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The Specualtist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity; And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

-Samuel Johnson

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The Specualtist, Who Is

Samuel Johnson

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The Specualtist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity; And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.

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To See Helpless Infancy Stretching Out Her Hands, And Pouring Out Her Cries In Testimony Of Dependence, Without Any Powers To Alarm Jealousy, Or Any Guilt To Alienate Affection, Must Surely Awaken Tenderness In Every Human Mind; And Tenderness Once Excited Will Be Hourly Increased By The Natural Contagion Of Felicity, By The Repercussion Of Communicated Pleasure, By The Consciousness Of Dignity Of Benefaction.

No Money Is Better Spent Than What Is Laid Out For Domestic Satisfaction. A Man Is Pleased That His Wife Is Dressed As Well As Other People, And The Wife Is Pleased That She Is Dressed.

No Man Can Enjoy Happiness Without Thinking That He Enjoys It.

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

Ah! Sir, A Boy's Being Flogged Is Not So Severe As A Man's Having The Hiss Of The World Against Him.

Fate Wings, With Every Wish, The Afflictive Dart, Each Gift Of Nature, And Each Grace Of Art.

Too Much Nicety Of Detail Disgusts The Greatest Part Of Readers, And To Throw A Multitude Of Particulars Under General Heads, And Lay Down Rules Of Extensive Comprehension, Is To Common Understandings Of Little Use.

There Is ... Scarcely Any Species Of Writing Of Which We Can Tell What Is Its Essence, And What Are Its Constituents; Every New Genius Produces Some Innovation, Which, When Invented And Approved, Subverts The Rules Which The Practice Of Foregoing Authors Had Established.

The Most Fatal Disease Of Friendship Is Gradual Decay.

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.

Of The Present State, Whatever It Be, We Feel And Are Forced To Confess The Misery; Yet When The Same State Is Again At A Distance, Imagination Paints It As Desirable.

All Industry Must Be Excited By Hope.

I Should As Soon Think Of Contradicting A Bishop

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

It Is More From Carelessness About Truth Than From Intentionally Lying That There Is So Much Falsehood In The World.

Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded, For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadful Than Its Extinction.

But, Perhaps, The Flatterer Is Not Often Detected; For An Honest Mind Is Not Apt To Suspect, And No One Exerts The Power Of Discernment With Much Vigour When Selflove Favors The Deceit.

He That Is Much Flattered Soon Learns To Flatter Himself.

I Know Not Why Any One But A School Boy In His Declamation Would Whine Over The Commonwealth Of Rome, Which Grew Great Only By The Misery Of The Rest Of Mankind. The Romans, Like Others, As Soon As They Were Rich, Grew Corrupt; And In Their Corruption Sold The Lives And Freedoms Of Themselves And Of One Another.

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

The Rules That I Shall Propose Concerning Secrecy, And From Which I Think It Not Safe To Deviate Without Long And Exact Deliberation, Are, Never To Solicit The Knowledge Of A Secret,--not Willingly, Nor Without Many Limitations, To Accept Such Confidence When It Is Offered; When A Secret Is Once Admitted, To Consider The Trust As Of A Very High Nature, Important As Society And Sacred As Truth, And Therefore Not To Be Violated For Any Incidental Convenience, Or Slight Appearance Of Contrary Fitness.

In The Bottle Discontent Seeks For Comfort, Cowardice For Courage, And Bashfulness For Confidence.

It Is Generally Agreed, That Few Men Are Made Better By Affluence Or Exaltation.

Almost All Absurdity Of Conduct Arises From The Imitation Of Those Who We Cannot Resemble.

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

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

Truth, Such As Is Necessary To The Reputation Of Life, Is Always Found Where It Is Honestly Sought.

Among The Many Inconsistencies Which Folly Produces Or Infirmity Suffers In The Human Mind, There Has Often Been Observed A Manifest And Striking Contrariety Between The Life Of An Author And His Writings... Those Whom The Appearance Of Virtue Or The Evidence Of Genius Has Tempted To A Nearer Knowledge Of The Writer, In Whose Performances They May Be Found, Have Indeed Had Frequent Reason To Repent Their Curiosity.

That What Cannot Be Repaired Is Not To Be Regretted.

Network. Anything Reticulated Or Decussated At Equal Distances, With Interstices Between The Intersections.

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

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

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

Men Are Generally Idle, And Ready To Satisfy Themselves, And Intimidate The Industry Of Others, By Calling That Impossible Which Is Only Difficult.

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

There Is No Being So Poor And So Contemptible, Who Does Not Think There Is Somebody Still Poorer, And Still More Contemptible.

Even Those To Whom Providence Has Allotted Greater Strength Of Understanding, Can Expect Only To Improve A Single Science. In Every Other Part Of Learning, They Must Be Content To Follow Opinions, Which They Are Not Able To Examine; And, Even In That Which They Claim As Peculiarly Their Own, Can Seldom Add More Than Some Small Particle Of Knowledge, To The Hereditary Stock Devolved To Them From Ancient Times, The Collective Labour Of A Thousand Intellects.

Suspicion Is Very Often A Useless Pain.

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

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.

Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions. The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.

Self Improvement

All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure, That Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure! Still To Ourselves In Every Place Consigned, Our Own Felicity We Make Or Find. With Secret Course, Which No Loud Storms Annoy, Glides The Smooth Current Of Domestic Joy.

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.

No Man Can Fall Into Contempt But Those Who Deserve It.

He That Is Pushing His Predecessors Into The Gulf Of Obscurity, Cannot But Sometimes Suspect, That He Must Himself Sink In Like Manner, And, As He Stands Upon The Same Precipice, Be Swept Away With The Same Violence.

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.

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

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

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

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

When Any Fit Of Gloominess, Or Perversion Of Mind, Lays Hold Upon You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaints, But Exert Your Whole Care To Hide It; By Endeavouring To Hide It; You Will Dry It Away. Be Always Busy.

Conjecture As To Things Useful, Is Good; But Conjecture As To What It Would Be Useless To Know, Is Very Idle.

The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.

In Order That All Men May Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It; For No Species Of Falsehood Is More Frequent Than Flattery, To Which The Coward Is Betrayed By Fear, The Dependent By Interest, And The Friend By Tenderness: Those Who Are Neither Servile Nor Timorous Are Yet Desirous To Bestow Pleasure; And, While Unjust Demands Of Praise Continue To Be Made, There Will Always Be Some Whom Hope, Fear, Or Kindness Will Dispose To Pay Them.

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

When Making Your Choice In Life, Do Not Neglect To Live.

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

He That Pines With Hunger, Is In Little Care How Others Shall Be Fed. The Poor Man Is Seldom Studious To Make His Grandson Rich.

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

The Whole World Is Put In Motion By The Wish For Riches And The Dread Of Poverty.

We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable.

With What Hope Can We Endeavor To Persuade The Ladies That The Time Spent At The Toilet Is Lost In Vanity.

What Is Easy Is Seldom Excellent.

Perhaps Man Is The Only Being That Can Properly Be Called Idle.

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.

It Is Better That Some Should Be Unhappy Rather Than That None Should Be Happy, Which Would Be The Case In A General State Of Equality.

Admiration And Love Are Like Being Intoxicated With Champagne; Judgment And Friendship Are Like Being Enlivened.

There Are Goods So Opposed That We Cannot Seize Both, But, By Too Much Prudence, May Pass Between Them At Too Great A Distance To Reach Either.

Such Is The Emptiness Of Human Enjoyment That We Are Always Impatient Of The Present. Attainment Is Followed By Neglect, And Possession By Disgust.

The Booksellers Are Generous Liberal-minded Men.

It Is Better A Man Should Be Abused Than Forgotten.

Every Other Author May Aspire To Praise; The Lexicographer Can Only Hope To Escape Reproach.

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

As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance.

Hope Is An Amusement Rather Than A Good, And Adapted To None But Very Tranquil Minds.

Books To Judicious Compilers, Are Useful; To Particular Arts And Professions, They Are Absolutely Necessary; To Men Of Real Science, They Are Tools: But More Are Tools To Them.

The Peculiar Doctrine Of Christianity Is That Of A Universal Sacrifice And Perpetual Propitiation.

The Worst Evils Are Those That Never Arrive.

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

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

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.

Deviation From Nature Is Deviation From Happiness.

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

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

A Country Is In A Bad State, Which Is Governed Only By Laws; Because A Thousand Things Occur For Which Laws Cannot Provide, And Where Authority Ought To Interpose.

Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money; Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured; But Thousands And Millions Are Of Small Avail To Alleviate The Protracted Tortures Of The Gout, To Repair The Broken Organs Of Sense, Or Resuscitate The Powers Of Digestion. Poverty Is, Indeed, An Evil From Which We Naturally Fly, But Let Us Not Run From One Enemy To Another, Nor Take Shelter In The Arms Of Sickness.

They Who Look But Little Into Futurity, Have, Perhaps, The Quickest Sensation Of The Present.

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.

I Would Be Loath To Speak Ill Of Any Person Who I Do Not Know Deserves It, But I Am Afraid He Is An Attorney.

The Wretched Have No Compassion, They Can Do Good Only From Strong Principles Of Duty.

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

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

Never Speak Of A Man In His Own Presence. It Is Always Indelicate, And May Be Offensive .

The Great Source Of Pleasure Is Variety.

Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.

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

One Of The Most Pernicious Effects Of Haste Is Obscurity.

The Use Of Traveling Is To Regulate Imagination By Reality.

That The Happiness Of Man May Still Remain Imperfect, As Wants In This Place Are Easily Supplied, New Wants Likewise Are Easily Created; Every Man, In Surveying The Shops Of London, Sees Numberless Instruments And Conveniencies, Of Which, While He Did Not Know Them, He Never Felt The Need; And Yet, When Use Has Made Them Familiar, Wonders How Life Could Be Supported Without Them. Thus It Comes To Pass, That Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions; The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed, Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.

It Is Better To Suffer Wrong Than To Do It, And Happier To Be Sometimes Cheated Than Not To Trust.

Don't Tell Me Of Deception; A Lie Is A Lie, Whether It Be A Lie To The Eye Or A Lie To The Ear.

A Man Of Genius Has Been Seldom Ruined But By Himself.

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

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

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.

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

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil But Its Duty, Like That Of Other Passions, Is Not To Overbear Reason, But To Assist It. It Should Not Be Suffered To Tyrannize In The Imagination, To Raise Phantoms Of Horror, Or To Beset Life With Supernumerary Distresses.

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.

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.

We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.

Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

Misery And Shame Are Nearly Allied.

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

None Of The Projects Or Designs Which Exercise The Mind Of Man Are Equally Subject To Obstructions And Disappointments With The Pursuit Of Fame.

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

Wit Will Never Make A Man Rich, But There Are Places Where Riches Will Always Make A Wit.

From Thee, Great God, We Spring, To Thee We Tend,- Path, Motive, Guide, Original, And End.

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

The Longer We Live The More We Think And The Higher The Value We Put On Friendship And Tenderness Towards Parents And Friends.

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.

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

Never, My Dear Sir, Do You Take It Into Your Head That I Do Not Love You; You May Settle Yourself In Full Confidence Both Of My Love And My Esteem; I Love You As A Kind Man, I Value You As A Worthy Man, And Hope In Time To Reverence You As A Man Of Exemplary Piety.

Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.

Repentance, However Difficult To Be Practiced, Is, If It Be Explained Without Superstition, Easily Understood. Repentance Is The Relinquishment Of Any Practice From The Conviction That It Has Offended God.

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

We May Have Uneasy Feelings For Seeing A Creature In Distress Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

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.

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

Diligence In Employments Of Less Consequence Is The Most Successful Introduction To Greater Enterprises.

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.

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

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Sickness And Captivity Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable.

It Is A Maxim That No Man Was Ever Enslaved By Influence While He Was Fit To Be Free.

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

If Lawyers Were To Undertake No Causes Till They Were Sure They Were Just, A Man Might Be Precluded Altogether From A Trial Of His Claim, Though, Were It Judicially Examined, It Might Be Found A Very Just Claim.

Reason Elevates Our Thoughts As High As The Stars, And Leads Us Through The Vast Space Of This Mighty Fabric; Yet It Comes Far Short Of The Real Extent Of Our Corporeal Being.

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

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

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write. The Regard Of The Public Is Not To Be Kept But By Tribute, And The Remembrance Of Past Service Will Quickly Languish Unless Successive Performances Frequently Revive It. Yet In Every New Attempt There Is New Hazard, And There Are Few Who Do Not, At Some Unlucky Time, Injure Their Own Characters By Attempting To Enlarge Them.

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

Players, Sir! I Look On Them As No Better Than Creatures Set Upon Tables And Joint Stools To Make Faces And Produce Laughter, Like Dancing Dogs.

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments; Any Enlargement Of Wishes Is Therefore Equally Destructive To Happiness With The Diminution Of Possession, And He That Teaches Another To Long For What He Never Shall Obtain Is No Less An Enemy To His Quiet Than If He Had Robbed Him Of Part Of His Patrimony

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

That All Who Are Happy Are Equally Happy Is Not True. A Peasant And A Philosopher May Be Equally Satisfied, But Not Equally Happy. A Small Drinking Glass And A Large One May Be Equally Full, But The Large One Holds More Than The Small.

The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.

Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.

It Is Not Uncommon To Charge The Difference Between Promise And Performance, Between Profession And Reality, Upon Deep Design And Studied Deceit; But The Truth Is, That There Is Very Little Hypocrisy In The World.

There Is A Certain Race Of Men That Either Imagine It Their Duty, Or Make It Their Amusement, To Hinder The Reception Of Every Work Of Learning Or Genius, Who Stand As Sentinels In The Avenues Of Fame, And Value Themselves Upon Giving Ignorance And Envy The First Notice Of A Prey.

No Man Can Perform So Little As Not To Have Reason To Congratulate Himself On His Merits, When He Beholds The Multitude That Live In Total Idleness, And Have Never Yet Endeavoured To Be Useful.

The Love Of Retirement Has In All Ages Adhered Closely To Those Minds Which Have Been Most Enlarged By Knowledge, Or Elevated By Genius. Those Who Enjoyed Everything Generally Supposed To Confer Happiness Have Been Forced To Seek It In The Shades Of Privacy.

Slavery Is Now Nowhere More Patiently Endured, Than In Countries Once Inhabited By The Zealots Of Liberty.

He That Never Thinks Can Never Be Wise.

A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.

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.

I Advised Chambers, And Would Advise Every Young Man Beginning To Compose, To Do It As Fast As He Can, To Get A Habit Of Having His Mind To Start Promptly; It Is So Much More Difficult To Improve In Speed Than In Accuracy.

Novelty Is Indeed Necessary To Preserve Eagerness And Alacrity; But Art And Nature Have Stores Inexhaustible By Human Intellects, And Every Moment Produces Something New To Him Who Has Quickened His Faculties By Diligent Observation.

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

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

Life Affords No Higher Pleasure Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties.

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

God Himself, Sir, Does Not Propose To Judge A Man Until His Life Is Over. Why Should You And I?

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

Everybody Knows Worse Of Himself Than He Knows Of Other Men.

Lawyers Know Life Practically. A Bookish Man Should Always Have Them To Converse With.

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

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

Vanity Is So Frequently The Apparent Motive Of Advice, That We, For The Most Part, Summon Our Powers To Oppose It Without Any Very Accurate Inquiry Whether It Is Right.

In Proportion As Our Cares Are Employed Upon The Future, They Are Abstracted From The Present, From The Only Time Which We Can Call Our Own, And Of Which, If We Neglect The Apparent Duties To Make Provision Against Visionary Attacks, We Shall Certainly Counteract Our Own Purpose.

What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure.

His Scorn Of The Great Is Repeated Too Often To Be Real; No Man Thinks Much Of That Which He Despises.

Of Riches It Is Not Necessary To Write The Praise. Let It, However, Be Remembered That He Who Has Money To Spare Has It Always In His Power To Benefit Others, And Of Such Power A Good Man Must Always Be Desirous.

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

The Duty Of Criticism Is Neither To Depreciate Nor Dignify By Partial Representations, But To Hold Out The Light Of Reason, Whatever It May Discover; And To Promulgate The Determinations Of Truth, Whatever She Shall Dictate

Liberty Is, To The Lowest Rank Of Every Nation, Little More Than The Choice Of Working Or Starving.

If The Guardian Or The Mother Tell The Woes Of Willful Waste, Scorn Their Counsel And Their Pother, You Can Hang Or Drown At Last.

We Are Told, That The Black Bear Is Innocent; But I Should Not Like To Trust Myself With Him.

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

Prosperity's Right Hand Is Industry And Her Left Hand Is Frugality.

The Faults Of A Man Loved Or Honoured Sometimes Steal Secretly And Imperceptibly Upon The Wise And Virtuous, But By Injudicious Fondness Or Thoughtless Vanity Are Adopted With Design.

Virtue Is Too Often Merely Local.

The Necessities Of Our Condition Require A Thousand Offices Of Tenderness, Which Mere Regard For The Species Will Never Dictate.

To Exact Of Every Man Who Writes That He Should Say Something New, Would Be To Reduce Authors To A Small Number; To Oblige The Most Fertile Genius To Say Only What Is New, Would Be To Contract His Volumes To A Few Pages. Yet, Surely, There Ought To Be Some Bounds To Repetition; Libraries Ought No More To Be Heaped For Ever With The Same Thoughts Differently Expressed, Than With The Same Books Differently Decorated.

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.

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding.

Power Is Not Sufficient Evidence Of Truth.

There Is No Idleness, By Which We Are So Easily Seduced, As That Which Dignifies Itself By The Appearance Of Business, And By Making The Loiterer Imagine That He Has Something To Do Which Must Not Be Neglected, Keeps Him In Perpetual Agitation, And Hurries Him Rapidly From Place To Place.

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.

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

Ireland And The Irish

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

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

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

The Cure For The Greatest Part Of Human Miseries Is Not Radical, But Palliative.

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.

I Respect Millar, Sir: He Has Raised The Price Of Literature.

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

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

If A Man Begins To Read In The Middle Of A Book, And Feels An Inclination To Go On, Let Him Not Quit It To Go To The Beginning. He May Perhaps Not Feel Again The Inclination.

There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness Than To Be Able To Look Back On A Life Usefully And Virtuously Employed, To Trace Our Own Progress In Existence, By Such Tokens As Excite Neither Shame Nor Sorrow.

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