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The Knight In The Triumph Of His Heart Made Several 6 Reflections On Thegreatness Of The British Nation; As, That One Englishman Could Beat Three Frenchmen; That We Could Never Be In Danger Of Popery So Long As We Took Care Of Our Fleet; That Thethames Was Thenoblest River In Europe; That London Bridge Was A Greater Piece Of Work Than Any Of The Seven Wonders Of The World; With Many Other Honest Prejudices Which Naturally Cleave To The Heart Of A True Englishman.

-Joseph Addison

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The Knight In The

Joseph Addison

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The Knight In The Triumph Of His Heart Made Several 6 Reflections On Thegreatness Of The British Nation; As, That One Englishman Could Beat Three Frenchmen; That We Could Never Be In Danger Of Popery So Long As We Took Care Of Our Fleet; That Thethames Was Thenoblest River In Europe; That London Bridge Was A Greater Piece Of Work Than Any Of The Seven Wonders Of The World; With Many Other Honest Prejudices Which Naturally Cleave To The Heart Of A True Englishman.

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Even The Greatest Actions Of A Celebrated Person Labor Under This Disadvantage, That However Surprising And Extraordinary They May Be, They Are No More Than What Are Expected From Him.

A Man Who Has Any Relish For Fine Writing Either Discovers New Beauties Or Receives Stronger Impressions From The Masterly Strokes Of A Great Author Every Time He Peruses Him; Besides That He Naturally Wears Himself Into The Same Manner Of Speaking And Thinking.

There Is Sometimes A Greater Judgement Shewn In Deviating From The Rules Of Art, Than In Adhering To Them; And?there Ismore Beauty Inthe Works Of A Great Genius Who Is Ignorant Of All The Rules Of Art, Than In The Works Of A Little Genius, Who Not Only Knows But Scrupulously Observes Them.

Admiration Is A Very Short-lived Passion, That Immediately Decays Upon Growing Familiar With Its Object.

Admiration And Respect

The Statue Lies Hid In A Block Of Marble; And The Art Of The Statuary Only Clears Away The Superfluous Matter, And Removes The Rubbish.

The Moral Virtues, Without Religion Are But Cold, Lifeless, And Insipid; It Is Only Religion Which Opens The Mind To Great Conceptions, Fills It With The Most Sublime Ideas, And Warms The Soul With More Than Sensual Pleasures.

The Most Violent Appetites In All Creatures Are Lust And Hunger; The First Is A Perpetual Call Upon Them To Propagate Their Kind, The Latter To Preserve Themselves.

The Unassuming Youth Seeking Instruction With Humility Gains Good Fortune.

Men Of Warm Imaginations And Towering Thoughts Are Apt To Overlook The Goods Of Fortune Which Are Near Them, For Something That Glitters In The Sight At A Distance; To Neglect Solid And Substantial Happiness For What Is Showy And Superficial; And To Contemn That Good Which Lies Within Their Reach, For That Which They Are Not Capable Of Attaining. Hope Calculates Its Schemes For A Long And Durable Life; Presses Forward To Imaginary Points Of Bliss; Grasps At Impossibilities; And Consequently Very Often Ensnares Men Into Beggary, Ruin, And Dishonour.

A Man’s First Care Should Be To Avoid The Reproaches Of His Own Heart.

The Stars Shall Fade Away, The Sun Himself Grow Dim With Age, And Nature Sink In Years, But Thou Shalt Flourish In Immortal Youth, Unhurt Amidst The Wars Of Elements, The Wrecks Of Matter, And The Crush Of Worlds.

The Head Has The Most Beautiful Appearance, As Well As The Highest Station, In A Human Figure.

Complaisance Renders A Superior Amiable, An Equal Agreeable, And An Inferior Acceptable.

Exercise Ferments The Humors, Casts Them Into Their Proper Channels, Throws Off Redundancies, And Helps Nature In Those Secret Distributions, Without Which The Body Cannot Subsist In Its Vigor, Nor The Soul Act With Cheerfulness.

In Private Conversation Between Intimate Friends, The Wisest Men Very Often Talk Like The Weakest : For Indeed The Talking With A Friend Is Nothing Else But Thinking Aloud.

The Soul, Considered With Its Creator, Is Like One Of Those Mathematical Lines That May Draw Nearer To Another For All Eternity Without A Possibility Of Touching It; And Can There Be A Thought So Transporting As To Consider Ourselves In These Perpetual Approaches To Him, Who Is Not Only The Standard Of Perfection, But Of Happiness?

There Is Not So Variable A Thing In Nature As A Lady's Head-dress.

Misery And Ignorance Are Always The Cause Of Great Evils. Misery Is Easily Excited To Anger, And Ignorance Soon Yields To Perfidious Counsels.

A State Of Temperance, Sobriety And Justice Without Devotion Is A Cold, Lifeless, Insipid Condition Of Virtue, And Is Rather To Be Styled Philosophy Than Religion.

Sunday Clears Away The Rust Of The Whole Week.

Were I To Prescribe A Rule For Drinking, It Should Be Formed Upon A Saying Quoted By Sir William Temple: The First Glass For Myself, The Second For My Friends, The Third For Good Humor, And The Fourth For Mine Enemies.

It Is Impossible For Authors To Discover Beauties In One Another's Works; They Have Eyes Only For Spots And Blemishes.

Music Religious Heat Inspires, It Wakes The Soul, And Lifts It High, And Wings It With Sublime Desires, And Fits It To Bespeak The Deity.

It Is Always To Be Understood That A Lady Takes All You Detract From The Rest Of Her Sex To Be A Gift To Her.

Love, Anger, Pride And Avarice All Visibly Move In Those Little Orbs.

We Have In England A Particular Bashfulness In Every Thing That Regards Religion.

Upon Laying A Weight In One Of The Scales, Inscribed Eternity, Though I Threw In That Of Time, Prosperity, Affliction, Wealth, And Poverty, Which Seemed Very Ponderous, They Were Not Able To Stir The Opposite Balance.

It Is Certain That There Is No Other Passion Which Does Produce Such Contrary Effects In So Great A Degree. But This May Be Said For Love, That If You Strike It Out Of The Soul, Life Would Be Insipid, And Our Being But Half Animated.

Nature In Her Whole Drama Never Drew Such A Part; She Has Sometimes Made A Fool, But A Coxcomb Is Always Of A Man's Own Making.

Yet Then From All My Grief, O Lord, Thy Mercy Set Me Free, Whilst In The Confidence Of Pray'r My Soul Took Hold On Thee.

Love Is A Second Life; It Grows Into The Soul, Warms Every Vein, And Beats In Every Pulse.

I Shall Endeavour To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality, That My Readers May, If Possible, Both Ways Findtheir Account In The Speculation Of The Day.

I Always Rejoice When I See A Tribunal Filled With A Man Of An Upright And Inflexible Temper, Who In The Execution Of His Country's Laws Can Overcome All Private Fear, Resentment, Solicitation, And Even Pity It Self. Whatever Passion Enters Into A Sentence Or Decision, So Far Will There Be In It A Tincture Of Injustice. In Short, Justice Discards Party, Friendship, Kindred, And Is Therefore Always Represented As Blind, That We May Suppose Her Thoughts Are Wholly Intent On The Equity Of A Cause, Without Being Diverted Or Prejudiced By Objects Foreign To It.

Riches Are Apt To Betray A Man Into Arrogance.

We Are Growing Serious, And, Let Me Tell You, That's The Very Next Step To Being Dull.

A Soul Exasperated In Ills, Falls Out With Everything, Its Friend, Itself.

For My Own Part, I Am Apt To Join In The Opinion With Those Who Believe That All The Regions Of Nature Swarm With Spirits, And That We Have Multitudes Of Spectators On All Our Actions When We Think Ourselves Most Alone.

But In All Despotic Governments, Though A Particular Prince May Favour Arts And Letter, There Is A Natural Degeneracy Of Mankind.

A Cheerful Temper, Joined With Innocence Will Make Beauty Attractive, Knowledge Delightful, And Wit Good-natured.

A Good Disposition Is More Valuable Than Gold, For The Latter Is The Gift Of Fortune, But The Former Is The Dower Of Nature.

Certain Is It That There Is No Kind Of Affection So Purely Angelic As Of A Father To A Daughter. In Love To Our Wives There Is Desire; To Our Sons, Ambition, But To Our Daughters There Is Something Which There Are No Words To Express.

Mother Daughter

Let Freedom Never Perish In Your Hands.

Musick Is Certainly A Very Agreeable Entertainment, But If It Would Take The Entire Possession Of Our Ears, If It Would Make Us Incapable Of Hearing Sense, If It Would Exclude Arts That Have A Much Greater Tendency To The Refinement Of Human Nature; I Must Confess I Would Allow It No Better Quarter Than Plato Has Done, Who Banishes It Out Of His Common-wealth.

Two Persons Who Have Chosen Each Other Out Of All The Species With A Design To Be Each Other's Mutual Comfort And Entertainment Have, In That Action, Bound Themselves To Be Good-humored, Affable, Discreet, Forgiving, Patient, And Joyful, With Respect To Each Other's Frailties And Perfections, To The End Of Their Lives.

The Sense Of Honour Is Of So Fine And Delicate A Nature, That It Is Only To Be Met With In Minds Which Are Naturally Noble, Or In Such As Have Been Cultivated By Good Examples, Or A Refined Education.

The Jealous Man's Disease Is Of So Malignant A Nature, That It Converts All It Takes Into Its Own Nourishment.

When I Consider The Question, Whether There Are Such Persons In The World As Those We Call Witches? My Mind Is Divided Between The Two Opposite Opinions; Or Rather I Believe In General That There Is, And Has Been Such A Thing As Witchcraft; But At The Same Time Can Give No Credit To Any Particular Instance Of It.

Physic, For The Most Part, Is Nothing Else But The Substitute Of Exercise And Temperance.

He Who Would Pass His Declining Years With Honor And Comfort, Should, When Young, Consider That He May One Day Become Old, And Remember When He Is Old, That He Has Once Been Young.

In That Disputable Point Of Persecuting Men For Conscience Sake, I See Such Dreadful Consequences Rising, I Would Be As Fully Convinced Of The Truth Of It, As A Mathematical Demonstration, Before I Would Venture To Act Upon It Or Make It A Part Of My Religion.

A Great Large Book Is A Great Evil.

It Is Impossible For Us, Who Live In The Latter Ages Of The World, To Make Observations In Criticism, Morality, Or In Any Art Or Science, Which Have Not Been Touched Upon By Others. We Have Little Else Left Us But To Represent The Common Sense Of Mankind In More Strong, More Beautiful, Or More Uncommon Lights.

A Man Should Always Consider How Much He Has More Than He Wants.

Marriage Enlarges The Scene Of Our Happiness And Miseries.

Those Marriages Generally Abound Most With Love And Constancy, That Are Preceded By A Long Courtship.

That He Delights In The Misery Of Others No Man Will Confess, And Yet What Other Motive Can Make A Father Cruel?

Nothing Is More Amiable Than True Modesty, And Nothing More Contemptible Than The False. The One Guards Virtue, The Other Betrays It.

No Oppression Is So Heavy Or Lasting As That Which Is Inflicted By The Perversion And Exorbitance Of Legal Authority.

God Discovers The Martyr And Confessor Without The Trial Of Flames And Tortures, And Will Hereafter Entitle Many To The Reward Of Actions Which They Had Never The Opportunity Of Performing.

Though A Man Cannot Abstain From Being Weak, He May From Being Vicious.

The Pride Of Woman, Natural To Her, Never Sleeps Until Modesty Is Gone.

Who Rant By Note, And Through The Gamut Rage; In Songs And Airs Express Their Martial Fire; Combat In Trills, And In A Fugue Expire.

There Is No Kind Of False Wit Which Has Been So Recommended By The Practice Of All Ages, As That Which Consists In A Jingle Of Words, And Is Comprehended Under The General Name Of Punning.

The Very First Discovery Of Beauty Strikes The Mind With An Inward Joy, And Spreads A Cheerfulness And Delight Through All Its Faculties.

The Consciousness Of Being Loved Softens The Keenest Pang Even At The Moment Of Parting; Yea, Even The Eternal Farewell Is Robbed Of Half Of Its Bitterness When Uttered In Accents That Breathe Love To The Last Sigh.

We Find That Good And Evil Happen Alike To All Men On This Side Of The Grave; And As The Principle Design Of Tragedy Is To Raise Commiseration And Terror In The Minds Of The Audience, We Shall Defeat This Great End, If We Always Make Virtue And Innocence Happy And Successful.

The Soul, Secured In Her Existence, Smiles At The Drawn Dagger, And Defies Its Point.

Love Is A Second Life.

Were Not This Desire Of Fame Very Strong, The Difficulty Of Obtaining It, And The Danger Of Losing It When Obtained, Would Be Sufficient To Deter A Man From So Vain A Pursuit.

The Most Exquisite Words And Finest Strokes Of An Author Are Those Which Very Often Appear The Most Doubtful And Exceptionable To A Man Who Wants A Relish For Polite Learning; And They Are Those Which A Sour Undistinguishing Critic Generally Attacks With The Greatest Violence.

A Woman Seldom Asks Advice Before She Has Bought Her Wedding Clothes.

One Should Take Good Care Not To Grow Too Wise For So Great A Pleasure Of Life As Laughter.

I Shall Endeavor To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality.

The Discreet Man Finds Out The Talents Of Those He Converses With, And Knows How To Apply Them To Proper Uses. Accordingly, If We Look Into Particular Communities And Divisions Of Men, We May Observe That It Is The Discreet Man, Not The Witty, Nor The Learned, Nor The Brave, Who Guides The Conversation, And Gives Measures To The Society.

The Obedience Of Children To Their Parents Is The Basis Of All Government, And Set Forth As The Measure Of That Obedience Which Weowe To Those Whom Providence Hath Placed Over Us.

This Not In Mortals To Command Success, But We'll Do More, Sempronius, We'll Deserve It.

Hope Calculates Its Scenes For A Long And Durable Life; Presses Forward To Imaginary Points Of Bliss; And Grasps At Impossibilities; And Consequently Very Often Ensnares Men Into Beggary, Ruin And Dishonor.

Our Real Blessings Often Appear To Us In The Shape Of Pains, Losses And Disappointments; But Let Us Have Patience And We Soon Shall See Them In Their Proper Figures.

I Consider An Human Soul Without Education Like Marble In The Quarry, Which Shows None Of Its Inherent Beauties Till The Skill Of The Polisher Fetches Out The Colours, Makes The Surface Shine, And Discovers Every Ornamental Cloud, Spot And Vein That Runs Through The Body Of It.

Temperance Gives Nature Her Full Play, And Enables Her To Exert Herself In All Her Force And Vigor.

Justice Is That Which Is Practiced By God Himself, And To Be Practiced In Its Perfection By None But Him. Omniscience And Omnipotence Are Requisite For The Full Exertion Of It.

Thus I Live In The World Rather As A Spectator Of Mankind Than As One Of The Species.

Complaisance, Though In Itself It Be Scarce Reckoned In The Number Of Moral Virtues, Is That Which Gives A Lustre To Every Talent A Man Can Be Possessed Of. It Was Plato's Advice To An Unpolished Writer That He Should Sacrifice To The Graces. In The Same Manner I Would Advise Every Man Of Learning, Who Would Not Appear In The World A Mere Scholar Or Philosopher, To Make Himself Master Of The Social Virtue Which I Have Here Mentioned.

The Utmost We Can Hope For In This World Is Contentment; If We Aim At Anything Higher, We Shall Meet With Nothing But Grief And Disappointment. A Man Should Direct All His Studies And Endeavors At Making Himself Easy Now And Happy Hereafter.

Mysterious Love, Uncertain Treasure, Hast Thou More Of Pain Or Pleasure! Endless Torments Dwell About Thee: Yet Who Would Live, And Live Without Thee!

The Care Of Our National Commerce Redounds More To The Riches And Prosperity Of The Public Than Any Other Act Of Government.

Novelty Serves Us For A Kind Of Refreshment, And Takes Off From That Satiety We Are Apt To Complain Of In Our Usual And Ordinary Entertainments.

Beauty Soon Grows Familiar To The Lover, Fades In His Eye, And Palls Upon The Sense.

Amidst The Soft Variety I'm Lost.

A Man Must Be Both Stupid And Uncharitable Who Believes There Is No Virtue Or Truth But On His Own Side.

When A Man Has Been Guilty Of Any Vice Or Folly, The Best Atonement He Can Make For It Is To Warn Others Not To Fall Into The Like.

When I Behold A Fashionable Table Set Out In All Its Magnificence, I Fancy That I See Gouts And Dropsies, Fevers And Lethargies, With Other Innumerable Distempers Lying In Ambuscade Among The Dishes. Nature Delights In The Most Plain And Simple Diet. Every Animal But Man Keeps To One Dish. Herbs Are The Food Of This Species, Fish Of That, And Flesh Of A Third. Man Falls Upon Everything That Comes In His Way; Not The Smallest Fruit Or Excrescence Of The Earth, Scarce A Berry Or A Mushroom Can Escape Him.

A Virtuous Mind In A Fair Body Is Indeed A Fine Picture In A Good Light, And Therefore It Is No Wonder That It Makes The Beautiful Sex All Over Charms.

Whether Dark Presages Of The Night Proceed From Any Latent Power Of The Soul During Her Abstraction, Or From Any Operation Of Subordinate Spirits, Has Been A Dispute.

Tis Not My Talent To Conceal My Thoughts, Or Carry Smiles And Sunshine In My Face, When Discontent Sits Heavy At My Heart.

Fame Is A Good So Wholly Foreign To Our Natures That We Have No Faculty In The Soul Adapted To It, Nor Any Organ In The Body To Relish It; An Object Of Desire Placed Out Of The Possibility Of Fruition.

Cheerfulness Is The Best Promoter Of Health And Is As Friendly To The Mind As To The Body.

A Statue Lies Hid In A Block Of Marble, And The Art Of The Statuary Only Clears Away The Superfluous Matter And Removes The Rubbish. The Figure Is In The Stone; The Sculptor Only Finds It. What Sculpture Is To A Block Of Marble, Education Is To A Human Soul. The Philosopher, The Saint, Or The Hero,--the Wise, The Good, Or The Great Man,--very Often Lies Hid And Concealed In A Plebeian, Which A Proper Education Might Have Disinterred, And Have Brought To Light.

A Perfect Tragedy Is The Noblest Production Of Human Nature.

Artificial Intelligence Will Never Be A Match For Natural Stupidity.

A Fine Coat Is But A Livery When The Person Who Wears It Discovers No Higher Sense Than That Of A Footman.

The Post Of Honour Is A Private Station.

A Contented Mind Is The Greatest Blessing A Man Can Enjoy In This World; And If In The Present Life His Happiness Arises From The Subduing Of His Desires, It Will Arise In The Next From The Gratification Of Them.

Reading Is To The Mind, What Exercise Is To The Body. As By The One, Health Is Preserved, Strengthened, And Invigorated: By The Other, Virtue (which Is The Health Of The Mind) Is Kept Alive, Cherished, And Confirmed.

Music, Among Those Who Were Styled The Chosen People, Was A Religious Art.

The Infusion Of A China Plant Sweetened With The Pith Of An Indian Cane.

Education Is A Companion Which No Misfortune Can Depress, No Crime Can Destroy, No Enemy Can Alienate, No Despotism Can Enslave. At Home, A Friend, Abroad, An Introduction, In Solitude A Solace And In Society An Ornament. It Chastens Vice, It Guides Virtue, It Gives At Once Grace And Government To Genius. Without It, What Is Man? A Splendid Slave, A Reasoning Savage.

The Pleasantest Part Of A Man's Life Is Generally That Which Passes In Courtship, Provided His Passion Be Sincere, And The Party Beloved Kind With Discretion. Love, Desire, Hope, All The Pleasing Emotions Of The Soul, Rise In The Pursuit.

A Day, An Hour, Of Virtuous Liberty Is Worth A Whole Eternity In Bondage.

Jesters Do Often Prove Prophets.

There Is No Passion That Steals Into The Heart More Imperceptibly And Covers Itself Under More Disguises Than Pride.

Faith Is Kept Alive In Us, And Gathers Strength, More From Practice Than From Speculations.

Antidotes Are What You Take To Prevent Dotes.

Jealousy Is That Pain Which A Man Feels From The Apprehension That He Is Not Equally Beloved By The Person Whom He Entirely Loves.

Hypocrisy Itself Does Great Honor, Or Rather Justice, To Religion, And Tacitly Acknowledges It To Be An Ornament To Human Nature. The Hypocrite Would Not Be At So Much Pains To Put On The Appearance Of Virtue, If He Did Not Know It Was The Most Proper And Effectual Means To Gain The Love And Esteem Of Mankind.

O Ye Powers That Search The Heart Of Man, And Weigh His Inmost Thoughts, If I Have Done Amiss, Impute It Not! The Best May Err, But You Are Good.

Though We Seem Grieved At The Shortness Of Life In General, We Are Wishing Every Period Of It At An End. The Minor Longs To Be At Age, Then To Be A Man Of Business, Then To Make Up An Estate, Then To Arrive At Honors, Then To Retire.

It Is Folly To Seek The Approbation Of Any Being Besides The Supreme.

For Ever Singing As They Shine, The Hand That Made Us Is Divine.

Mankind Are More Indebted To Industry Than Ingenuity; The Gods Set Up Their Favors At A Price, And Industry Is The Purchaser.

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good. When Vice Prevails, And Impious Men Bear Sway, The Post Of Honoris A Private Station.

With Regard To Donations Always Expect The Most From Prudent People, Who Keep Their Own Accounts.

There Is Nobody So Weak Of Invention That Cannot Make Some Little Stories To Villify His Enemy.

Man Is Subject To Innumerable Pains And Sorrows By The Very Condition Of Humanity, And Yet, As If Nature Had Not Sown Evils Enough In Life, We Are Continually Adding Grief To Grief And Aggravating The Common Calamity By Our Cruel Treatment Of One Another.

In All Thy Humours, Whether Grave Or Mellow, Thou'rt Such A Touchy, Testy, Pleasant Fellow, Hast So Much Wit And Mirth And Spleen About Thee, There Is No Living With Thee, Nor Without Thee.

Good Nature, And Evenness Of Temper, Will Give You An Easie Companion For Life; Vertue And Good Sense, An Agreeable Friend; Love And Constancy, A Good Wife Or Husband. Where We Meet One Person With All These Accomplishments, We Find An Hundred Without Any One Of Them.

Thy Steady Temper, Portius, Can Look On Guilt, Rebellion, Fraud, And Cæsar, In The Calm Lights Of Mild Philosophy.

Irregularity And Want Of Method Are Only Supportable In Men Of Great Learning Or Genius, Who Are Often Too Full To Be Exact, And Therefore They Choose To Throw Down Their Pearls In Heaps Before The Reader, Rather Than Be At The Pains Of Stringing Them.

My Death And Life, My Bane And Antidote, Are Both Before Me.

Gold Is A Wonderful Clearer Of The Understanding; It Dissipates Every Doubt And Scruple In An Instant.

When A Man Is Made Up Wholly Of The Dove, Without The Least Grain Of The Serpent In His Composition, He Becomes Ridiculous In Many Circumstances Of Life, And Very Often Discredits His Best Actions.

Most Of Our Fellow-subjects Are Guided Either By The Prejudice Of Education Or By A Deference To The Judgment Of Those Who Perhaps In Their Own Hearts Disapprove The Opinions Which They Industriously Spread Among The Multitude.

To Be Perfectly Just Is An Attribute Of The Divine Nature; To Be So To The Utmost Of Our Abilities, Is The Glory Of Man.

It Happened Very Providentially, To The Honor Of The Christian Religion, That It Did Not Take Its Rise In The Dark Illiterate Ages Of The World, But At A Time When Arts And Sciences Were At Their Height.

If Men Of Eminence Are Exposed To Censure On One Hand, They Are As Much Liable To Flattery On The Other. If They Receive Reproaches Which Are Not Due To Them, They Likewise Receive Praises Which They Do Not Deserve.

Health And Cheerfulness Naturally Beget Each Other.

Blesses His Stars And Thinks It Luxury.

Pride Goes Before Destruction And A Haughty Spirit Before A Fall.

From Social Intercourse Are Derived Some Of The Highest Enjoyments Of Life; Where There Is A Free Interchange Of Sentiments The Mind Acquires New Ideas, And By Frequent Exercise Of Its Powers, The Understanding Gains Fresh Vigor.

One Would Fancy That The Zealots In Atheism Would Be Exempt From The Single Fault Which Seems To Grow Out Of The Imprudent Fervor Of Religion. But So It Is, That Irreligion Is Propagated With As Much Fierceness And Contention, Wrath And Indignation, As If The Safety Of Mankind Depended Upon It.

Without Constancy There Is Neither Love, Friendship, Nor Virtue In The World.

Friendship Love

The Talent Of Turning Men Into Ridicule, And Exposing To Laughter Those One Converses With, Is The Qualification Of Little Ungenerous Tempers.

Wine Heightens Indifference Into Love, Love Into Jealousy, And Jealousy Into Madness. It Often Turns The Good-natured Man Into An Idiot, And The Choleric Into An Assassin. It Gives Bitterness To Resentment, It Makes Vanity Insupportable, And Displays Every Little Spot Of The Soul In Its Utmost Deformity.

If Gratitude, When Exerted Towards Another, Naturally Produces A Very Pleasing Sensation In The Mind Of A Grateful Man, It Exalts The Soul Into Rapture When It Is Employed On This Great Object Of Gratitude To The Beneficent Being Who Has Given Us Everything We Already Possess, And From Whom We Expect Everything We Yet Hope For.

Peaceable Times Are The Best To Live In, Though Not So Proper To Furnish Materials For A Writer.

It Was A Saying Of An Ancient Philosopher, Which I Find Some Of Our Writers Have Ascribed To Queen Elizabeth, Who Perhaps Might Have Taken Occasion To Repeat It, That A Good Face Is A Letter Of Recommendation.

It Has Been Said In Praise Of Some Men, That They Could Take Whole Hours Together Upon Anything; But It Must Be Owned To The Honor Of The Other Sex That There Are Many Among Them Who Can Talk Whole Hours Together Upon Nothing. I Have Known A Woman Branch Out Into A Long Extempore Dissertation On The Edging Of A Petticoat, And Chide Her Servant For Breaking A China Cup, In All The Figures Of Rhetoric.

A Man Governs Himself By The Dictates Of Virtue And Good Sense, Who Acts Without Zeal Or Passion In Points That Are Of No Consequence; But When The Whole Community Is Shaken, And The Safety Of The Public Endangered, The Appearance Of A Philosophical Or An Affected Indolence Must Arise Either From Stupidity Or Perfidiousness.

Guard Thy Heart On This Weak Side, Where Most Our Nature Fails.

There Is Noting Truly Valuable Which Can Be Purchased Without Pains And Labor. The Gods Have Set A Price Upon Every Real And Noble Pleasure.

The Intelligence Of Affection Is Carried On By The Eye Only; Good-breeding Has Made The Tongue Falsify The Heart, And Act A Part Of Continued Restraint, While Nature Has Preserved The Eyes To Herself, That She May Not Be Disguised Or Misrepresented.

Colors Speak All Languages.

I Am Wonderfully Pleased When I Meet With Any Passage In An Old Greek Or Latin Author, That Is Not Blown Upon, And Which I Have Never Met With In Any Quotation.

If Men Would Consider Not So Much Wherein They Differ, As Wherein They Agree, There Would Be Far Less Of Uncharitableness And Angry Feeling In The World.

You Make Me Happy

The Greatest Sweetener Of Human Life Is Friendship. To Raise This To The Highest Pitch Of Enjoyment, Is A Secret Which But Few Discover.

All Well-regulated Families Set Apart An Hour Every Morning For Tea And Bread And Butter

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good.

Wit Is The Fetching Of Congruity Out Of Incongruity.

Female Virtues Are Of A Domestick Turn. The Family Is The Proper Province For Private Women To Shine In. If They Must Be Showing Their Zeal For The Publick, Let It Not Be Against Those Who Are Perhaps Of The Same Family, Or At Least Of The Same Religion Or Nation, But Against Those Who Are The Open, Professed, Undoubted Enemies Of Their Faith, Liberty, And Country.

Wine Displays Every Little Spot Of The Soul In Its Utmost Deformity.

Health And Happiness Give Rise To Each Other.

Words, When Well Chosen, Have So Great A Force In Them, That A Description Often Gives Us More Lively Ideas Than The Sight Of Things Themselves.

A Good Conscience Is To The Soul What Health Is To The Body; It Preserves Constant Ease And Serenity Within Us; And More Than Countervails All The Calamities And Afflictions Which Can Befall Us From Without.

Nothing Makes A Woman More Esteemed By The Opposite Sex Than Chastity; Whether It Be That We Always Prize Those Most Who Are Hardest To Come At, Or That Nothing Besides Chastity, With Its Collateral Attendants, Truth, Fidelity, And Constancy, Gives A Man A Property In The Person He Loves, And Consequently Endears Her To Him Above All Things.

We Are Always Doing Something For Posterity, But I Would Fain See Posterity Do Something For Us.

An Opera May Be Allowed To Be Extravagantly Lavish In Its Decorations, As Its Only Design Is To Gratify The Senses And Keep Up An Indolent Attention In The Audience.

Of All The Diversions Of Life, There Is None So Proper To Fill Up Its Empty Spaces As The Reading Of Useful And Entertaining Authors.

The Man Who Lives By Hope, Will Die By Hunger.

Plutarch Has Written An Essay On The Benefits Which A Man May Receive From His Enemies; And Among The Good Fruits Of Enmity, Mentions This In Particular, That By The Reproaches Which It Casts Upon Us, We See The Worst Side Of Ourselves.

Conspiracies No Sooner Should Be Formed Than Executed.

It Is A Melancholy Consideration That There Should Be Several Among Us So Hardened And Deluded As To Think An Oath A Proper Subject For A Jest; And To Make This, Which Is One Of The Most Solemn Acts Of Religion, An Occasion Of Mirth. Yet Such Is The Depravation Of Our Manners At Present, That Nothing Is More Frequent Than To Hear Profligate Men Ridiculing, To The Best Of Their Abilities, These Sacred Pledges Of Their Duty And Allegiance; And Endeavouring To Be Witty Upon Themselves, For Daring To Prevaricate With God And Man.

Everything That Is New Or Uncommon Raises A Pleasure In The Imagination, Because It Fills The Soul With An Agreeable Surprise, Gratifies Its Curiosity, And Gives It An Idea Of Which It Was Not Before Possessed.

There Is Nothing Which We Receive With So Much Reluctance As Advice.

A Contented Mind Is The Greatest Blessing A Man Can Enjoy In This World.

There Is Something Very Sublime, Though Very Fanciful, In Plato's Description Of The Supreme Being,--that Truth Is His Body And Light His Shadow. According To This Definition There Is Nothing So Contradictory To His Nature As Error And Falsehood.

It Is Usual For A Man Who Loves Country Sports To Preserve The Game In His Own Grounds, And Divert Himself Upon Those That Belongto His Neighbour.

Should The Whole Frame Of Nature Round Him Break, In Ruin And Confusion Hurled, He, Unconcerned, Would Hear The Mighty Crack, And Stand Secure Amidst A Falling World.

A Misery Is Not To Be Measure From The Nature Of The Evil But From The Temper Of The Sufferer.

One Would Think That The Larger The Company Is In Which We Are Engaged, The Greater Variety Of Thoughts And Subjects Would Be Started Into Discourse; But, Instead Of This We Find That Conversation Is Never So Much Straightened And Confined, As In Numerous Assemblies.

If Ridicule Were Employed To Laugh Men Out Of Vice And Folly, It Might Be Of Some Use.

I Value My Garden More For Being Full Of Blackbirds Than Of Cherries, And Very Frankly Give Them Fruit For Their Songs.

In The Founders Of Great Families, Titles Or Attributes Of Honor Are Generally Correspondent With The Virtues Of The Person To Whom They Are Applied; But In Their Descendants They Are Too Often The Marks Rather Of Grandeur Than Of Merit. The Stamp And Denomination Still Continue, But The Intrinsic Value Is Frequently Lost.

He Only Is A Great Man Who Can Neglect The Applause Of The Multitude And Enjoy Himself Independent Of Its Favor.

How Can It Enter Into The Thoughts Of Man, That The Soul, Which Is Capable Of Such Immense Perfections, And Of Receiving New Improvements To All Eternity, Shall Fall Away Into Nothing Almost As Soon As It Is Created?

It Is Odd To Consider The Connection Between Despotism And Barbarity, And How The Making One Person More Than Man Makes The Rest Less.

Friendships, In General, Are Suddenly Contracted; And Therefore It Is No Wonder They Are Easily Dissolved.

A Satire Should Expose Nothing But What Is Corrigible, And Should Make A Due Discrimination Between Those That Are And Those That Are Not The Proper Objects Of It.

I Am Very Much Concerned When I See Young Gentlemen Of Fortune And Quality So Wholly Set Upon Pleasures And Diversions, That They Neglect All Those Improvements In Wisdom And Knowledge Which May Make Them Easy To Themselves And Useful To The World.

What I Spent I Lost; What I Possessed Is Left To Others; What I Gave Away Remains With Me.

E'en The Rough Rocks With Tender Myrtle Bloom, And Trodden Weeds Send Out A Rich Perfume.

The English Delight In Silence More Than Any Other European Nation, If The Remarks Which Are Made On Us By Foreigners Are True.

Devotion, When It Does Not Lie Under The Check Of Reason, Is Apt To Degenerate Into Enthusiasm.

The Productions Of A Great Genius, With Many Lapses And Inadvertences, Are Infinitely Preferable To The Works Of An Inferior Kind Of Author Which Are Scrupulously Exact, And Conformable To All The Rules Of Correct Writing.

A Cloudy Day Or A Little Sunshine Have As Great An Influence On Many Constitutions As The Most Recent Blessings Or Misfortunes.

Others Proclaim The Infirmities Of A Great Man With Satisfaction And Complacence, If They Discover None Of The Like In Themselves.

Many Actions Calculated To Procure Fame Are Not Conducive To Ultimate Happiness.

Ultimate Happiness

But Silence Never Shows Itself To So Great An Advantage, As When It Is Made The Reply To Calumny And Defamation, Provided That We Give No Just Occasion For Them.

Among The Writers Of Antiquity There Are None Who Instruct Us More Openly In The Manners Of Their Respective Times In Which They Lived Than Those Who Have Employed Themselves In Satire, Under Whatever Dress It May Appear.

What Sunshine Is To Flowers, Smiles Are To Humanity. These Are But Trifles, To Be Sure; But Scattered Along Life's Pathway, The Good They Do Is Inconceivable.

Is It Not Wonderful, That The Love Of The Parent Should Be So Violent While It Lasts And That It Should Last No Longer Than Is Necessary For The Preservation Of The Young?

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