Background Image

...

There Are Three Distinct Kind Of Judges Upon All New Authors Or Productions; The First Are Those Who Know No Rules, But Pronounce Entirely From Their Natural Taste And Feelings; The Second Are Those Who Know And Judge By Rules; And The Third Are Those Who Know, But Are Above The Rules. These Last Are Those You Should Wish To Satisfy. Next To Them Rate The Natural Judges; But Ever Despise Those Opinions That Are Formed By The Rules.

-Samuel Johnson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

There Are Three Distinct

Samuel Johnson

...

There Are Three Distinct Kind Of Judges Upon All New Authors Or Productions; The First Are Those Who Know No Rules, But Pronounce Entirely From Their Natural Taste And Feelings; The Second Are Those Who Know And Judge By Rules; And The Third Are Those Who Know, But Are Above The Rules. These Last Are Those You Should Wish To Satisfy. Next To Them Rate The Natural Judges; But Ever Despise Those Opinions That Are Formed By The Rules.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Samuel Johnson

Condemned To Hope's Delusive Mine, As On We Toil From Day To Day, By Sudden Blasts Or Slow Decline Our Social Comforts Drop Away.

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

The Richest Author That Ever Grazed The Common Of Literature.

Bounty Always Receives Part Of Its Value From The Manner In Which It Is Bestowed.

There Prevails Among Men Of Letters, An Opinion, That All Appearance Of Science Is Particularly Hateful To Women; And That Therefore Whoever Desires To Be Well Received In Female Assemblies, Must Qualify Himself By A Total Rejection Of All That Is Serious, Rational, Or Important; Must Consider Argument Or Criticism As Perpetually Interdicted; And Devote All His Attention To Trifles, And All His Eloquence To Compliment.

If The Man Who Turnips Cries, Cry Not When His Father Dies, 'tis Proof That He Had Rather Have A Turnip Than His Father.

Sir, There Is No End Of Negative Criticism.

Negative Criticism

To Be Flattered Is Grateful, Even When We Know That Our Praises Are Not Believed By Those Who Pronounce Them; For They Prove, At Least, Our Power, And Show That Our Favour Is Valued, Since It Is Purchased By The Meanness Of Falsehood.

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

Abuse Is Often Of Service. There Is Nothing So Dangerous To An Author As Silence.

Few Moments Are More Pleasing Than Those In Which The Mind Is Concerting Measures For A New Undertaking.

To Buried Merit Rise The Tardy Bust.

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

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

Inspiring Travel

Never Mind The Use--do It!

It Is A Common Error, And The Greater And More Mischievous For Being So Common, To Believe That Repentance Best Becomes And Most Concerns Dying Men. Indeed, What Is Necessary Every Hour Of Our Life Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too, And As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance, And Therefore It Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too; But He Who Hath Constantly Exercised Himself In It In His Health And Vigor, Will Do It With Less Pain In His Sickness And Weakness; And He Who Hath Practiced It All His Life, Will Do It With More Ease And Less Perplexity In The Hour Of His Death.

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

An Englishman Is Content To Say Nothing When He Has Nothing To Say.

English Language

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

One Of The Disadvantages Of Wine Is That It Makes A Man Mistake Words For Thoughts.

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.

The Majority Of A Society Is The True Definition Of The Public.

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.

Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy, Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly; The One Completes A Villain, The Other Only Finishes A Fop.

As To Precedents, To Be Sure They Will Increase In Course Of Time; But The More Precedents There Are, The Less Occasion Is There For Law; That Is To Say, The Less Occasion Is There For Investigating Principles.

Wit Is That Which Has Been Often Thought, But Never Before Was Well Expressed.

I Have Always Suspected That The Reading Is Right, Which Requires Many Words To Prove It Wrong; And The Emendation Wrong, That Cannot Without So Much Labour Appear To He Right.

While Grief Is Fresh, Every Attempt To Divert Only Irritates. You Must Wait Till It Be Digested, And Then Amusement Will Dissipate The Remains Of It.

Without Good Humour, Learning And Bravery Can Only Confer That Superiority Which Swells The Heart Of The Lion In The Desert, Where He Roars Without Reply, And Ravages Without Resistance. Without Good Humour Virtue May Awe By Its Dignity And Amaze By Its Brightness, But Must Always Be Viewed At A Distance, And Will Scarcely Gain A Friend Or Attract An Imitator.

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

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

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.

Frugality May Be Termed The Daughter Of Prudence, The Sister Of Temperance, And The Parent Of Liberty.

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

There Is No Crime More Infamous Than The Violation Of Truth. It Is Apparent That Men Can Be Social Beings No Longer Than They Believe Each Other. When Speech Is Employed Only As The Vehicle Of Falsehood, Every Man Must Disunite Himself From Others, Inhabit His Own Cave And Seek Prey Only For Himself.

Faction Seldom Leaves A Man Honest, However It Might Find Him.

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.

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

No Man Was Ever Great By Imitation.

The Happiness Of London Is Not To Be Conceived But By Those Who Have Been In It.

Affectation Naturally Counterfeits Those Excellences Which Are Placed At The Greatest Distance From Possibility Of Attainment, Because, Knowing Our Own Defects, We Eagerly Endeavor To Supply Them With Artificial Excellence.

Were It Not For Imagination A Man Would Be As Happy In The Arms Of A Chambermaid As Of A Duchess.

Surely Nothing Is More Reproachful To A Being Endowed With Reason, Than To Resign Its Powers To The Influence Of The Air, And Live In Dependence On The Weather And The Wind, For The Only Blessings Which Nature Has Put Into Our Power, Tranquillity And Benevolence. To Look Up To The Sky For The Nutriment Of Our Bodies, Is The Condition Of Nature; To Call Upon The Sun For Peace And Gaiety, Or Deprecate The Clouds Lest Sorrow Should Overwhelm Us, Is The Cowardice Of Idleness, And The Idolatry Of Folly.

Parents Are By No Means Exempt From The Intoxication Of Dominion.

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

To Scatter Praise Or Blame Without Regard To Justice Is To Destroy The Distinction Of Good And Evil. Many Have No Other Test Of Actions Than General Opinion; And All Are So Far Influenced By A Sense Of Reputation That They Are Often Restrained By Fear Of Reproach, And Excited By Hope Of Honour, When Other Principles Have Lost Their Power.

To Be Idle And To Be Poor Have Always Been Reproaches, And Therefore Every Man Endeavors With His Utmost Care To Hide His Poverty From Others, And His Idleness From Himself.

Studious To Please, Yet Not Ashamed To Fail.

Knowledge Is Praised And Desired By Multitudes Whom Her Charms Could Never Rouse From The Couch Of Sloth; Whom The Faintest Invitation Of Pleasure Draws Away From Their Studies; To Whom Any Other Method Of Wearing The Day Is More Eligible Than The Use Of Books, And Who Are More Easily Engaged By Any Conversation Than Such As May Rectify Their Notions Or Enlarge Their Comprehension.

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.

I Never Take A Nap After Dinner But When I Have Had A Bad Night, And Then The Nap Takes Me.

Many Of Our Miseries Are Merely Comparative: We Are Often Made Unhappy, Not By The Presence Of Any Real Evil, But By The Absence Of Some Fictitious Good; Of Something Which Is Not Required By Any Real Want Of Nature, Which Has Not In Itself Any Power Of Gratification, And Which Neither Reason Nor Fancy Would Have Prompted Us To Wish, Did We Not See It In The Possession Of Others.

Consider What Importance To Society The Chastity Of Women Is. Upon That All The Property In The World Depends. We Hang A Thief For Stealing A Sheep; But The Unchastity Of A Woman Transfers Sheep And Farm And All From The Right Owner.

...it Will Not Always Happen That The Success Of A Poet Is Proportionate To His Labor.

Patience And Submission Are Very Carefully To Be Distinguished From Cowardice And Indolence. We Are Not To Repine, But We May Lawfully Struggle; For The Calamities Of Life, Like The Necessities Of Nature, Are Calls To Labor And Diligence.

Nothing Flatters A Man As Much As The Happiness Of His Wife; He Is Always Proud Of Himself As The Source Of It.

The Belief Of Immortality Is Impressed Upon All Men, And All Men Act Under An Impression Of It, However They May Talk, And Though, Perhaps, They May Be Scarcely Sensible Of It.

To Grieve For Evils Is Often Wrong; But It Is Much More Wrong To Grieve Without Them. All Sorrow That Lasts Longer Than Its Cause Is Morbid, And Should Be Shaken Off As An Attack Of Melancholy, As The Forerunner Of A Greater Evil Than Poverty Or Pain.

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

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

Advertisements Are Now So Numerous That They Are Very Negligently Perused

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.

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

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

We May Have Many Acquaintances, But We Can Have But Few Friends; This Made Aristotle Say That He That Hath Many Friends Hath None.

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

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

A Man Who Both Spends And Saves Money Is The Happiest Man, Because He Has Both Enjoyments.

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.

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

Health Is So Necessary To All The Duties, As Well As Pleasures Of Life, That The Crime Of Squandering It Is Equal To The Folly.

He That Compares What He Has Done With What He Has Left Undone, Will Feel The Effect Which Must Always Follow The Comparison Of Imagination With Reality; He Will Look With Contempt On His Own Unimportance, And Wonder To What Purpose He Came Into The World; He Will Repine That He Shall Leave Behind Him No Evidence Of His Having Been, That He Has Added Nothing To The System Of Life, But Has Glided From Youth To Age Among The Crowd, Without Any Effort For Distinction.

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.

Though The Discoveries Or Acquisitions Of Man Are Not Always Adequate To The Expectations Of His Pride, They Are At Least Sufficient To Animate His Industry.

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.

To Me - The Choice Of Life Is Become Less Important; I Hope Hereafter To Think Only On The Choice Of Eternity.

Nobody Has The Right To Put Another Under Such A Difficulty That He Must Either Hurt The Person By Telling The Truth Or Hurt Himself By Telling What Is Not True.

Telling The Truth

You Cannot, By All The Lecturing In The World, Enable A Man To Make A Shoe.

A Scotchman Must Be A Very Sturdy Moralist Who Does Not Love Scotland Better Than Truth.

Among Those Whose Reputation Is Exhausted In A Short Time By Its Own Luxuriance Are The Writers Who Take Advantage Of Present Incidents Or Characters Which Strongly Interest The Passions, And Engage Universal Attention. It Is Not Difficult To Obtain Readers, When We Discuss A Question Which Every One Is Desirous To Understand, Which Is Debated In Every Assembly, And Has Divided The Nation Into Parties; Or When We Display The Faults Or Virtues Of Him Whose Public Conduct Has Made Almost Every Man His Enemy Or His Friend.

No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

It Is No Matter What You Teach Them First, Any More Than What Leg You Shall Put Into Your Breeches First. You May Stand Disputing Which Is Best To Put In First, But In The Mean Time Your Breech Is Bare. Sir, While You Are Considering Which Of Two Things You Should Teach Your Child First, Another Boy Has Learned Them Both.

Example Is Always More Efficacious Than Precept.

Knowledge Is Of Two Kinds. We Know A Subject Ourselves, Or We Know Where We Can Find Information Upon It.

As Pride Sometimes Is Hid Under Humility, Idleness If Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry.

Poverty Is Often Concealed In Splendor, And Often In Extravagance. It Is The Task Of Many People To Conceal Their Neediness From Others. Consequently They Support Themselves By Temporary Means, And Everyday Is Lost In Contriving For Tomorrow.

So Scanty Is Our Present Allowance Of Happiness That In Many Situations Life Could Scarcely Be Supported If Hope Were Not Allowed To Relieve The Present Hour By Pleasures Borrowed From The Future.

The Perfect Day For Quitting Is Not Real. It Will Never Come, So Might As Well Start Today

Such Is The Pleasure Of Projecting That Many Content Themselves With A Succession Of Visionary Schemes, And Wear Out Their Allotted Time In The Calm Amusement Of Contriving What They Never Attempt Or Hope To Execute.

Friendship, Peculiar Boon Of Heaven, The Noble Mind's Delight And Pride, To Men And Angels Only Given, To All The Lower World Denied.

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.

Depend Upon It That If A Man Talks Of His Misfortunes There Is Something In Them That Is Not Disagreeable To Him; For Where There Is Nothing But Pure Misery There Never Is Any Recourse To The Mention Of It.

I Have Always Considered A Clergyman As The Father Of A Larger Family Than He Is Able To Maintain.

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.

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.

Ancient Travelers Guessed; Modern Travelers Measure.

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

Attention And Respect Give Pleasure, However Late, Or However Useless. But They Are Not Useless, When They Are Late, It Is Reasonable To Rejoice, As The Day Declines, To Find That It Has Been Spent With The Approbation Of Mankind.

Almost Every Man Wastes Part Of His Life Attempting To Display Qualities Which He Does Not Possess.

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

Nothing Can Be Truly Great Which Is Not Right.

We Have Less Reason To Be Surprised Or Offended When We Find Others Differ From Us In Opinion, Because We Very Often Differ From Ourselves.

There Are Few So Free From Vanity As Not To Dictate To Those Who Will Hear Their Instructions With A Visible Sense Of Their Own Beneficence.

A Man Guilty Of Poverty Easily Believes Himself Suspected.

All The Performances Of Human Art, At Which We Look With Praise Or Wonder, Are Instances Of The Resistless Force Of Perseverance.

Pride Is Seldom Delicate, It Will Please Itself With Very Mean Advantages; And Envy Feels Not Its Own Happiness, But When It May Be Compared With The Misery Of Others

I Have Found Men To Be More Kind Than I Expected, And Less Just.

The Animadversions Of Critics Are Commonly Such As May Easily Provoke The Sedatest Writer To Some Quickness Of Resentment And Asperity Of Reply.

What Signifies Protesting So Against Flattery When A Person Speaks Well Of One, It Must Either Be True Or False, You Know If True, Let Us Rejoice In His Good Opinion If He Lies, It Is A Proof At Least That He Loves More To Please Me, Than To Sit S

Don't Think Of Retiring From The World Until The World Will Be Sorry That You Retire. I Hate A Fellow Whom Pride Or Cowardice Or Laziness Drive Into A Corner, And Who Does Nothing When He Is There But Sit And Growl. Let Him Come Out As I Do, And Bark.

If An Author Be Supposed To Involve His Thoughts In Voluntary Obscurity, And To Obstruct, By Unnecessary Difficulties, A Mind Eager In The Pursuit Of Truth; If He Writes Not To Make Others Learned, But To Boast The Learning Which He Possesses Himself, And Wishes To Be Admired Rather Than Understood, He Counteracts The First End Of Writing, And Justly Suffers The Utmost Severity Of Censure, Or The More Afflicting Severity Of Neglect.

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.

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

Club: An Assembly Of Good Fellows, Meeting Under Certain Conditions.

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

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

When Two Eglishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather.

A Book Should Teach Us To Enjoy Life, Or To Endure It.

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

Of Those That Spin Out Trifles And Die Without A Memorial, Many Flatter Themselves With High Opinions Of Their Own Importance, And Imagine That They Are Every Day Adding Some Improvement To Human Life.

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

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

The Parallel Circumstances And Kindred Images To Which We Readily Conform Our Minds Are, Above All Other Writings, To Be Found In The Lives Of Particular Persons, And Therefore No Species Of Writing Seems More Worthy Of Cultivation Than Biography.

When I Find That So Much Of My Life Has Stolen Unprofitably Away, And That I Can Descry By Retrospection Scarcely A Few Single Days Properly And Vigorously Employed, Why Do I Yet Try To Resolve Again? I Try, Because Reformation Is Necessary And Despair Is Criminal. I Try, In Humble Hope Of The Help Of God.

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.

Music Is The Only Sensual Pleasure Without Vice.

Riches Are Of No Value In Themselves; Their Use Is Discovered Only In That Which They Procure.

But Grant, The Virtues Of A Temp'rate Prime Bless With An Age Exempt From Scorn Or Crime; An Age That Melts With Unperceived Decay, And Glides In Modest Innocence Away

Why, Sir, Sherry Is Dull, Naturally Dull; But It Must Have Taken Him A Great Deal Of Pains To Become What We Now See Him. Such An Excess Of Stupidity, Sir, Is Not In Nature.

Nothing Is Difficult, When Gain And Honour Unite Their Influence.

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.

Consultation And Compliance Can Conduce Little To The Perfection Of Any Literary Performance; For Whoever Is So Doubtful Of His Own Abilities As To Encourage The Remarks Of Others, Will Find Himself Every Day Embarrassed With New Difficulties, And Will Harass His Mind, In Vain, With The Hopeless Labour Of Uniting Heterogeneous Ideas, Digesting Independent Hints, And Collecting Into One Point The Several Rays Of Borrowed Light, Emitted Often With Contrary Directions.

An Epithet Or Metaphor Drawn From Nature Ennobles Art; An Epithet Or Metaphor Drawn From Art Degrades Nature.

Every Man Prefers Virtue, When There Is Not Some Strong Incitement To Transgress Its Precepts.

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

The Most Heterogeneous Ideas Are Yoked By Violence Together; Nature And Art Are Ransacked For Illustrations, Comparisons, And Allusions; Their Learning Instructs, And Their Subtlety Surprises; But The Reader Commonly Thinks His Improvement Dearly Bought And, Though He Sometimes Admires, Is Seldom Pleased.

The Commodiousness Of Money Is Indeed Great; But There Are Some Advantages Which Money Cannot Buy, And Which Therefore No Wise Man Will By The Love Of Money Be Tempted To Forego.

The Feeling Of Friendship Is Like That Of Being Comfortably Filled With Roast Beef; Love, Like Being Enlivened With Champagne.

The Business Of Life Summons Us Away From Useless Grief, And Calls Us To The Exercise Of Those Virtues Of Which We Are Lamenting Our Deprivation.

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

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

Most Vices May Be Committed Very Genteelly: A Man May Debauch His Friend's Wife Genteelly: He May Cheat At Cards Genteelly

Of Him That Hopes To Be Forgiven It Is Indispensably Required That He Forgive. It Is, Therefore, Superfluous To Urge Any Other Motive. On This Great Duty Eternity Is Suspended, And To Him That Refuses To Practise It, The Throne Of Mercy Is Inaccessible, And The Saviour Of The World Has Been Born In Vain.

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

By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.

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.

Composition Is For The Most Part An Effort Of Slow Diligence And Steady Perseverance, To Which The Mind Is Dragged By Necessity Or Resolution, And From Which The Attention Is Every Moment Starting To More Delightful Amusements.

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

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

If, Sir, Men Were All Virtuous, I Should With Great Alacrity Teach Them All To Fly. But What Would Be The Security Of The Good If The Bad Could At Pleasure Invade Them From The Sky? Against An Army Sailing Through The Clouds Neither Wall, Nor Mountains, Nor Seas Could Afford Any Security.

Hope Is Itself A Species Of Happiness.

Norway, Too, Has Noble Prospects; And Lapland Is Remarkable For Prodigious Noble Wild Prospects. But, Sir, Let Me Tell You, The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England!

I Am Not Yet So Lost In Lexicography, As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of The Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven. Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas: I Wish, However, That The Instrument Might Be Less Apt To Decay, And That Signs Might Be Permanent, Like The Things Which They Denote.

The Civilities Of The Great Are Never Thrown Away.

Vanity Is So Frequently The Apparent Motive Of Advice That We, For The Most Part, Summon Our Powers To Oppose It Without Very Accurate Inquiry Whether It Is Right. It Is Sufficient That Another Is Growing Great In His Own Eyes At Our Expense, And Assumes Authority Over Us Without Our Permission; For Many Would Contentedly Suffer The Consequences Of Their Own Mistakes, Rather Than The Insolence Of Him Who Triumphs As Their Deliverer.

It Is Our First Duty To Serve Society.

To Be Of No Church Is Dangerous. Religion, Of Which The Rewards Are Distant, And Which Is Animated Only By Faith And Hope, Will Glide By Degrees Out Of The Mind Unless It Be Invigorated And Reimpressed By External Ordinances, By Stated Calls To Worship, And The Salutary Influence Of Example.

It Is Not Indeed Certain, That The Most Refined Caution Will Find A Proper Time For Bringing A Man To The Knowledge Of His Own Failing, Or The Most Zealous Benevolence Reconcile Him To That Judgment By Which They Are Detected; But He Who Endeavours Only The Happiness Of Him Whom He Reproves Will Always Have Either The Satisfaction Of Obtaining Or Deserving Kindness; If He Succeeds, He Benefits His Friend; And If He Fails, He Has At Least The Consciousness That He Suffers For Only Doing Well.

The Art Of The Writer, Like That Of The Player, Is Attained By Slow Degrees. The Power Of Distinguishing And Discriminating Comick Characters, Or Of Filling Tragedy With Poetical Images, Must Be The Gift Of Nature, Which No Instruction Nor Labour Can Supply; But The Art Of Dramatick Disposition, The Contexture Of The Scenes, The Involution Of The Plot, The Expedients Of Suspension, And The Strategems Of Surprise, Are To Be Learned By Practice.

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

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

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

The World Is Like A Grand Staircase, Some Are Going Up And Some Are Going Down.

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

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.

We Are Long Before We Are Convinced That Happiness Is Never To Be Found, And Each Believes It Possessed By Others, To Keep Alive The Hope Of Obtaining It For Himself.

Men Know That Women Are An Overmatch For Them, And Therefore They Choose The Weakest Or The Most Ignorant. If They Did Not Think So, They Never Could Be Afraid Of Women Knowing As Much As Themselves.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet. From Those Sounds Which We Hear On Small Or On Coarse Occasions, We Do Not Easily Receive Strong Impressions, Or Delightful Images; And Words To Which We Are Nearly Strangers, Whenever They Occur, Draw That Attention On Themselves Which They Should Transmit To Other Things.

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.

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

Not Good Enough

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

Ignorance Cannot Always Be Inferred From Inaccuracy; Knowledge Is Not Always Present.

Being Married To Those Sleepy-souled Women Is Just Like Playing At Cards For Nothing: No Passion Is Excited And The Time Is Filled Up. I Do Not, However, Envy A Fellow One Of Those Honeysuckle Wives For My Part, As They Are But Creepers At Best And Commonly Destroy The Tree They So Tenderly Cling About.

The Best Part Of Every Author Is In General To Be Found In His Book, I Assure You.

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

Since Every Man Is Obliged To Promote Happiness And Virtue, He Should Be Careful Not To Mislead Unwary Minds, By Appearing To Set Too High A Value Upon Things By Which No Real Excellence Is Conferred.

To Go And See One Druidical Temple Is Only To See That It Is Nothing, For There Is Neither Art Nor Power In It; And Seeing One Is Quite Enough.

No Estimate Is More In Danger Of Erroneous Calculations Than Those By Which A Man Computes The Force Of His Own Genius.

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

I Should As Soon Think Of Contradicting A Bishop

The Mind Is Refrigerated By Interruption; The Thoughts Are Diverted From The Principle Subject; The Reader Is Weary, He Suspects Not Why; And At Last Throws Away The Book, Which He Has Too Diligently Studied.

Philips, Whose Touch Harmonious Could Remove The Pangs Of Guilty Power And Hapless Love! Rest Here, Distress'd By Poverty No More; Here Find That Calm Thou Gav'st So Oft Before; Sleep Undisturb'd Within This Peaceful Shrine, Till Angels Wake Thee With A Note Like Thine!

He That Floats Lazily Down The Stream, In Pursuit Of Something Borne Along By The Same Current, Will Find Himself Indeed Moved Forward; But Unless He Lays His Hand To The Oar, And Increases His Speed By His Own Labour, Must Be Always At The Same Distance From That Which He Is Following.

Life Consists Not Of A Series Of Illustrious Actions Or Elegant Enjoyments. The Greater Part Of Our Time Passes In Compliance With Necessities, In The Performance Of Daily Duties, In The Removal Of Small Inconveniences, In The Procurement Of Petty Pleasures; And We Are Well Or Ill At Ease, As The Main Stream Of Life Glides On Smoothly, Or Is Ruffled By Small Obstacles And Frequent Interruption.

His Death Eclipsed The Gayety Of Nations, And Impoverished The Public Stock Of Harmless Pleasure.

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?

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.

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.

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

A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.

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

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

There Lurks, Perhaps, In Every Human Heart A Desire Of Distinction, Which Inclines Every Man First To Hope, And Then To Believe, That Nature Has Given Him Something Peculiar To Himself.

I Have Protracted My Work Till Most Of Those Whom I Wished To Please Have Sunk Into The Grave, And Success And Miscarriage Are Empty Sounds: I Therefore Dismiss It With Frigid Tranquillity, Having Little To Fear Or Hope From Censure Or From Praise.

Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

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.

Pain And Disease Awaken Us To Convictions Which Are Necessary To Our Moral Condition.

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.

Trending Author

Category