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There Are Some Works Which The Authors Must Consign Unpublished To Posterity, However Uncertain Be The Event, However Hopeless Be The Trust. He That Writes The History Of His Own Times, If He Adhere Steadily To Truth, Will Write That Which His Own Times Will Not Easily Endure. He Must Be Content To Reposite His Book Till All Private Passions Shall Cease, And Love And Hatred Give Way To Curiosity.

-Samuel Johnson

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There Are Some Works

Samuel Johnson

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There Are Some Works Which The Authors Must Consign Unpublished To Posterity, However Uncertain Be The Event, However Hopeless Be The Trust. He That Writes The History Of His Own Times, If He Adhere Steadily To Truth, Will Write That Which His Own Times Will Not Easily Endure. He Must Be Content To Reposite His Book Till All Private Passions Shall Cease, And Love And Hatred Give Way To Curiosity.

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The Care Of The Critic Should Be To Distinguish Error From Inability, Faults Of Inexperience From Defects Of Nature.

I Do Not Much Wish Well To Discoveries, For I Am Always Afraid They Will End In Conquest And Robbery.

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

In Youth, It Is Common To Measure Right And Wrong By The Opinion Of The World, And In Age, To Act Without Any Measure But Interest, And To Lose Shame Without Substituting Virtue.

Advice Is Seldom Welcome. Those Who Need It Most, Like It Least.

The Wickedness Of A Loose Or Profane Author Is More Atrocious Than That Of A Giddy Libertine Or Drunken Ravisher, Not Only Because It Extends Its Effects Wider, As A Pestilence That Taints The Air Is More Destructive Than Poison Infused In A Draught, But Because It Is Committed With Cool Deliberation.

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.

He Is A Benefactor Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into The Short Sentences, That May Be Easily Impressed On The Memory, And So Recur Habitually To The Mind.

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.

No Wise Man Will Go To Live In The Country, Unless He Has Something To Do Which Can Be Better Done In The Country. For Instance, If He Is To Shut Himself Up For A Year To Study Science, It Is Better To Look Out To The Fields, Than To An Opposite Wall. Then, If A Man Walks Out In The Country, There Is Nobody To Keep Him From Walking In Again: But If A Man Walks Out In London, He Is Not Sure When He Will Walk In Again. A Great City Is, To Be Sure, The School For Studying Life.

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

Where Grief Is Fresh, Any Attempt To Divert It Only Irritates.

It Matters Not How A Man Dies, But How He Lives. The Act Of Dying Is Not Of Importance, It Lasts So Short A Time.

Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

Any Of Us Would Kill A Cow Rather Than Not Have Beef.

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

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

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

I Do Not Know, Sir, That The Fellow Is An Infidel; But If He Be An Infidel, He Is An Infidel As A Dog Is An Infidel; That Is To Say, He Has Never Thought Upon The Subject.

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause A While From Learning To Be Wise. There Mark What Ills The Scholar's Life Assail,- Toil, Envy, Want, The Patron, And The Jail.

Assertion Is Not Argument; To Contradict The Statement Of An Opponent Is Not Proof That You Are Correct.

Smoking Is A Shocking Thing - Blowing Smoke Out Of Our Mouths Into Other People's Mouths, Eyes, And Noses, And Having The Same Thing Done To Us.

It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.

I Would Rather Be Attacked Than Unnoticed. For The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Author Is To Be Silent As To His Works.

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

Curiosity Is One Of The Most Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect.

Whoever Rises Above Those Who Once Pleased Themselves With Equality, Will Have Many Malevolent Gazers At His Eminence.

Whatever Is Formed For Long Duration Arrives Slowly To Its Maturity.

I Have No More Pleasure In Hearing A Man Attempting Wit And Failing, Than In Seeing A Man Trying To Leap Over A Ditch And Tumbling Into It

This Mournful Truth Is Everywhere Confessed, Slow Rises Worth By Poverty Depressed.

Pride Is Seldom Delicate; It Will Please Itself With Very Mean Advantages.

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

Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill.

Studious To Please, Yet Not Ashamed To Fail.

All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise. It Is In Order To Show How Much He Can Spare.

A Decent Provision For The Poor Is The True Test Of Civilization.

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

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.

Those Who Will Not Take The Trouble To Think For Themselves, Have Always Somebody That Thinks For Them; And The Difficulty In Writing Is To Please Those From Whom Others Learn To Be Pleased.

Everything That Enlarges The Sphere Of Human Powers, That Shows Man He Can Do What He Thought He Could Not Do, Is Valuable.

The Misery Of Man Proceeds Not From Any Single Crush Of Overwhelming Evil, But From Small Vexations Continually Repeated.

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

A Newswriter Is A Man Without Virtue, Who Lies At Home For His Own Profit.

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.

For Patience, Sov'reign O'er Transmuted Ill.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak

There Is A Certain Degree Of Temptation Which Will Overcome Any Virtue. Now, In So Far As You Approach Temptation To A Man, You Do Him An Injury; And, If He Is Overcome, You Share His Guilt.

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

Exert Your Talents, And Distinguish Yourself, And Don't Think Of Retiring From The World, Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire.

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

The Good Of Our Present State Is Merely Comparative, And The Evil Which Every Man Feels Will Be Sufficient To Disturb And Harass Him If He Does Not Know How Much He Escapes.

Waste Cannot Be Accurately Told, Though We Are Sensible How Destructive It Is. Economy, On The One Hand, By Which A Certain Income Is Made To Maintain A Man Genteelly; And Waste, On The Other, By Which On The Same Income Another Man Lives Shabbily, Cannot Be Defined. It Is A Very Nice Thing; As One Man Wears His Coat Out Much Sooner Than Another, We Cannot Tell How.

Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.

He That Pursues Fame With Just Claims, Trusts His Happiness To The Winds; But He That Endeavors After It By False Merit, Has To Fear, Not Only The Violence Of The Storm, But The Leaks Of His Vessel.

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future, Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings. Far From Me, And Far From My Friends Be Such Frigid Philosophy As May Conduct Us Indifferent And Unmoved Over Any Ground Which Has Been Dignified By Wisdom, Bravery, Or Virtue. That Man Is Little To Be Envied Whose Patriotism Would Not Gain Force Upon The Plain Of Marathon, Or Whose Piety Would Not Grow Warmer Among The Ruins Of Ionia.

Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.

The First Years Of Man Must Make Provision For The Last.

Such Is The State Of Life, That None Are Happy But By The Anticipation Of Change: The Change Itself Is Nothing; When We Have Made It, The Next Wish Is To Change Again.

Difference Of Thoughts Will Produce Difference Of Language. He That Thinks With More Extent Than Another, Will Want Words Of A Larger Meaning; He That Thinks With More Subtilty Will Seek For Terms Of More Nice Discrimination; And Where Is The Wonder, Since Words Are But The Images Of Things, That He Who Never Knew The Original Should Not Know The Copies?

Study Requires Solitude, And Solitude Is A State Dangerous To Those Who Are Too Much Accustomed To Sink Into Themselves

He That Writes May Be Considered As A Kind Of General Challenger, Whom Every One Has A Right To Attack; Since He Quits The Common Rank Of Life, Steps Forward Beyond The Lists, And Offers His Merit To The Public Judgement. To Commence Author Is To Claim Praise, And No Man Can Justly Aspire To Honour, But At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

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

The Business Of A Poet Is To Examine Not The Individual But The Species; To Remark General Properties And Large Appearances.

There Is Such A Difference Between The Pursuits Of Men In Great Cities That One Part Of The Inhabitants Lives To Little Other Purpose Than To Wonder At The Rest. Some Have Hopes And Fears, Wishes And Aversions, Which Never Enter Into The Thoughts Of Others, And Inquiry Is Laboriously Exerted To Gain That Which Those Who Possess It Are Ready To Throw Away.

Admiration Begins Where Acquaintance Ceases

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

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.

As Peace Is The End Of War, So To Be Idle Is The Ultimate Purpose Of The Busy.

Locke, Whom There Is No Reason To Suspect Of Being A Favorer Of Idleness Or Libertinism, Has Advanced That Whoever Hopes To Employ Any Part Of His Time With Efficacy And Vigor Must Allow Some Of It To Pass With Trifles.

The History Of Mankind Is Little Else Than A Narrative Of Designs Which Have Failed And Hopes That Have Been Disappointed.

Hoc Age ['do This'] Is The Great Rule, Whether You Are Serious Or Merry; Whether ... Learning Science Or Duty From A Folio, Or Floating On The Thames. Intentions Must Be Gathered From Acts.

It Is Not Difficult To Conceive, However, That For Many Reasons A Man Writes Much Better Than He Lives. For Without Entering Into Refined Speculations, It May Be Shown Much Easier To Design Than To Perform. A Man Proposes His Schemes Of Life In A State Of Abstraction And Disengagement, Exempt From The Enticements Of Hope, The Solicitations Of Affection, The Importunities Of Appetite, Or The Depressions Of Fear.

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

Lichfield, England. Swallows Certainly Sleep All Winter. A Number Of Them Conglobulate Together, By Flying Round And Round, And Then All In A Heap Throw Themselves Under Water, And Lye In The Bed Of A River.

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

Abstinence Is As Easy To Me As Temperance Would Be Difficult.

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.

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

Since Life Itself Is Uncertain, Nothing Which Has Life For Its Basis Can Boast Much Stability.

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

Distance Has The Same Effect On The Mind As On The Eye.

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

Solitude Is The Surest Nurse Of All Prurient Passions, And A Girl In The Hurry Of Preparation, Or Tumult Of Gaiety, Has Neither Inclination Nor Leisure To Let Tender Expressions Soften Or Sink Into Her Heart. The Ball, The Show, Are Not The Dangerous Places: No, 'tis The Private Friend, The Kind Consoler, The Companion Of The Easy Vacant Hour, Whose Compliance With Her Opinions Can Flatter Her Vanity, And Whose Conversation Can Sooth, Without Ever Stretching Her Mind, That Is The Lover To Be Feared: He Who Buzzes In Her Ear At Court, Or At The Opera, Must Be Contented To Buzz In Vain.

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

Whosoever Shall Look Heedfully Upon Those Who Are Eminent For Their Riches Will Not Think Their Condition Such As That He Should Hazard His Quiet, And Much Less His Virtue, To Obtain It, For All That Great Wealth Generally Gives Above A Moderate Fortune Is More Room For The Freaks Of Caprice, And More Privilege For Ignorance And Vice, A Quicker Succession Of Flatteries, And A Larger Circle Of Voluptuousness.

The Dangers Gather As The Treasures Rise.

There Are Indeed, In The Present Corruption Of Mankind, Many Incitements To Forsake Truth: The Need Of Palliating Our Own Faults And The Convenience Of Imposing On The Ignorance Or Credulity Of Others So Frequently Occur; So Many Immediate Evils Are

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.

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

Pity Is Not Natural To Man. Children Always Are Cruel. Savages Are Always Cruel.

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

To Preserve Health Is A Moral And Religious Duty: For Health Is The Basis Of All Social Virtues; And We Can Be Useful No Longer Than While We Are Well.

Age Is Rarely Despised But When It Is, Contemptible.

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

Everybody Loves To Have Things Which Please The Palate Put In Their Way, Without Trouble Or Preparation.

A Man Who Uses A Great Many Words To Express His Meaning Is Like A Bad Marksman Who, Instead Of Aiming A Single Stone At An Object, Takes Up A Handful And Throws At It In Hopes He May Hit.

The Hapless Wit Has His Labors Always To Begin, The Call For Novelty Is Never Satisfied, And One Jest Only Raises Expectation Of Another.

How Few Of His Friends' Houses Would A Man Choose To Be At When He Is Sick.

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

The Triumph Of Hope Over Experience.

In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.

Very Few Live By Choice. Every Man Is Placed In His Present Condition By Causes Which Acted Without His Foresight, And With Which He Did Not Always Willingly Cooperate; And Therefore You Will Rarely Meet One Who Does Not Think The Lot Of His Neighbor Better Than His Own.

At Length Weariness Succeeds To Labor, And The Mind Lies At Ease In The Contemplation Of Her Own Attainments Without Any Desire Of New Conquests Or Excursions. This Is The Age Of Recollection And Narrative; The Opinions Are Settled, And The Avenues Of Apprehension Shut Against Any New Intelligence; The Days That Are To Follow Must Pass In The Inculcation Of Precepts Already Collected, And Assertion Of Tenets Already Received; Nothing Is Henceforward So Odious As Opposition, So Insolent As Doubt, Or So Dangerous As Novelty.

It Is Easy For A Man Who Sits Idle At Home, And Has Nobody To Please But Himself, To Ridicule Or Censure The Common Practices Of Mankind.

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments.

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.

Reason Will By Degrees Submit To Absurdity, As The Eye Is In Time Accommodated To Darkness.

There Are Few Things That We So Unwillingly Give Up, Even In Advanced Age, As The Supposition That We Still Have The Power Of Ingratiating Ourselves With The Fair Sex.

A Thousand Years May Elapse Before There Shall Appear Another Man With A Power Of Versification Equal To That Of Pope.

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.

He That Teaches Us Anything Which We Knew Not Before Is Undoubtedly To Be Reverenced As A Master.

Piety Is The Only Proper And Adequate Relief Of Decaying Man. He That Grows Old Without Religions Hopes, As He Declines Into Imbecility, And Feels Pains And Sorrows Incessantly Crowding Upon Him, Falls Into A Gulf Of Bottomless Misery, In Which Every Reflection Must Plunge Him Deeper And Deeper.

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

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes; The Distinctions Which Set One Man So Much Above Another Are Very Little Perceived In The Gloom Of A Sick Chamber, Where It Will Be Vain To Expect Entertainment From The Gay, Or Instruction From The Wise; Where All Human Glory Is Obliterated, The Wit Is Clouded, The Reasoner Perplexed, And The Hero Subdued; Where The Highest And Brightest Of Mortal Beings Finds Nothing Left Him But The Consciousness Of Innocence.

Dogs Have Not The Power Of Comparing. A Dog Will Take A Small Piece Of Meat As Readily As A Large, When Both Are Before Him.

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

He That Condemns Himself To Compose On A Stated Day Will Often Bring To His Task Attention Dissipated, A Memory Embarrassed, An Imagination Overwhelmed, A Mind Distracted With Anxieties, A Body Languishing With Disease: He Will Labour On A Barren Topic Till It Is Too Late To Change It; Or, In The Ardour Of Invention, Diffuse His Thoughts Into Wild Exuberance, Which The Pressing Hour Of Publication Cannot Suffer Judgment To Examine Or Reduce.

He That Wishes To See His Country Robbed Of Its Rights Cannot Be A Patriot.

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

Liberty Is The Parent Of Truth, But Truth And Decency Are Sometimes At Variance. All Men And All Propositions Are To Be Treated Here As They Deserve, And There Are Many Who Have No Claim Either To Respect Or Decency.

Was There Ever Yet Anything Written By Mere Man That Was Wished Longer By Its Readers, Excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, And The Pilgrim's Progress?

Robinson Crusoe

Man Is A Transitory Being, And His Designs Must Partake Of The Imperfections Their Author.

In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.

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

Life Is Short. The Sooner That A Man Begins To Enjoy His Wealth The Better.

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

As The Faculty Of Writing Has Chiefly Been A Masculine Endowment, The Reproach Of Making The World Miserable Has Always Been Thrown Upon The Women.

Presumption Will Be Easily Corrected; But Timidity Is A Disease Of The Mind More Obstinate And Fatal.

All Theory Is Against Free Will; All Experience Is For It.

Of All The Grief's That Harass The Distressed; Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest.

As All Error Is Meanness, It Is Incumbent On Every Man Who Consults His Own Dignity, To Retract It As Soon As He Discovers It.

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

Employment And Hardships Prevent Melancholy.

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

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

Avarice Is A Uniform And Tractable Vice; Other Intellectual Distempers Are Different In Different Constitutions Of Mind. That Which Soothes The Pride Of One Will Offend The Pride Of Another, But To The Favor Of The Covetous Bring Money, And Nothing Is Denied.

Change Is Not Made Without Inconvenience.

Project Management

In Solitude We Have Our Dreams To Ourselves, And In Company We Agree To Dream In Concert.

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

Promise, Large Promise, Is The Soul Of An Advertisement.

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

Mutual Complacency Is The Atmosphere Of Conjugal Love.

A Wise Man Is Cured Of Ambition By Ambition Itself; His Aim Is So Exalted That Riches, Office, Fortune And Favour Cannot Satisfy Him.

Vulgar And Inactive Minds Confound Familiarity With Knowledge, And Conceive Themselves Informed Of The Whole Nature Of Things, When They Are Shown Their Form Or Told Their Use.

Whatever You Have Spend Less.

Books Are Faithful Repositories, Which May Be Awhile Neglected Or Forgotten; But When They Are Opened Again, Will Again Impart Their Instruction: Memory, Once Interrupted, Is Not To Be Recalled. Written Learning Is A Fixed Luminary, Which, After The Cloud That Had Hidden It Has Passed Away, Is Again Bright In Its Proper Station. Tradition Is But A Meteor, Which, If Once It Falls, Cannot Be Rekindled.

Men Are Most Powerfully Affected By Those Evils Which Themselves Feel, Or Which Appear Before Their Own Eyes.

Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.

In Writing, As In Life, Faults Are Endured Without Disgust When They Are Associated With Transcendent Merit, And May Be Sometimes Recommended To Weak Judgments By The Lustre Which They Obtain From Their Union With Excellence; But It Is The Business Of Those Who Presume To Superintend The Taste Or Morals Of Mankind To Separate Delusive Combinations, And Distinguish That Which May Be Praised From That Which Can Only Be Excused.

In Civilized Society We All Depend Upon Each Other, And Our Happiness Is Very Much Owing To The Good Opinion Of Mankind.

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

Trust As Little As You Can To Report, And Examine All You Can By Your Own Senses.

Sir, He [bolingbroke] Was A Scoundrel And A Coward: A Scoundrel For Charging A Blunderbuss Against Religion And Morality; A Coward, Because He Had Not Resolution To Fire It Off Himself, But Left Half A Crown To A Beggarly Scotsman To Draw The Trigger At His Death.

I Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.

No Man But A Blockhead Ever Wrote Except For Money.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

Where There Is No Difficulty There Is No Praise.

It Is The Care Of A Very Great Part Of Mankind To Conceal Their Indigence From The Rest. They Support Themselves By Temporary Expedients, And Every Day Is Lost In Contriving For To-morrow.

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

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

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.

Milton, Madam, Was A Genius That Could Cut A Colossus From A Rock; But Could Not Carve Heads Upon Cherry-stones.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendor Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate.

Indolence Is The Devil's Cushion.

Reproof Should Not Exhaust Its Power Upon Petty Failings.

Criticism Is A Study By Which Men Grow Important And Formidable At Very Small Expense. The Power Of Invention Has Been Conferred By Nature Upon Few, And The Labour Of Learning Those Sciences Which May, By Mere Labour, Be Obtained, Is Too Great To Be Willingly Endured; But Every Man Can Exert Some Judgment As He Has Upon The Works Of Others; And He Whom Nature Has Made Weak, And Idleness Keeps Ignorant, May Yet Support His Vanity By The Name Of Critic.

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.

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

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

There Are Innumerable Questions To Which The Inquisitive Mind Can In This State Receive No Answer: Why Do You And I Exist? Why Was This World Created? Since It Was To Be Created, Why Was It Not Created Sooner?

A Vow Is A Snare For Sin

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

To Build Is To Be Robbed.

Worth Seeing, Yes; But Not Worth Going To See.

Inspiring Travel

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

No Place Affords A More Striking Conviction Of The Vanity Of Human Hopes Than A Public Library.

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

All Power Of Fancy Over Reason Is A Degree Of Madness.

He That Accepts Protection, Stipulates Obedience.

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

Many Need No Other Provocation To Enmity Than That They Find Themselves Excelled.

General Irregularities Are Known In Time To Remedy Themselves. By The Constitution Of Ancient Egypt, The Priesthood Was Continually Increasing, Till At Length There Was No People Beside Themselves; The Establishment Was Then Dissolved, And The Number Of Priests Was Reduced And Limited. Thus Among Us, Writers Will, Perhaps, Be Multiplied, Till No Readers Will Be Found, And Then The Ambition Of Writing Must Necessarily Cease.

Genius, That Power Which Constitutes A Poet; That Quality Without Which Judgment Is Cold, And Knowledge Is Inert; That Energy Which Collects, Combines, Amplifies And Animates.

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

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

It Was Said Of Euripides, That Every Verse Was A Precept; And It May Be Said Of Shakespeare, That From His Works May Be Collected A System Of Civil And Economical Prudence.

Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.

Cowardice Encroaches Fast Upon Such As Spend Their Lives In Company Of Persons Higher Than Themselves.

All Travel Has Its Advantages. If The Passenger Visits Better Countries, He May Learn To Improve His Own. And If Fortune Carries Him To Worse, He May Learn To Enjoy It.

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.

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

Cunning Has Effect From The Credulity Of Others, Rather Than From The Abilities Of Those Who Are Cunning. It Requires No Extraordinary Talents To Lie And Deceive.

No Man, However Enslaved To His Appetites, Or Hurried By His Passions, Can, While He Preserves His Intellects Unimpaired, Please Himself With Promoting The Corruption Of Others. He Whose Merit Has Enlarged His Influence Would Surely Wish To Exert It For The Benefit Of Mankind. Yet Such Will Be The Effect Of His Reputation, While He Suffers Himself To Indulge In Any Favourite Fault, That They Who Have No Hope To Reach His Excellence Will Catch At His Failings, And His Virtues Will Be Cited To Justify The Copiers Of His Vices.

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

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

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

Every Other Enjoyment Malice May Destroy; Every Other Panegyric Envy May Withhold; But No Human Power Can Deprive The Boaster Of His Own Encomiums.

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

The Time Will Come To Every Human Being When It Must Be Known How Well He Can Bear To Die.

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Muammar Al-Gaddafi

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