Background Image

...

There Is No Society Or Conversation To Be Kept Up In The World Without Good-nature, Or Something Which Must Bear Its Appearance And Supply Its Place. For This Reason Mankind Have Been Forced To Invent A Kind Of Artificial Humanity, Which Is What We Express By The Word Good-breeding.

-Joseph Addison

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

There Is No Society

Joseph Addison

...

There Is No Society Or Conversation To Be Kept Up In The World Without Good-nature, Or Something Which Must Bear Its Appearance And Supply Its Place. For This Reason Mankind Have Been Forced To Invent A Kind Of Artificial Humanity, Which Is What We Express By The Word Good-breeding.

Views: 53005

Topic

More From Joseph Addison

There Is A Kind Of Grandeur And Respect Which The Meanest And Most Insignificant Part Of Mankind Endeavor To Procure In The Little Circle Of Their Friends And Acquaintance. The Poorest Mechanic, Nay, The Man Who Lives Upon Common Alms, Gets Him His Set Of Admirers, And Delights In That Superiority Which He Enjoys Over Those Who Are In Some Respects Beneath Him. This Ambition, Which Is Natural To The Soul Of Man, Might, Methinks, Receive A Very Happy Turn; And, If It Were Rightly Directed, Contribute As Much To A Person's Advantage, As It Generally Does To His Uneasiness And Disquiet.

There Are Many More Shining Qualities In The Mind Of Man, But There Is None So Useful As Discretion.

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

The First Race Of Mankind Used To Dispute, As Our Ordinary People Do Now-a-days, In A Kind Of Wild Logic, Uncultivated By Rule Of Art.

The Ways Of Heaven Are Dark And Intricate, Puzzled In Mazes, And Perplex'd With Errors; Our Understanding Traces Them In Vain, Lost And Bewilder'd In The Fruitless Search; Nor Sees With How Much Art The Windings Run, Nor Where The Regular Confusion Ends.

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

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

Method Is Not Less Requisite In Ordinary Conversation Than In Writing, Provided A Man Would Talk To Make Himself Understood.

Suspicion Is Not Less An Enemy To Virtue Than To Happiness; He That Is Already Corrupt Is Naturally Suspicious, And He That Becomes Suspicious Will Quickly Be Corrupt.

A Money-lender--he Serves You In The Present Tense; He Lends You In The Conditional Mood; Keeps You In The Conjunctive; And Ruins You In The Future.

A Thousand Glorious Actions That Might Claim Triumphant Laurels, And Immortal Fame, Confus'd In Crowds Of Glorious Actions Lie, And Troops Of Heroes Undistinguished Die.

A Man That Has A Taste Of Music, Painting, Or Architecture, Is Like One That Has Another Sense, When Compared With Such As Have No Relish Of Those Arts

Laughter, While It Lasts, Slackens And Unbraces The Mind, Weakens The Faculties, And Causes A Kind Of Remissness And Dissolution In All The Powers Of The Soul.

The World Is So Full Of Ill-nature That I Have Lampoons Sent Me By People Who Cannot Spell, And Satires Composed By Those Who Scarce Know How To Write.

Loveliest Of Women! Heaven Is In Thy Soul, Beauty And Virtue Shine Forever Round Thee, Bright'ning Each Other! Thou Art All Divine!

The Great Art In Writing Advertisements Is The Finding Out Of A Proper Method To Catch The Reader's Eye; Without Which, A Good Thing May Pass Over Unobserved, Or Lost Among Commissions Of Bankrupt.

Health And Cheerfulness Naturally Beget Each Other.

There Are A Sort Of Knight-errants In The World, Who, Quite Contrary To Those In Romance, Are Perpetually Seeking Adventures To Bring Virgins Into Distress, And To Ruin Innocence. When Men Of Rank And Figure Pass Away Their Lives In These Criminal Pursuits And Practices, They Ought To Consider That They Render Themselves More Vile And Despicable Than Any Innocent Man Can Be, Whatever Low Station His Fortune Or Birth Have Placed Him In.

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

Our Disputants Put Me In Mind Of The Cuttlefish That, When He Is Unable To Extricate Himself, Blackens The Water About Him Till He Becomes Invisible.

I Would Fain Ask One Of These Bigotted Infidels, Supposing All The Great Points Of Atheism... Were Laid Together And Formed Into A Kind Of Creed, According To The Opinions Of The Most Celebrated Atheists; I Say, Supposing Such A Creed As This Were Formed, And Imposed Upon Any One People In The World, Whether It Would Not Require An Infinitely Greater Measure Of Faith, Than Any Set Of Articles Which They So Violently Oppose.

If Our Zeal Were True And Genuine We Should Be Much More Angry With A Sinner Than A Heretic.

An Honest Private Man Often Grows Cruel And Abandoned When Converted Into An Absolute Prince. Give A Man Power Of Doing What He Pleases With Impunity, You Extinguish His Fear, And Consequently Overturn In Him One Of The Great Pillars Of Morality.

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

There Are Greater Depths And Obscurities, Greater Intricacies And Perplexities, In An Elaborate And Well-written Piece Of Nonsense, Than In The Most Abstruse And Profound Tract Of School Divinity.

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

Title And Ancestry Render A Good Man More Illustrious, But An Ill One More Contemptible.

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

Sweet Are The Slumbers Of The Virtuous Man.

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

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

When Men Are Easy In Their Circumstances, They Are Naturally Enemies To Innovations.

The Man Who Will Live Above His Present Circumstances, Is In Great Danger Of Soon Living Beneath Them; Or As The Italian Proverb Says, "the Man That Lives By Hope, Will Die By Despair.

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

There Is Not Any Present Moment That Is Unconnected With Some Future One. The Life Of Every Man Is A Continued Chain Of Incidents, Each Link Of Which Hangs Upon The Former.

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

A Contemplation Of God's Works, A Generous Concern For The Good Of Mankind, And The Unfeigned Exercise Of Humility Only, Denominate Men Great And Glorious.

We Cannot Be Guilty Of A Greater Act Of Uncharitableness, Than To Interpret The Afflictions Which Befall Our Neighbors As Punishments And Judgments.

With What Astonishment And Veneration May We Look Into Our Own Souls, Where There Are Such Hidden Stores Of Virtue And Knowledge, Such Inexhaustible Sources Of Perfection. We Know Not Yet What We Shall Be, Nor Will It Ever Enter Into The Heart To Conceive The Glory That Will Be Always In Reserve For It.

I Would Have Every Zealous Man Examine His Heart Thoroughly, And I Believe He Will Often Find That What Be Calls A Zeal For His Religion Is Either Pride, Interest, Or Ill-repute.

A Solid And Substantial Greatness Of Soul Looks Down With Neglect On The Censures And Applauses Of The Multitude.

To This End, Nothing Is To Be More Carefully Consulted Than Plainness. In A Lady's Attire This Is The Single Excellence; For To Be What Some People Call Fine, Is The Same Vice, In That Case, As To Be Florid Is In Writing Or Speaking.

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

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

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

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

What Can Be Nobler Than The Idea It Gives Us Of The Supreme Being?

There Is Not A More Pleasing Exercise Of The Mind Than Gratitude. It Is Accompanied With Such An Inward Satisfaction That The Duty Is Sufficiently Rewarded By The Performance

Modesty Is Not Only An Ornament, But Also A Guard To Virtue.

The Greatest Parts, Without Discretion As Observed By An Elegant Writer, May Be Fatal To Their Owner; As Polyphemus, Deprived Of His Eyes, Was Only The More Exposed On Account Of His Enormous Strength And Stature.

There Is Nothing Which Strengthens Faith More Than The Observance Of Morality.

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

A True Critic Ought To Dwell Rather Upon Excellencies Than Imperfections

Ladies Are Always Of Great Use To The Party They Espouse, And Never Fail To Win Over Numbers To It. Lovers, According To Sir William Petty's Computation, Make At Least The Third Part Of Sensible Men Of The British Nation; And It Has Been An Uncontroverted Maxim In All Ages, That Though A Husband Is Sometimes A Stubborn Sort Of A Creature, A Lover Is Always At The Devotion Of His Mistress. By This Means, It Lies In The Power Of Every Fine Woman, To Secure At Least Half A Dozen Able-bodied Men To His Majesty's Service.

The Most Skillful Flattery Is To Let A Person Talk On, And Be A Listener.

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

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

I Have Often Thought, Says Sir Roger, It Happens Very Well That Christmas Should Fall Out In The Middle Of Winter.

There Is Not Any Present Moment That Is Unconnected With Some Future One. The Life Of Every Man Is A Continued Chain Of Incidents, Each Link Of Which Hangs Upon The Former. The Transition From Cause To Effect, From Event To Event, Is Often Carried On By Secret Steps, Which Our Foresight Cannot Divine, And Our Sagacity Is Unable To Trace. Evil May At Some Future Period Bring Forth Good; And Good May Bring Forth Evil, Both Equally Unexpected.

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

In The Loss Of An Object We Do Not Proportion Our Grief To The Real Value It Bears, But To The Value Our Fancies Set Upon It.

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

The Dawn Is Overcast, The Morning Lowers, And Heavily In Clouds Brings On The Day, The Great, The Important Day, Big With The Fate Of Cato And Of Rome.

T Is Liberty Crowns Britannia's Isle, And Makes Her Barren Rocks And Her Bleak Mountains Smile.

Silence Is Sometimes More Significant And Sublime Than The Most Noble And Most Expressive Eloquence, And Is On Many Occasions The Indication Of A Great Mind.

Knowledge Is, Indeed, That Which, Next To Virtue, Truly And Essentially Raises One Man Above Another.

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

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

It Is The Duty Of All Who Make Philosophy The Entertainment Of Their Lives, To Turn Their Thoughts To Practical Schemes For The Good Of Society, And Not Pass Away Their Time In Fruitless Searches, Which Tend Rather To The Ostentation Of Knowledge Than The Service Of Life.

It Is Only Imperfection That Complains Of What Is Imperfect. The More Perfect We Are The More Gentle And Quiet We Become Towards The Defects Of Others.

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

Young Men Soon Give, And Soon Forget, Affronts; Old Age Is Slow In Both.

Reading Is To The Mind What Exercise Is To The Body.

A True Critic Ought To Dwell Upon Excellencies Rather Than Imperfections, To Discover The Concealed Beauties Of A Writer, And Communicate To The World Such Things As Are Worth Their Observation.

Hudibras Has Defined Nonsense, As Cowley Does Wit, By Negatives. Nonsense, He Says, Is That Which Is Neither True Nor False. These Two Great Properties Of Nonsense, Which Are Always Essential To It, Give It Such A Peculiar Advantage Over All Other Writings, That It Is Incapable Of Being Either Answered Or Contradicted.

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

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

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

Talk Not Of Love: Thou Never Knew'st Its Force.

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

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

To Look Upon The Soul As Going On From Strength To Strength, To Consider That She Is To Shine Forever With New Accessions Of Glory, And Brighten To All Eternity; That She Will Be Still Adding Virtue To Virtue, And Knowledge To Knowledge,--carries In It Something Wonderfully Agreeable To That Ambition Which Is Natural To The Mind Of Man.

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

Blesses His Stars And Thinks It Luxury.

Who Does Not More Admire Cicero As An Author Than As A Consul Of Rome?

Why Will Any Man Be So Impertinently Officious As To Tell Me All Prospect Of A Future State Is Only Fancy And Delusion? Is There Any Merit In Being The Messenger Of Ill News. If It Is A Dream, Let Me Enjoy It, Since It Makes Me Both The Happier And Better Man.

Oh, Liberty! Thou Goddess Heavenly Bright! Profuse Of Bliss, And Pregnant With Delight! Eternal Pleasures In Thy Presence Reign, And Smiling Plenty Leads Thy Wanton Train.

There Is Nothing In Which Men More Deceive Themselves Than In What They Call Zeal.

The Schoolboy Counts The Time Till The Return Of The Holidays; The Minor Longs To Be Of Age; The Lover Is Impatient Till He Is Married.

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

The Gloomy Months Of November, When The People Of England Hang And Drown Themselves.

An Idol May Be Undeified By Many Accidental Causes. Marriage, In Particular, Is A Kind Of Counter Apotheosis, As A Deification Inverted. When A Man Becomes Familiar With His Goddess She Quickly Sinks Into A Woman.

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

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

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

Music Can Noble Hints Impart, Engender Fury, Kindle Love, With Unsuspected Eloquence Can Move, And Manage All The Man With Secret Art.

Books Are The Legacies That A Great Genius Leaves To Mankind

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

Their Is No Defense Against Criticism Except Obscurity.

When A Woman Comes To Her Class, She Does Not Employ Her Time In Making Herself Look More Advantageously What She Really Is, But Endeavours To Be As Much Another Creature As She Possibly Can. Whether This Happens Because They Stay So Long And Attend Their Work So Diligently That They Forget The Faces And Persons, Which They First Sat Down With, Or Whatever It Is, They Seldom Rise From The Toilet The Same Woman They Appeared When They Began To Dress

It Is Very Wonderful To See Persons Of The Best Sense Passing Hours Together In Shuffling And Dividing A Pack Of Cards With No Conversation But What Is Made Up Of A Few Game-phrases, And No Other Ideas But Those Of Black Or Red Spots Arranged Together In Different Figures. Would Not A Man Laugh To Hear Any One Of His Species Complaining That Life Is Short?

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

Thus I Live In The World Rather As A Spectator Of Mankind, Than As One Of The Species, By Which Means I Have Made Myself A Speculative Statesman, Soldier, Merchant, And Artisan, Without Ever Meddling With Any Practical Part Of Life.

Health And Happiness Give Rise To Each Other.

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

What Sculpture Is To A Block Of Marble, Education Is To The Human Soul.

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

What Pity Is It That We Can Die, But Once To Serve Our Country.

Nothing That Is Not A Real Crime Makes A Man Appear So Contemptible And Little In The Eyes Of The World As Inconsistency, Especially When It Regards Religion Or Party. In Either Of These Cases, Though A Man Perhaps Does But His Duty In Changing His Side, He Not Only Makes Himself Hated By Those He Left, But Is Seldom Heartily Esteemed By Those He Comes Over To.

There Is No Virtue So Truly Great And Godlike As Justice.

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

How Is It Possible For Those Who Are Men Of Honor In Their Persons, Thus To Become Notorious Liars In Their Party

Beauty Commonly Produces Love, But Cleanliness Preserves It. Age Itself Is Not Unamiable While It Is Preserved Clean And Unsullied; Like A Piece Of Metal Constantly Kept Smooth And Bright, We Look On It With More Pleasure Than On A New Vessel Cankered With Rust.

If Men, Who In Their Hearts Are Friends To A Government, Forbear Giving It Their Utmost Assistance Against Its Enemies, They Put It In The Power Of A Few Desperate Men To Ruin The Welfare Of Those Who Are Much Superior To Them In Strength, Number, And Interest.

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

Honour's A Sacred Tie, The Law Of Kings, The Noble Mind's Distinguishing Perfection That Aids And Strengthens Virtue Where It Meets Her And Imitates Her Actions Where She Is Not: It Is Not To Be Sported With.

It Is Not The Business Of Virtue To Extirpate The Affections Of The Mind, But To Regulate Them.

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

Riches Expose A Man To Pride And Luxury, And A Foolish Elation Of Heart.

Justice Discards Party, Friendship, Kindred, And Is Always, Therefore, Represented As Blind.

It Is Of Unspeakable Advantage To Possess Our Minds With An Habitual Good Intention, And To Aim All Our Thoughts, Words, And Actions At Some Laudable End.

Good Intentions

Good Nature Will Always Supply The Absence Of Beauty; But Beauty Cannot Supply The Absence Of Good Nature.

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

The Mind That Lies Fallow But A Single Day, Sprouts Up In Follies That Are Only To Be Killed By A Constant And Assiduous Culture.

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

To Be Exempt From The Passions With Which Others Are Tormented, Is The Only Pleasing Solitude.

Pleasing Others

Honor's A Fine Imaginary Notion, That Draws In Raw And Unexperienced Men To Real Mischiefs.

The Hours Of A Wise Man Are Lengthened By His Ideas, As Those Of A Fool Are By His Passions. The Time Of The One Is Long, Because He Does Not Know What To Do With It; So Is That Of The Other, Because He Distinguishes Every Moment Of It With Useful Or Amusing Thoughts--or, In Other Words, Because The One Is Always Wishing It Away, And The Other Always Enjoying It.

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

In The Common Run Of Mankind, For One That Is Wise And Good You Find Ten Of A Contrary Character.

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

Men Naturally Warm And Heady Are Transported With The Greatest Flush Of Good-nature.

Religion Contracts The Circle Of Our Pleasures, But Leaves It Wide Enough For Her Votaries To Expatiate In.

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

My Voice Is Still For War.

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

Wit Is The Fetching Of Congruity Out Of Incongruity.

We Make Provisions For This Life As If It Were Never To Have An End, And For The Other Life As Though It Were Never To Have A Beginning.

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

By Anticipation We Sugar Misery And Enjoy Happiness Before They Are In Being. We Can Set The Sun And Stars Forward, Or Lose Sight Of Them By Wandering Into Those Retired Parts Of Eternity When The Heavens And Earth Shall Be No More.

Let Freedom Never Perish In Your Hands.

There Is No Greater Sign Of A Bad Cause, Than When The Patrons Of It Are Reduced To The Necessity Of Making Use Of The Most Wicked Artifices To Support It.

Certain Is It That There Is No Kind Of Affection So Purely Angelic As Of A Father To A Daughter.

The Memory Is Perpetually Looking Back When We Have Nothing Present To Entertain Us. It Is Like Those Repositories In Animals That Are Filled With Food, On Which They May Ruminate When Their Present Pastures Fail.

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

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

I Have Often Thought If The Minds Of Men Were Laid Open, We Should See But Little Difference Between That Of The Wise Man And That Of The Fool. There Are Infinite Reveries, Numberless Extravagances, And A Perpetual Train Of Vanities Which Pass Through Both. The Great Difference Is, That The First Knows How To Pick And Cull His Thoughts For Conversation, By Suppressing Some, And Communicating Others; Whereas The Other Lets Them All Indifferently Fly Out In Words.

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

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

I Believe That Everyone, Some Time Or Other, Dreams That He Is Reading Papers, Books, Or Letters; In Which Case The Invention Prompts So Readily That The Mind Is Imposed Upon, And Mistakes Its Own Suggestions For The Composition Of Another.

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

Is There Not Some Chosen Curse, Some Hidden Thunder In The Stores Of Heaven, Red With Uncommon Wrath, To Blast The Man Who Owes His Greatness To His Country's Ruin!

Among The Several Kinds Of Beauty, The Eye Takes Most Delight In Colors.

Love Is A Second Life.

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

Some Virtues Are Only Seen In Affliction And Others Only In Prosperity.

Life Is Not Long Enough For A Coquette To Play All Her Tricks In.

An Indiscreet Man Is More Hurtful Than An Ill-natured One; For As The Latter Will Only Attack His Enemies, And Those He Wishes Ill To, The Other Injures Indifferently Both Friends And Foes.

Our Sight Is The Most Perfect And Most Delightful Of All Our Senses.

Tradition Is An Important Help To History, But Its Statements Should Be Carefully Scrutinized Before We Rely On Them.

Charity Is The Perfection And Ornament Of Religion.

It Is The Privilege Of Posterity To Set Matters Right Between Those Antagonists Who, By Their Rivalry For Greatness, Divided A Whole Age.

Look What A Little Vain Dust We Are!

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

Cunning Has Only Private Selfish Aims, And Sticks At Nothing Which May Make Them Succeed. Discretion Has Large And Extended Views, And, Like A Well-formed Eye, Commands A Whole Horizon; Cunning Is A Kind Of Shortsightedness, That Discovers The Minutest Objects Which Are Near At Hand, But Is Not Able To Discern Things At A Distance.

If We Hope For What We Are Not Likely To Possess, We Act And Think In Vain, And Make Life A Greater Dream And Shadow Than It Really Is.

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

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

Plutarch Says Very Finely That A Man Should Not Allow Himself To Hate Even His Enemies.

Riches Are Apt To Betray A Man Into Arrogance.

There Is Not On Earth A Spectacle More Worthy The Regard Of A Creator Intent On His Works, Than A Brave Man Superior To His Sufferings.

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

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

We Are Apt To Rely Upon Future Prospects, And Become Really Expensive While We Are Only Rich In Possibility. We Live Up To Our Expectations, Not To Our Possessions, And Make A Figure Proportionable To What We May Be, Not What We Are.

Mutability Of Temper And Inconsistency With Ourselves Is The Greatest Weakness Of Human Nature.

The Woman That Deliberates Is Lost.

Virgil Has Very Finely Touched Upon The Female Passion For Dress And Shows, In The Character Of Camilla; Who Though She Seems To Have Shaken Off All The Other Weaknesses Of Her Sex, Is Still Described As A Woman In This Particular.

I Never Knew A Critic Who Made It His Business To Lash The Faults Of Other Writers That Was Not Guilty Of Greater Himself--as The Hangman Is Generally A Worse Malefactor Than The Criminal That Suffers By His Hand.

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

When A Man Becomes Familiar With His Goddess, She Quickly Sinks Into A Woman.

My Voice Is Still For War. Gods! Can A Roman Senate Long Debate Which Of The Two To Choose, Slavery Or Death?

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

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

Antidotes Are What You Take To Prevent Dotes.

The Spacious Firmament On High, And All The Blue Ethereal Sky, And Spangled Heavens, A Shining Frame, Their Great Original Proclaim.

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

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

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

A Man Who Is Furnished With Arguments From The Mint Will Convince His Antagonist Much Sooner Than One Who Draws Them From Reason And Philosophy.

To Say That Authority, Whether Secular Or Religious, Supplies No Ground For Morality Is Not To Deny The Obvious Fact That It Supplies A Sanction.

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

Husband A Lie, And Trump It Up In Some Extraordinary Emergency.

Must One Rash Word, The Infirmity Of Age, Throw Down The Merit Of My Better Years?

Every Passion Gives A Particular Cast To The Countenance, And Is Apt To Discover Itself In Some Feature Or Other. I Have Seen An Eye Curse For Half An Hour Together, And An Eyebrow Call A Man A Scoundrel.

We Find The Works Of Nature Still More Pleasant, The More They Resemble Those Of Art.

I Think I May Define Taste To Be That Faculty Of The Soul Which Discerns The Beauties Of An Author With Pleasure, And The Imperfections With Dislike.

The Greatest Sweetener Of Human Life Is Friendship.

Nothing Is Capable Of Being Well Set To Music That Is Not Nonsense.

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

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

Trending Author

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Emily Dickinson

Category