased To Be Virtuous.

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

People Need To Be Reminded More Often Than They Need To Be Instructed.

To Live Without Feeling Or Exciting Sympathy, To Be Fortunate Without Adding To The Felicity Of Others, Or Afflicted Without Tasting The Balm Of Pity, Is A State More Gloomy Than Solitude; It Is Not Retreat, But Exclusion From Mankind. Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

The Richest Author That Ever Grazed The Common Of Literature.

Life, To Be Worthy Of A Rational Being, Must Be Always In Progression; We Must Always Purpose To Do More Or Better Than In Time Past.

Whoever Thinks Of Going To Bed Before Twelve O'clock Is A Scoundrel.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

Wine Gives A Man Nothing. It Neither Gives Him Knowledge Nor Wit; It Only Animates A Man, And Enables Him To Bring Out What A Dread Of The Company Has Repressed. It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

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

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

Life Admits Not Of Delays; When Pleasure Can Be Had, It Is Fit To Catch It. Every Hour Takes Away Part Of The Things That Please Us, And Perhaps Part Of Our Disposition To Be Pleased.

Knock The 't' Off The 'can't.'

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.

All Envy Would Be Extinguished, If It Were Universally Known That There Are None To Be Envied.

This Merriment Of Parsons Is Mighty Offensive.

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

The Greatest Human Virtue Bears No Proportion To Human Vanity. We Always Think Ourselves Better Than We Are, And Are Generally Desirous That Others Should Think Us Still Better Than We Think Ourselves. To Praise Us For Actions Or Dispositions Which Deserve Praise Is Not To Confer A Benefit, But To Pay A Tribute. We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable, And Which We Are Desirous To Strengthen By A New Suffrage; We Have Always Hopes Which We Suspect To Be Fallacious, And Of Which We Eagerly Snatch At Every Confirmation.

Levellers Wish To Level Down As Far As Themselves; But They Cannot Bear Levelling Up To Themselves.

Hunting Was The Labour Of The Savages Of North America, But The Amusement Of The Gentlemen Of England.

If A Man Is In Doubt Whether It Would Be Better For Him To Expose Himself To Martyrdom Or Not, He Should Not Do It. He Must Be Convinced That He Has A Delegation From Heaven.

Persius Has Justly Observed, That Knowledge Is Nothing To Him Who Is Not Known By Others To Possess It: To The Scholar Himself It Is Nothing With Respect Either To Honour Or Advantage, For The World Cannot Reward Those Qualities Which Are Concealed From It; With Respect To Others It Is Nothing, Because It Affords No Help To Ignorance Or Errour.

Guilt Has Always Its Horrors And Solicitudes; And, To Make It Yet More Shameful And Detestable, It Is Doomed Often To Stand In Awe Of Those To Whom Nothing Could Give Influence Or Weight But Their Power Of Betraying.

Whoever Commits A Fraud Is Guilty Not Only Of The Particular Injury To Him Who He Deceives, But Of The Diminution Of That Confidence Which Constitutes Not Only The Ease But The Existence Of Society.

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!

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.

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

I Remember A Passage In Goldsmith's "vicar Of Wakefield," Which He Was Afterwards Fool Enough To Expunge: "i Do Not Love A Man Who Is Zealous For Nothing.

Human Experience, Which Is Constantly Contradicting Theory, Is The Great Test Of Truth. A System, Built Upon The Discoveries Of A Great Many Minds, Is Always Of More Strength, Than What Is Produced By The Mere Workings Of Any One Mind, Which, Of Itself, Can Do Very Little. There Is Not So Poor A Book In The World That Would Not Be A Prodigious Effort Were It Wrought Out Entirely By A Single Mind, Without The Aid Of Prior Investigators.

Sir, There Is No End Of Negative Criticism.

Negative Criticism

To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity.

This Is My History; Like All Other Histories, A Narrative Of Misery.

Men Hate More Steadily Than They Love.

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

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.

Actions Are Visible, Though Motives Are Secret.

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.

The Irish Are A Fair People: They Never Speak Well Of One Another.

Ireland And The Irish

None Can Be Pleased Without Praise, And Few Can Be Praised Without Falsehood.

Except During The Nine Months Before He Draws His First Breath, No Man Manages His Affairs As Well As A Tree. We Are Inclined To Believe Those Whom We Do Not Know Because They Have Never Deceived Us.

I Am A Great Friend To Public Amusements; For They Keep People From Vice.

The Stream Of Time, Which Is Continually Washing The Dissoluble Fabrics Of Other Poets, Passes Without Injury By The Adamant Of Shakespeare.

Riches Seldom Make Their Owners Rich.

In Misery's Darkest Cavern Known, His Useful Care Was Ever Nigh Where Hopeless Anguish Pour'd His Groan, And Lonely Want Retir'd To Die.

It Was His Peculiar Happiness That He Scarcely Ever Found A Stranger Whom He Did Not Leave A Friend; But It Must Likewise Be Added, That He Had Not Often A Friend Long Without Obliging Him To Become A Stranger.

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.

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal.

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

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

We Owe To Memory Not Only The Increase Of Our Knowledge, And Our Progress In Rational Inquiries, But Many Other Intellectual Pleasures

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.

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.

Spite And Ill-nature Are Among The Most Expensive Luxuries In Life.

Words Become Low By The Occasions To Which They Are Applied, Or The General Character Of Them Who Use Them; And The Disgust Which They Produce Arises From The Revival Of Those Images With Which They Are Commonly United.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation, Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City.

Pleasure That Is Obtained By Unreasonable And Unsuitable Cost Must Always End In Pain.

There Is, Indeed, Nothing That So Much Seduces Reason From Vigilance, As The Thought Of Passing Life With An Amiable Woman.

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

The General Remedy Of Those Who Are Uneasy Without Knowing The Cause Is Change Of Place.

I Live In The Crowd Of Jollity, Not So Much To Enjoy Company As To Shun Myself.

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

From Ignorance Our Comfort Flows, The Only Wretched Are The Wise

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

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

As He That Lives Longest Lives But A Little While, Every Man May Be Certain That He Has No Time To Waste. The Duties Of Life Are Commensurate To Its Duration; And Every Day Brings Its Task, Which, If Neglected, Is Doubled On The Morrow.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet.

The Blaze Of Reputation Cannot Be Blown Out, But It Often Dies In The Socket; A Very Few Names May Be Considered As Perpetual Lamps That Shine Unconsumed.

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.

Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance.

Let Observation With Extensive View, Survey Mankind From China To Peru; Remark Each Anxious Toil, Each Eager Strife, And Watch The Busy Scenes Of Crowded Life.

Celestial Wisdom Calms The Mind.

So Willing Is Every Man To Flatter Himself, That The Difference Between Approving Laws, And Obeying Them, Is Frequently Forgotten; He That Acknowledges The Obligations Of Morality And Pleases His Vanity With Enforcing Them To Others, Concludes Himself Zealous In The Cause Of Virtue.

Philosophy Has Often Attempted To Repress Insolence By Asserting That All Conditions Are Leveled By Death; A Position Which, However It May Defect The Happy, Will Seldom Afford Much Comfort To The Wretched.

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.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

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

A Man Is Very Apt To Complain Of The Ingratitude Of Those Who Have Risen Far Above Him.

I Never Have Sought The World; The World Was Not To Seek Me.

The Gloomy And The Resentful Are Always Found Among Those Who Have Nothing To Do Or Who Do Nothing.

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.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; Every Time You Talk Your Mind Is On Parade.

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

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.

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

I Have All My Life Long Been Lying In Bed Till Noon; Yet I Tell All Young Men, And Tell Them With Great Sincerity, That Nobody Who Does Not Rise Early Will Ever Do Any Good.

The First Step To Greatness Is To Be Honest.

Happiness Consists In The Multiplicity Of Agreeable Consciousness.

Irresolution And Mutability Are Often The Faults Of Men Whose Views Are Wide, And Whose Imagination Is Vigorous And Excursive.

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

Truth Has No Gradations; Nothing Which Admits Of Increase Can Be So Much What It Is, As Truth Is Truth. There May Be A Strange Thing, And A Thing More Strange. But If A Proposition Be True, There Can Be None More True.

The Whole Of Life Is But Keeping Away The Thoughts Of Death.

Thoughts Of Death

Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.

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.

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

No Man Is Defeated Without Some Resentment Which Will Be Continued With Obstinacy While He Believes Himself In The Right, And Asserted With Bitterness, If Even To His Own Conscience He Is Detected In The Wrong.

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

But It Is Evident, That These Bursts Of Universal Distress Are More Dreaded Than Felt; Thousands And Ten Thousands Flourish In Youth, And Wither In Age, Without The Knowledge Of Any Other Than Domestic Evils, And Share The Same Pleasures And Vexations, Whether Their Kings Are Mild Or Cruel, Whether The Armies Of Their Country Pursue Their Enemies Or Retreat Before Them.

Every Period Of Life Is Obliged To Borrow Its Happiness From Time To Come.

Distance Either Of Time Or Place Is Sufficient To Reconcile Weak Minds To Wonderful Relations.

It Is Wonderful What A Difference Learning Makes Upon People Even In The Common Intercourse Of Life, Which Does Not Appear To Be Much Connected With It.

The Greatest Part Of A Writer's Time Is Spent In Reading In Order To Write. A Man Will Turn Over Half A Library To Make A Book.

Domestic Discord Is Not Inevitably And Fatally Necessary; But Yet It Is Not Easy To Avoid.

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

Among The Lower Classes Of Mankind There Will Be Found Very Little Desire Of Any Other Knowledge Than What May Contribute Immediately To The Relief Of Some Pressing Uneasiness, Or The Attainment Of Some Near Advantage.

Those Who Have Past Much Of Their Lives In This Great City, Look Upon Its Opulence And Its Multitudes, Its Extent And Variety, With Cold Indifference; But An Inhabitant Of The Remoter Parts Of The Kingdom Is Immediately Distinguished By A Kind Of Dissipated Curiosity, A Busy Endeavour To Divide His Attention Amongst A Thousand Objects, And A Wild Confusion Of Astonishment And Alarm.

Gayety Is To Good-humor As Perfumes To Vegetable Fragrance: The One Overpowers Weak Spirits; The Other Recreates And Revives Them.

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

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.

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

Men Who Could Willingly Resign The Luxuries And Sensual Pleasures Of A Large Fortune Cannot Consent To Live Without The Grandeur And The Homage.

The Eye Of The Mind, Like That Of The Body, Can Only Extend Its View To New Objects, By Losing Sight Of Those Which Are Now Before It.

The World Will Never Be Long Without Some Good Reason To Hate The Unhappy; Their Real Faults Are Immediately Detected; And If Those Are Not Sufficient To Sink Them Into Infamy, An Individual Weight Of Calumny Will Be Super-added.

Now ... That You Are Going To Marry, Do Not Expect More From Life, Than Life Will Afford.

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

I Also Admit, That There Are Some Sluggish Men Who Are Improved By Drinking; As There Are Fruits Which Are Not Good Till They Are Rotten.

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

As To The Rout That Is Made About People Who Are Ruined By Extravagance, It Is No Matter To The Nation That Some Individuals Suffer. When So Much General Productive Exertion Is The Consequence Of Luxury, The Nation Does Not Care Though There Are Debtors; Nay, They Would Not Care Though Their Creditors Were There Too.

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.

The Difference Between Coarse And Refined Abuse Is The Difference Between Being Bruised By A Club And Wounded By A Poisoned Arrow.

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.

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

The Vanity Of Being Known To Be Trusted With A Secret Is Generally One Of The Chief Motives To Disclose It.

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.

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

Tediousness Is The Most Fatal Of All Faults.

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

The Supreme End Of Education Is Expert Discernment In All Things-the Power To Tell The Good From The Bad, The Genuine From The Counterfeit, And To Prefer The Good And The Genuine To The Bad And The Counterfeit.

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.

The Superiority Of Some Men Is Merely Local. They Are Great Because Their Associates Are Little.

All Wonder Is The Effect Of Novelty On Ignorance.

Such Is The State Of Every Age, Every Sex, And Every Condition: All Have Their Cares, Either From Nature Or From Folly; And Whoever, Therefore, Finds Himself Inclined To Envy Another, Should Remember That He Knows Not The Real Condition Which He Desires To Obtain, But Is Certain That By Indulging A Vicious Passion, He Must Lessen That Happiness Which He Thinks Already Too Sparingly Bestowed.

Then With No Throbs Of Fiery Pain, No Cold Gradations Of Decay, Death Broke At Once The Vital Chain, And Freed His Soul The Nearest Way.

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

To Use Two Languages Familiarly And Without Contaminating One By The Other, Is Very Difficult; And To Use More Than Two Is Hardly To Be Hoped. The Prizes Which Some Have Received For Their Multiplicity Of Languages May Be Sufficient To Excite Industry, But Can Hardly Generate Confidence.

Let Him Go Abroad To A Distant Country; Let Him Go To Some Place Where He Is Not Known. Don't Let Him Go To The Devil, Where He Is Known.

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.

Dishonor Waits On Perfidy. A Man Should Blush To Think A Falsehood; It Is The Crime Of Cowards.

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

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

Though The Wisdom Or Virtue Of One Can Very Rarely Make Many Happy, The Folly Or Vice Of One Man Often Make Many Miserable.

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

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.

Resolve Not To Be Poor: Whatever You Have, Spend Less. Poverty Is A Great Enemy To Human Happiness; It Certainly Destroys Liberty, And It Makes Some Virtues Impracticable, And Others Extremely Difficult.

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

If Pleasure Was Not Followed By Pain, Who Would Forbear It?

All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire; We Are Uneasy At The Attainments Of Another, According As We Think Our Own Happiness Would Be Advanced By The Addition Of That Which He Withholds From Us.

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.

Oats. A Grain, Which In England Is Generally Given To Horses, But In Scotland Supports The People.

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

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

Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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

They Who Have Already Enjoyed The Crowds And Noise Of The Great City, Know Their Desire To Return Is Little More Than The Restlessness Of A Vacant Mind, That They Are Not So Much Led By Hope As Driven By Disgust, And Wish Rather To Leave The Country Than To See The Town.

Tomorrow Is An Old Deceiver, And His Cheat Never Grows Stale.

I Have Always Said The First Whig Was The Devil.

A Man Who Always Talks For Fame Never Can Be Pleasing. The Man Who Talks To Unburthen His Mind Is The Man To Delight You.

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.

Such Is The Uncertainty Of Human Affairs, That Security And Despair Are Equal Follies; And As It Is Presumption And Arrogance To Anticipate Triumphs, It Is Weakness And Cowardice To Prog-nosticate Miscarriages.

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

To Strive With Difficulties, And To Conquer Them, Is The Highest Human Felicity; The Next Is, To Strive, And Deserve To Conquer: But He Whose Life Has Passed Without A Contest, And Who Can Boast Neither Success Nor Merit, Can Survey Himself Only As A Useless Filler Of Existence; Ad If He Is Content With His Own Character, Must Owe His Satisfaction To Insensibility.

This Was A Good Dinner Enough, To Be Sure, But It Was Not A Dinner To Ask A Man To.

When Any Anxiety Or Gloom Of The Mind Takes Hold Of You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaining; But Exert Yourselves To Hide It, And By Endeavoring To Hide It You Drive It Away.

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

To A Poet Nothing Can Be Useless.

Friendship May Well Deserve The Sacrifice Of Pleasure, Though Not Of Conscience.

Philosophers There Are Who Try To Make Themselves Believe That This Life Is Happy; But They Believe It Only While They Are Saying It, And Never Yet Produced Conviction In A Single Mind.

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

From All Our Observations We May Collect With Certainty, That Misery Is The Lot Of Man, But Cannot Discover In What Particular Condition It Will Find Most Alleviations.

Spring Is The Season Of Gaiety, And Winter Of Terror; In Spring The Heart Of Tranquility Dances To The Melody Of The Groves, And The Eye Of Benevolence Sparkles At The Sight Of Happiness And Plenty: In Winter, Compassion Melts At Universal Calamity, And The Tear Of Softness Starts At The Wailing Of Hunger And The Cries Of The Creation In Distress

What A Strange Narrowness Of Mind Now Is That, To Think The Things We Have Not Known Are Better Than The Things We Have Known.

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

The Desires Of Man Increase With His Acquisitions.

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.

Most Minds Are The Slaves Of External Circumstances, And Conform To Any Hand That Undertakes To Mould Them.

Melancholy, Indeed, Should Be Diverted By Every Means But Drinking.

The Mere Power Of Saving What Is Already In Our Hands Must Be Of Easy Acquisition To Every Mind; And As The Example Of Lord Bacon May Show That The Highest Intellect Cannot Safely Neglect It, A Thousand Instances Every Day Prove That The Humblest May Practise It With Success.

We Seldom Learn The True Want Of What We Have Till It Is Discovered That We Can Have No More.

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

Once A Coxcomb, Always A Coxcomb.

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

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

Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money, Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured.

He Who Would Have Fine Guests, Let Him Have A Fine Wife.

The Morality Of An Action Depends On The Motive From Which We Act. If I Fling Half A Crown To A Beggar With Intention To Break His Head And He Picks It Up And Buy Victuals With It, The Physical Effect Is Good. But With Respect To Me The Action Is Very Wrong.

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Sugar Ray Robinson

H. P. Lovecraft

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