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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.

-Samuel Johnson

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The Mere Power Of

Samuel Johnson

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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.

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Rash Oaths, Whether Kept Or Broken, Frequently Produce Guilt.

Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.

All Intellectual Improvement Arises From Leisure.

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

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

Falsehoods Of Convenience Or Vanity, Falsehoods From Which No Evil Immediately Visible Ensues, Except The General Degradation Of Human Testimony, Are Very Lightly Uttered, And Once Uttered Are Sullenly Supported.

Peevishness May Be Considered The Canker Of Life, That Destroys Its Vigor And Checks Its Improvement; That Creeps On With Hourly Depredations, And Taints And Vitiates What It Cannot Consume.

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.

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

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

Many Falsehoods Are Passing Into Uncontradicted History.

The Complaint, Therefore, That All Topicks Are Preoccupied, Is Nothing More Than The Murmur Of Ignorance Or Idleness, By Which Some Discourage Others, And Some Themselves; The Mutability Of Mankind Will Always Furnish Writers With New Images, And The Luxuriance Of Fancy May Always Embellish Them With New Decorations.

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

The True Art Of Memory Is The Art Of Attention.

Employment And Hardships Prevent Melancholy.

Quotation Is A Good Thing, There Is A Community Of Thought In It.

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

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

Every Man Has A Right To Utter What He Thinks Truth, And Every Other Man Has A Right To Knock Him Down For It. Martyrdom Is The Test.

Freedom Of Speech

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.

Virtue Is Too Often Merely Local.

That We Must All Die, We Always Knew, I Wish I Had Sooner Remembred It.

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?

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

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

The Richest Author That Ever Grazed The Common Of Literature.

Life Is But Short; No Time Can Be Afforded But For The Indulgence Of Real Sorry, Or Contests Upon Questions Seriously Momentous. Let Us Not Throw Away Any Of Our Days Upon Useless Resentment, Or Contend Who Shall Hold Out Longest In Stubborn Malignity. It Is Best Not To Be Angry; And Best, In The Next Place, To Be Quickly Reconciled.

Governors Being Accustomed To Hear Of More Crimes Than They Can Punish, And More Wrongs Than They Can Redress, Set Themselves At Ease By Indiscriminate Negligence, And Presently Forget The Request When They Lose Sight Of The Petitioner.

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

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.

Procrastination

Shakespeare Never Had Six Lines Together Without A Fault. Perhaps You May Find Seven, But This Does Not Refute My General Assertion.

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

No Place Affords A More Striking Conviction Of The Vanity Of Human Hopes Than A Public Library; For Who Can See The Wall Crowded On Every Side By Mighty Volumes, The Works Of Laborious Meditations And Accurate Inquiry, Now Scarcely Known But By The Catalogue.

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.

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

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.

I Am Always Sorry When Any Language Is Lost, Because Languages Are The Pedigrees Of Nations.

So Many Objections May Be Made To Everything, That Nothing Can Overcome Them But The Necessity Of Doing Something.

A Woman Of Fortune Being Used The Handling Of Money, Spends It Judiciously; But A Woman Who Gets The Command Of Money For The First Time Upon Her Marriage, Has Such A Gust In Spending It, That She Throws It Away With Great Profusion.

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

Life Is A Pill Which None Of Us Can Bear To Swallow Without Gilding.

We Ought Not To Raise Expectations Which It Is Not In Our Power To Satisfy.-it Is More Pleasing To See Smoke Brightening Into Flame, Than Flame Sinking Into Smoke.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused, And It Is Therefore Become Necessary To Gain Attention By Magnificence Of Promises, And By Eloquence Sometimes Sublime And Sometimes Pathetic.

We Seldom Require More To The Happiness Of The Present Hour Than To Surpass Him That Stands Next Before Us.

He Who Writes Much Will Not Easily Escape A Manner, Such A Recurrence Of Particular Modes As May Be Easily Noted.

There Is Something In Obstinacy Which Differs From Every Other Passion. Whenever It Fails, It Never Recovers, But Either Breaks Like Iron, Or Crumbles Sulkily Away, Like A Fractured Arch. Most Other Passions Have Their Periods Of Fatigue And Rest, Their Sufferings And Their Cure; But Obstinacy Has No Resource, And The First Wound Is Mortal.

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

To Love Their Country Has Been Considered As Virtue In Men, Whose Love Could Not Be Otherwise Than Blind, Because Their Preference Was Made Without, A Comparison; But It Has Never Been My Fortune To Find, Either In Ancient Or Modern Writers, Any Honourable Mention Of Those, Who Have, With Equal Blindness, Hated Their Country.

The King Who Makes War On His Enemies Tenderly Distresses His Subjects Most Cruelly.

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

Many Useful And Valuable Books Lie Buried In Shops And Libraries, Unknown And Unexamined, Unless Some Lucky Compiler Opens Them By Chance, And Finds An Easy Spoil Of Wit And Learning.

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

Every Man Speaks And Writes With Intent To Be Understood; And It Can Seldom Happen But He That Understands Himself, Might Convey His Notions To Another, If, Content To Be Understood, He Did Not Seek To Be Admired; But When Once He Begins To Contrive How His Sentiments May Be Received, Not With Most Ease To His Reader, But With Most Advantage To Himself, He Then Transfers His Consideration From Words To Sounds, From Sentences To Periods, And, As He Grows More Elegant, Becomes Less Intelligible.

Patron: One Who Countenances, Supports Or Protects. Commonly A Wretch Who Supports With Insolence, And Is Repaid In Flattery.

He That Never Labors May Know The Pains Of Idleness, But Not The Pleasures.

Poetry Cannot Be Translated; And, Therefore, It Is The Poets That Preserve The Languages; For We Would Not Be At The Trouble To Learn A Language If We Could Have All That Is Written In It Just As Well In A Translation. But As The Beauties Of Poetry Cannot Be Preserved In Any Language Except That In Which It Was Originally Written, We Learn The Language.

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

A Man Finds In The Productions Of Nature An Inexhaustible Stock Of Material On Which He Can Employ Himself, Without Any Temptations To Envy Or Malevolence, And Has Always A Certain Prospect Of Discovering New Reasons For Adoring The Sovereign Author Of The Universe.

A Man Is Not Obliged Honestly To Answer A Question Which Should Not Properly Be Put.

Nothing Has So Exposed Men Of Learning To Contempt And Ridicule As Their Ignorance Of Things Which Are Known To All But Themselves. Those Who Have Been Taught To Consider The Institutions Of The Schools As Giving The Last Perfection To Human Abilities Are Surprised To See Men Wrinkled With Study, Yet Wanting To Be Instructed In The Minute Circumstances Of Propriety, Or The Necessary Form Of Daily Transaction; And Quickly Shake Off Their Reverence For Modes Of Education Which They Find To Produce No Ability Above The Rest Of Mankind.

If The Abuse Be Enormous, Nature Will Rise Up, And Claiming Her Original Rights, Overturn A Corrupt Political System.

People In Distress Never Think That You Feel Enough.

Oratory Is The Power Of Beating Down Your Adversary's Arguments And Putting Better In Their Place.

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.

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

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

Guilt Once Harbored In The Conscious Breast, Intimidates The Brave, Degrades The Great.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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

There Must Always Be Some Advantage On One Side Or The Other, And It Is Better That Advantage Should Be Had By Talents Than By Chance.

That Man Is Never Happy For The Present Is So True, That All His Relief From Unhappiness Is Only Forgetting Himself For A Little While. Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

The Accidental Prescriptions Of Authority, When Time Has Procured Them Veneration, Are Often Confounded With The Laws Of Nature, And Those Rules Are Supposed Coeval With Reason, Of Which The First Rise Cannot Be Discovered.

See Nations Slowly Wise, And Meanly Just, To Buried Merit Raise The Tardy Bust.

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.

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Are Always Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel. Pity Is Acquired And Improved By The Cultivation Of Reason. We May Have Uneasy Sensations From Seeing A Creature In Distress, Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

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

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

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

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

That Eminence Of Learning Is Not To Be Gained Without Labour, At Least Equal To That Which Any Other Kind Of Greatness Can Require, Will Be Allowed By Those Who Wish To Elevate The Character Of A Scholar; Since They Cannot But Know That Every Human Acquisition Is Valuable In Proportion To The Difficulty Of Its Attainment.

An Author Places Himself Uncalled Before The Tribunal Of Criticism And Solicits Fame At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

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.

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

He That Applauds Him Who Does Not Deserve Praise, Is Endeavoring To Deceive The Public; He That Hisses In Malice Or Sport, Is An Oppressor And A Robber.

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

To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise... Let Him Take A Course Of Chemistry, Or A Course Of Rope-dance, Or A Course Of Any Thing To Which He Is Inclined At The Time. Let Him Contrive To Have As Many Retreats For His Mind As He Can, As Many Things To Which It Can Fly From Itself.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

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.

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

There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.

Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness.

A Tavern Chair Is The Throne Of Human Felicity.

The Size Of A Man's Understanding Might Always Be Justly Measured By His Mirth.

A Poet, Naturalist, And Historian, Who Left Scarcely Any Style Of Writing Untouched, And Touched Nothing That He Did Not Adorn.

Adversity Leads Us To Think Properly Of Our State, And So Is Most Beneficial To Us.

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.

[w]ith An Unquiet Mind, Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physick Can Be Of Much Use.

Life Must Be Filled Up, And The Man Who Is Not Capable Of Intellectual Pleasures Must Content Himself With Such As His Senses Can Afford.

The True Measure Of A Man Is How He Treats Someone Who Can Do Him Absolutely No Good.

Allegories Drawn To Great Length Will Always Break.

Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.

Such Seems To Be The Disposition Of Man, That Whatever Makes A Distinction Produces Rivalry.

Probably No One Will Ever Know Whether It Is Better To Wear A Nightcap Or Not.

In The Condition Of Men, It Frequently Happens That Grief And Anxiety Lie Hid Under The Golden Robes Of Prosperity; And The Gloom Of Calamity Is Cheered By Secret Radiations Of Hope And Comfort; As In The Works Of Nature, The Bog Is Sometimes Covered With Flowers, And The Mine Concealed In The Barren Crags.

Praise, Like Gold And Diamonds, Owes Its Value Only To Its Scarcity.

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

Ease, A Neutral State Between Pain And Pleasure ... If It Is Not Rising Into Pleasure Will Be Falling Towards Pain.

It Is Not Often That Any Man Can Have So Much Knowledge Of Another, As Is Necessary To Make Instruction Useful.

The Uniform Necessities Of Human Nature Produce In A Great Measure Uniformity Of Life, And For Part Of The Day Make One Place Like Another; To Dress And To Undress, To Eat And To Sleep, Are The Same In London As In The Country.

The Certainty That Life Cannot Be Long, And The Probability That It Will Be Much Shorter Than Nature Allows, Ought To Awaken Every Man To The Active Prosecution Of Whatever He Is Desirous To Perform. It Is True, That No Diligence Can Ascertain Success; Death May Intercept The Swiftest Career; But He Who Is Cut Off In The Execution Of An Honest Undertaking Has At Least The Honour Of Falling In His Rank, And Has Fought The Battle, Though He Missed The Victory.

Procrastination

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.

Nothing Odd Will Do Long. Tristram Shandy Did Not Last.

Nothing Detains The Reader's Attention More Powerfully Than Deep Involutions Of Distress, Or Sudden Vicissitudes Of Fortune; And These Might Be Abundantly Afforded By Memoirs Of The Sons Of Literature. They Are Entangled By Contracts Which They Know Not How To Fulfill, And Obliged To Write On Subjects Which They Do Not Understand. Every Publication Is A New Period Of Time, From Which Some Increase Or Declension Of Fame Is To Be Reckoned. The Gradations Of A Hero's Life Are From Battle To Battle, And Of An Author's From Book To Book.

...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.

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

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.

On Sir Joshua Reynolds's Observing That The Real Character Of A Man Was Found Out By His Amusements. Yes, Sir, No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present.

Each Person's Work Is Always A Portrait Of Himself.

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

If A Man Does Not Make New Acquaintances As He Advances Through Life, He Will Soon Find Himself Left Alone. A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

No Man Sympathizes With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

I Have Thought Of A Pulley To Raise Me Gradually; But That Would Give Me Pain, As It Would Counteract My Natural Inclination. I Would Have Something That Can Dissipate The Inertia And Give Elasticity To The Muscles. We Can Heat The Body, We Can Cool It; We Can Give It Tension Or Relaxation; And Surely It Is Possible To Bring It Into A State In Which Rising From Bed Will Not Be A Pain.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

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

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

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

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.

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

He That Voluntarily Continues In Ignorance, Is Guilty Of All The Crimes Which Ignorance Produces.

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

It Requires But Little Acquaintance With The Heart To Know That Woman's First Wish Is To Be Handsome; And That, Consequently, The Readiest Method Of Obtaining Her Kindness Is To Praise Her Beauty.

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.

To Forget, Or Pretend To Do So, To Return A Borrowed Article, Is The Meanest Sort Of Petty Theft.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

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

Every Class Of Society Has Its Cant Of Lamentation, Which Is Understood Or Regarded By None But Themselves; And Every Part Of Life Has Its Uneasiness, Which Those Who Do Not Feel Them Will Not Commiserate. An Event Which Spreads Distraction Over Half The Commercial World, Assembles The Trading Companies In Councils And Committees, And Shakes The Nerves Of A Thousand Stockjobbers, Is Read By The Landlord And The Farmer With Frigid Indifference.

The Business Of The Biographer Is Often To Pass Slightly Over Those Performances And Incidents Which Produce Vulgar Greatness, To Lead The Thoughts Into Domestic Privacies, And Display The Minute Details Of Daily Life, Were Exterior Appendages Are Cast Aside, And Men Excel Each Other Only By Prudence And Virtue.

When There Is No Hope, There Can Be No Endeavor.

The Mischief Of Flattery Is, Not That It Persuades Any Man That He Is What He Is Not, But That It Suppresses The Influence Of Honest Ambition, By Raising An Opinion That Honour May Be Gained Without The Toil Of Merit.

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

The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.

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.

Must Helpless Man, In Ignorance Sedate, Roll Darkly Down The Torrent Of His Fate.

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write.

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.

To Do Something Is In Every Man's Power.

The End Of Writing Is To Instruct; The End Of Poetry Is To Instruct By Pleasing.

In Order That All Men Might Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It.

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.

The Botanist Looks Upon The Astronomer As A Being Unworthy Of His Regard; And He That Is Glowing Great And Happy By Electrifying A Bottle Wonders How The World Can Be Engaged By Trifling Prattle About War And Peace.

Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy.

About Things On Which The Public Thinks Long It Commonly Attains To Think Right.

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

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

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.

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

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

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

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.

If A Madman Were To Come Into This Room With A Stick In His Hand, No Doubt We Should Pity The State Of His Mind; But Our Primary Consideration Would Be To Take Care Of Ourselves. We Should Knock Him Down First, And Pity Him Afterwards.

I Have Always Considered It As Treason Against The Great Republic Of Human Nature, To Make Any Man's Virtues The Means Of Deceiving Him.

A Man Has No More Right To Say An Uncivil Thing Than To Act One; No More Right To Say A Rude Thing To Another Than To Knock Him Down.

Though It Is Evident, That Not More Than One Age Or People Can Deserve The Censure Of Being More Averse From Learning Than Any Other, Yet At All Times Knowledge Must Have Encountered Impediments, And Wit Been Mortified With Contempt, Or Harassed With Persecution.

The Life Of A Conscientious Clergyman Is Not Easy. I Have Always Considered A Clergyman As The Father Of A Larger Family Than He Is Able To Maintain. I Would Rather Have Chancery Suits Upon My Hands Than The Cure Of Souls.

Few Have Abilities So Much Needed By The Rest Of The World As To Be Caressed On Their Own Terms; And He That Will Not Condescend To Recommend Himself By External Embellishments Must Submit To The Fate Of Just Sentiment Meanly Expressed, And Be Ridiculed And Forgotten Before He Is Understood.

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.

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

Is Not A Patron One Who Looks With Unconcern On A Man Struggling For Life In The Water, And, When He Has Reached Ground, Encumbers Him With Help?

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

Those Writers Who Lie On The Watch For Novelty Can Have Little Hope Of Greatness; For Great Things Cannot Have Escaped Former Observation.

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

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.

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

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

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

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.

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

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

Life Will Not Bear Refinement. You Must Do As Other People Do.

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

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

Bias And Impartiality Is In The Eye Of The Beholder.

The Arguments For Purity Of Life Fail Of Their Due Influence, Not Because They Have Been Considered And Confuted, But Because They Have Been Passed Over Without Consideration.

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

Rags Will Always Make Their Appearance Where They Have A Right To Do It.

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

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

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society.

It Is Indeed Certain, That Whoever Attempts Any Common Topick, Will Find Unexpected Coincidences Of His Thoughts With Those Of Other Writers; Nor Can The Nicest Judgment Always Distinguish Accidental Similitude From Artful Imitation.

I Have Two Very Cogent Reasons For Not Printing Any List Of Subscribers; One, That I Have Lost All The Names, The Other, That I Have Spent All The Money.

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

Life Affords No Higher Pleasure Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties, Passing From One Step Of Success To Another, Forming New Wishes And Seeing Them Gratified.

Life Cannot Subsist In Society But By Reciprocal Concessions.

A Man Who Is Good Enough To Go To Heaven Is Good Enough To Be A Clergyman.

Not Good Enough

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.

Resentment Is A Union Of Sorrow With Malignity; A Combination Of A Passion Which All Endeavor To Avoid With A Passion Which All Concur To Detest.

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

More Knowledge May Be Gained Of A Man's Real Character By A Short Conversation With One Of His Servants Than From A Formal And Studied Narrative, Begun With His Pedigree And Ended With His Funeral.

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Martin Heidegger

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