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Think What You Would Have Been Now, If Instead Of Being Fed With Tales And Old Wives' Fables In Childhood, You Had Been Crammed With Geography And Natural History!
-Charles Lamb
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Think What You Would

Charles Lamb
Think What You Would Have Been Now, If Instead Of Being Fed With Tales And Old Wives' Fables In Childhood, You Had Been Crammed With Geography And Natural History!
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Thinking
Wife
Childhood
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I Am Retired Leisure. I Am To Be Met With In Trim Gardens. I Am Already Come To Be Known By My Vacant Face And Careless Gesture, Perambulating At No Fixed Pace Nor With Any Settled Purpose. I Walk About; Not To And From.
Retirement
Garden
Purpose
Books Which Are No Books.
Book
I Ask And Wish Not To Appear More Beauteous, Rich Or Gay: Lord, Make Me Wiser Every Year, And Better Every Day.
Prayer
Gay
Years
To Be Thankful For What We Grasp Exceeding Our Proportion Is To Add Hypocrisy To Injustice.
Hypocrisy
Being Thankful
Add
English Physicians Kill You, The French Let You Die.
Physicians
Dies
We All Have Some Taste Or Other, Of Too Ancient A Date To Admit Of Our Remembering It Was An Acquired One.
Taste
Remember
Ancient
Newspapers Always Excite Curiosity. No One Ever Puts One Down Without The Feeling Of Disappointment.
Disappointment
Feelings
Curiosity
I Mean Your Borrowers Of Books - Those Mutilators Of Collections, Spoilers Of The Symmetry Of Shelves, And Creators Of Odd Volumes.
Book
Mean
Odd
An Album Is A Garden, Not For Show Planted, But Use; Where Wholesome Herbs Should Grow.
Garden
Albums
Use
In The Negro Countenance You Will Often Meet With Strong Traits Of Benignity. I Have Felt Yearnings Of Tenderness Towards Some Of These Faces.
Strong
Faces
Yearning
Surely It Is A Matter Of Joy, That Your Faith In Jesus Has Been Preserved; The Comforter That Should Relieve You Is Not Far From You. But As You Are A Christian, In The Name Of That Saviour, Who Was Filled With Bitterness And Made Druken With Wormwood, I Conjre You To Have Recourse In Frequent Prayer To 'his God And Your God,' The God Of Mercies, And Father Of All Comfort. Your Poor Father Is, I Hope, Almost Senseless Of The Calamity; The Unconscious Instrument Of Divine Providence Knows It Not, And Your Mother Is In Heaven.
Christian
Mother
Jesus
Ay, Down To The Dust With Them, Slaves As They Are! From This Hour Let The Blood In Their Dastardly Veins, That Shrunk At The First Touch Of Liberty's War, Be Wasted For Tyrants, Or Stagnate In Chains.
War
Dust
Blood
The Beggar Wears All Colors Fearing None.
Fear
Color
Beggar
Shakespeare Is One Of The Last Books One Should Like To Give Up, Perhaps The One Just Before The Dying Service In A Large Prayer Book.
Prayer
Giving Up
Book
When Twilight Dews Are Falling Soft Upon The Rosy Sea, Love, I Watch The Star Whose Beam So Oft Has Lighted Me To Thee, Love.
Love
Stars
Fall
Thus, When The Lamp That Lighted The Traveller At First Goes Out, He Feels Awhile Benighted, And Looks Around In Fear And Doubt. But Soon, The Prospect Clearing, By Cloudless Starlight On He Treads, And Thinks No Lamp So Cheering As That Light Which Heaven Sheds.
Cheer
Fear
Thinking
When Thus The Heart Is In A Vein Of Tender Thought, The Simplest Strain Can Touch It With Peculiar Power.
Heart
Power
Peculiar
A Pun Is Not Bound By The Laws Which Limit Nicer Wit. It Is A Pistol Let Off At The Ear; Not A Feather To Tickle The Intellect.
Law
Ears
Pistols
The Trumpet Does Not More Stun You By Its Loudness, Than A Whisper Teases You By Its Provoking Inaudibility.
Doe
Tease
Trumpets
This Very Night I Am Going To Leave Off Tobacco! Surely There Must Be Some Other World In Which This Unconquerable Purpose Shall Be Realised.
Night
Other Worlds
Smoking
This World Is All A Fleeting Show, For Man's Illusion Given The Smiles Of Joy, The Tears Of Woe, Deceitful Shine, Deceitful Flow, Theres Nothing True But Heaven.
Lying
Men
Shining
For God's Sake (i Never Was More Serious) Don't Make Me Ridiculous Any More By Terming Me Gentle-hearted In Print.
Dog
Gentleman
Sake
For Thy Sake, Tobacco, I Would Do Anything But Die.
Smoking
Sake
Tobacco
A Laxity Pervades The Popular Use Of Words.
Use
Here Cometh April Again, And As Far As I Can See The World Hath More Fools In It Than Ever.
Funny Inspirational
Spring
Fools Day
Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate.
Gambling
Folds
Riddle Of Destiny, Who Can Show What Thy Short Visit Meant, Or Know What Thy Errand Here Below?
Destiny
Errands
Riddle
Since All The Maids Are Good And Lovable, From Whence Come The Bad Wives?
Women
Wife
Maids
A Babe Is Fed With Milk And Praise.
Childhood
Milk
Praise
I Am Determined That My Children Shall Be Brought Up In Their Father's Religion, If They Can Find Out What It Is.
Religious
Children
Father
Oh For A Tongue To Curse The Slave Whose Treason, Like A Deadly Blight, Comes O'er The Councils Of The Brave, And Blasts Them In Their Hour Of Might!
Bravery
Might
Tongue
A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature.
Sweet
Children
Sweetest
I Am Accounted By Some People As A Good Man. How Cheap That Character Is Acquired! Pay Your Debts, Don't Borrow Money, Nor Twist Your Kitten's Neck Off, Nor Disturb A Congregation, Etc., Your Business Is Done. I Know Things Of Myself, Which Would Make Every Friend I Have Fly Me As A Plague Patient.
Business
Character
Men
A Miser Is Sometimes A Grand Personification Of Fear. He Has A Fine Horror Of Poverty; And He Is Not Content To Keep Want From The Door, Or At Arm's Length, But He Places It, By Heaping Wealth Upon Wealth, At A Sublime Distance!
Distance
Doors
Sublime
There Is Absolutely No Such Thing As Reading But By A Candle. We Have Tried The Affectation Of A Book At Noon-day In Gardens, And In Sultry Arbours, But It Was Labor Thrown Away. Those Gay Motes In The Beam Come About You, Hovering And Teasing, Like So Many Coquets, That Will Have You All To Their Self, And Are Jealous Of Your Abstractions. By The Midnight Taper, The Writers Digests His Meditations. By The Same Light We Must Approach To Their Perusal, If We Would Catch The Flame, The Odour.
Book
Reading
Jealous
What Have I Gained By Health? Intolerable Dullness. What By Mode Meals? A Total Blank.
Health
Meals
Blank
The Truant Fancy Was A Wanderer Ever.
Fancy
Wanderers
Oft In The Stilly Night, Ere Slumber's Chain Has Bound Me, Fond Memory Brings The Light Of Other Days Around Me; The Smiles, The Tears, Of Boyhood's Years, The Words Of Love Then Spoken; The Eyes That Shone Now Dimmed And Gone, The Cheerful Hearts Now Broken.
Love
Memories
Heart
Tis Unpleasant To Meet A Beggar. It Is Painful To Deny Him; And, If You Relieve Him, It Is So Much Out Of Your Pocket.
Pockets
Painful
Deny
How Convalescence Shrinks A Man Back To His Pristine Stature! Where Is Now The Space, Which He Occupied So Lately, In His Own, In The Family's Eye?
Eye
Men
Space
Brandy And Water Spoils Two Good Things.
Food
Two
Water
Oh, Breathe Not His Name! Let It Sleep In The Shade, Where Cold And Unhonour'd His Relics Are Laid
Sleep
Names
Shade
A Man Can Never Have Too Much Time To Himself, Nor Too Little To Do. Had I A Little Son, I Would Christen Him Nothing-to-do; He Should Do Nothing. Man, I Verily Believe, Is Out Of His Element As Long As He Is Operative. I Am Altogether For The Life Contemplative.
Believe
Son
Men
We Were Happier When We Were Poorer, But We Were Also Younger.
Poverty
A Garden Was The Primitive Prison, Till Man With Promethean Felicity And Boldness, Luckily Sinned Himself Out Of It.
Men
Garden
Evil
This Is The Magnanimity Of Authorship, When A Writer Having A Topic Presented To Him, Fruitful Of Beauties For Common Minds, Waives His Privilege, And Trusts To The Judicious Few For Understanding The Reason Of His Abstinence.
Understanding
Mind
Topics
The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls The Soul Of Music Shed, Now Hangs As Mute On Tara's Walls As If That Soul Were Fled. So Sleeps The Pride Of Former Days, So Glory's Thrill Is O'er; And Hearts That Once Beat High For Praise Now Feel That Pulse No More.
Music
Wall
Heart
Gluttony And Surfeiting Are No Proper Occasions For Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
Gluttony
Occasions
The Red-letter Days, Now Become, To All Intents And Purposes, Dead-letter Days.
Purpose
Letters
Festivals
Judge Not Man By His Outward Manifestation Of Faith; For Some There Are Who Tremblingly Reach Out Shaking Hands To The Guidance Of Faith; Others Who Stoutly Venture In The Dark Their Human Confidence, Their Leader, Which They Mistake For Faith; Some Whose Hope Totters Upon Crutches; Others Who Stalk Into Futurity Upon Stilts. The Difference Is Chiefly Constitutional With Them.
Faith
Mistake
Dark
I Allow No Hot-beds In The Gardens Of Parnassus.
Garden
Poetry
Simplicity
In Some Respects The Better A Book Is, The Less It Demands From The Binding.
Book
Demand
Binding
Oh, The Pleasure Of Eating My Dinner Alone!
Dining Alone
Dinner
Eating
Mother's Love Grows By Giving.
Family
Mom
Mother
I Could Never Hate Anyone I Knew.
Hate
Cultivate Simplicity Or Rather Should I Say Banish Elaborateness, For Simplicity Springs Spontaneous From The Heart.
Spring
Heart
Simplicity
A Presentation Copy, Reader,-if Haply You Are Yet Innocent Of Such Favours-is A Copy Of A Book Which Does Not Sell, Sent You By The Author.
Book
Doe
Favour
Milton Almost Requires A Solemn Service Of Music To Be Played Before You Enter Upon Him. But He Brings His Music, To Which Who Listen Had Need Bring Docile Thoughts And Purged Ears.
Reading
Needs
Ears
You May Derive Thoughts From Others; Your Way Of Thinking, The Mould In Which Your Thoughts Are Cast, Must Be Your Own.
Thinking
May
Way
The True Poet Dreams Being Awake.
Dream
Poetry
Poet
A Clear Fire, A Clean Hearth, And The Rigour Of The Game.
Fire
Gambling
Games
We Are Nothing; Less Than Nothing, And Dreams. We Are Only What Might Have Been, And Must Wait Upon The Tedious Shores Of Lethe Millions Of Ages Before We Have Existence, And A Name.
Dream
Names
Waiting
How Sickness Enlarges The Dimensions Of A Man's Self To Himself! Supreme Selfishness Is Inculcated Upon Him As His Only Duty.
Health
Men
Self
We Do Not Go To The Theatre Like Our Ancestors, To Escape From The Pressure Of Reality, So Much As To Confirm Our Experience Of It.
Reality
Theatre
Pressure
I Give Thee All,-i Can No More, Though Poor The Off'ring Be; My Heart And Lute Are All The Store That I Can Bring To Thee.
Heart
Giving
Poor
When True Hearts Lie Wither'd And Fond Ones Are Flown, Oh, Who Would Inhabit This Bleak World Alone?
Lying
Heart
World
From A Poor Man, Poor In Time, I Was Suddenly Lifted Up Into A Vast Revenue; I Could See No End Of My Possessions; I Wanted Some Steward, Or Judicious Bailiff, To Manage My Estates In Time For Me.
Men
Poor
Ends
Cultivate Simplicity, Coleridge.
Simplicity
Whose Wit In The Combat, As Gentle As Bright, Ne'er Carried A Heart-stain Away On Its Blade.
Heart
Blades
Stains
Damn The Age. I'll Write For Antiquity.
Writing
Age
Damn
He Has Left Off Reading Altogether, To The Great Improvement Of His Originality.
Book
Reading
Originality
Not If I Know Myself At All.
Knowledge
Knows
Ifs
Not Childhood Alone, But The Young Man Till Thirty, Never Feels Practically That He Is Mortal.
Men
Childhood
Fragility
Not Many Sounds In Life, And I Include All Urban And All Rural Sounds, Exceed In Interest A Knock At The Door.
Doors
Sound
Rural Life
A Poor Relation Is The Most Irrelevant Thing In Nature, A Piece Of Non Pertinent Correspondence, An Odious Approximation, A Haunting Conscience, A Preposterous Shadow, Lengthening In The Noontide Of Our Prosperity.
Family
Shadow
Pieces
Credulity Is The Man's Weakness, But The Child's Strength.
Strength
Children
Men
All, All Are Gone, The Old Familiar Faces.
Faces
Gone
Joyful
We Love To Chew The Cud Of A Foregone Vision; To Collect The Scattered Rays Of A Brighter Phantasm, Or Act Over Again, With Firmer Nerves, The Sadder Nocturnal Tragedies.
Vision
Tragedy
Rays
Half As Sober As A Judge.
Judging
Half
Sober
O Money, Money, How Blindly Thou Hast Been Worshipped, And How Stupidly Abused! Thou Are Health And Liberty And Strength, And He That Has Thee May Rattle His Pockets At The Foul Fiend!
Money
Liberty
Pockets
For With G. D., To Be Absent From The Body Is Sometimes (not To Speak Profanely) To Be Present With The Lord.
Body
Sometimes
Speak
Books Think For Me. I Can Read Anything Which I Call A Book.
Book
Thinking
I Can Read
There Is Not In The Wide World A Valley So Sweet As That Vale In Whose Bosom The Bright Waters Meet.
Sweet
Water
Valleys
Presents, I Often Say, Endear Absents.
Tis The Privilege Of Friendship To Talk Nonsense, And To Have Nonsense Respected.
Friendship
Inspiring
Funny Best Friend
Philanthropy, Like Charity, Must Begin At Home.
Home
Charity
Philanthropy
We Are Nothing; Less Than Nothing, And Dreams. We Are Only What Might Have Been.
Dream
Might
Lethe
Boys Are Capital Fellows In Their Own Way, Among Their Mates; But They Are Unwholesome Companions For Grown People.
Boys
People
Way
The Greatest Pleasure I Know, Is To Do A Good Action By Stealth, And To Have It Found Out By Accident.
Character
Deeds Done
Charity
It Is With Some Violation Of The Imagination That We Conceive Of An Actor Belonging To The Relations Of Private Life, So Closely Do We Identify These Persons In Our Mind With The Characters Which They Assume Upon The Stage.
Character
Imagination
Mind
Summer, As My Friend Coleridge Waggishly Writes, Has Set In With Its Usual Severity.
Summer
Writing
Usual
Science Has Succeeded To Poetry, No Less In The Little Walks Of Children Than With Men. Is There No Possibility Of Averting This Sore Evil?
Children
Science
Men
A Man Cannot Have A Pure Mind Who Refuses Apple Dumplings.
Men
Apples
Mind
The Measure Of Choosing Well, Is, Whether A Man Likes And Finds Good In What He Has Chosen.
Men
Likes
Wells
Satire Does Not Look Pretty Upon A Tombstone.
Tombstone
Doe
Looks
I Own That I Am Disposed To Say Grace Upon Twenty Other Occasions In The Course Of The Day Besides My Dinner. I Want A Form For Setting Out Upon A Pleasant Walk, For A Moonlight Ramble, For A Friendly Meeting, Or A Solved Problem. Why Have We None For Books, These Spiritual Repasts-a Grace Before Milton-a Grace Before Shakespeare-a Devotional Exercise Proper To Be Said Before Reading The Fairie Queene?
Spiritual
Book
Reading
In Every Thing That Relates To Science, I Am A Whole Encyclopaedia Behind The Rest Of The World.
Science
World
Behinds
Man, While He Loves, Is Never Quite Depraved.
Love
Men
Never Quit
The Human Species, According To The Best Theory I Can Form Of It, Is Composed Of Two Distinct Races, The Men Who Borrow And The Men Who Lend.
Men
Race
Two
You Look Wise, Pray Correct That Error.
Wise
Errors
Looks
Men Marry For Fortune, And Sometimes To Please Their Fancy; But, Much Oftener Than Is Suspected, They Consider What The World Will Say Of It--how Such A Woman In Their Friends' Eyes Will Look At The Head Of A Table. Hence We See So Many Insipid Beauties Made Wives Of, That Could Not Have Struck The Particular Fancy Of Any Man That Had Any Fancy At All.
Eye
Men
Wife
It Is Good To Love The Unknown.
Love
Our Spirits Grow Gray Before Our Hairs.
Hair
Enthusiasm
Spirit
Opinions Is A Species Of Property - I Am Always Desirous Of Sharing.
Opinion
Species
Property
The English Writer, Charles Lamb, Said One Day: "i Hate That Man." "but You Don't Know Him." "of Course, I Don't," Said Lamb. "do You Think I Could Possibly Hate A Man I Know?"
Hate
Men
Thinking
Those Evening Bells! Those Evening Bells! How Many A Tale Their Music Tells Of Youth And Home, And That Sweet Time When Last I Heard Their Soothing Chime!
Sweet
Time
Home
I Even Think That, Sentimentally, I Am Disposed To Harmony. But Organically I Am Incapable Of A Tune.
Music
Thinking
Tunes
How Sickness Enlarges The Dimension Of A Man’s Self To Himself!
Cancer
Men
Self
No One Ever Regarded The First Of January With Indifference.
New Year
Time
Years
When I Am Not Walking, I Am Reading. I Cannot Sit And Think.
Reading
Thinking
Walking
No Woman Dresses Below Herself From Mere Caprice.
Dresses
Caprice
Mere
Trample Not On The Ruins Of A Man.
Men
Ruins
There Are Like To Be Short Graces Where The Devil Plays Host.
Play
Grace
Devil
I Conceive Disgust At These Impertinent And Misbecoming Familiarities Inscribed Upon Your Ordinary Tombstone.
Tombstone
Ordinary
Disgusting
Your Absence Of Mind We Have Borne, Till Your Presence Of Body Came To Be Called In Question By It.
Mind
Body
Absence
Be Not Frightened At The Hard Words "imposition," "imposture;" Give And Ask No Questions. Cast Thy Bread Upon The Waters. Some Have, Unawares, Entertained Angels.
Angel
Giving
Water
We Grow Gray In Our Spirit Long Before We Grow Gray In Our Hair.
Hair
Long
Age
The Cheerful Sabbath Bells, Wherever Heard, Strike Pleasant On The Sense, Most Like The Voice Of One, Who From The Far-off Hills Proclaims Tidings Of Good To Zion.
Zion
Voice
Cheerful
I Am In Love With The Green Earth.
Nature
Garden
Earth
We Gain Nothing By Being With Such As Ourselves. We Encourage One Another In Mediocrity. I Am Always Longing To Be With Men More Excellent Than Myself.
Men
Mediocrity
Association
Time Partially Reconciles Us To Anything. I Gradually Became Content--doggedly Contented, As Wild Animals In Cages.
Animal
Cages
Wild Animal
Alas! How Light A Cause May Move Dissension Between Hearts That Love! Hearts That The World In Vain Had Tried, And Sorrow But More Closely Tied; That Stood The Storm When Waves Were Rough, Yet In A Sunny Hour Fall Off, Like Ships That Have Gone Down At Sea When Heaven Was All Tranquillity.
Love
Moving
Fall
So Near Are The Boundaries Of Panegyric And Invective, That A Worn-out Sinner Is Sometimes Found To Make The Best Declaimer Against Sin. The Same High-seasoned Descriptions Which In His Unregenerate State Served To Inflame His Appetites, In His New Province Of A Moralist Will Serve Him (a Little Turned) To Expose The Enormity Of Those Appetites In Other Men.
Men
Littles
Sometimes
No One Ever Regarded The First Of January With Indifference. It Is That From Which All Date Their Time, And Count Upon What Is Left. It Is The Nativity Of Our Common Adam.
Marriage
New Year
Years
Rags, Which Are The Reproach Of Poverty, Are The Beggar's Robes, And Graceful Insignia Of His Profession, His Tenure, His Full Dress, The Suit In Which He Is Expected To Show Himself In Public.
Rags
Dresses
Poverty
A Child's Nature Is Too Serious A Thing To Admit Of Its Being Regarded As A Mere Appendage To Another Being.
Children
Parent
Serious
Of All Sound Of All Bells... Most Solemn And Touching Is The Peal Which Rings Out The Old Year.
New Year
Holiday
Years
Anything Awful Makes Me Laugh. I Misbehaved Once At A Funeral.
Laughing
Funeral
Awful
Is The World All Grown Up? Is Childhood Dead? Or Is There Not In The Bosom Of The Wisest And The Best Some Of The Child's Heart Left, To Respond To Its Earliest Enchantments?
Children
Heart
Childhood
If Thou Would'st Have Me Sing And Play As Once I Play'd And Sung, First Take This Time-worn Lute Away, And Bring One Freshly Strung.
Time
Play
Firsts
I Conceive Disgust At Those Impertinent And Misbecoming Familiarities, Inscribed Upon Your Ordinary Tombstones. Every Dead Man Must Take Upon Himself To Be Lecturing Me With His Odious Truism, That "such As He Now Is, I Must Shortly Be." Not So Shortly, Friend, Perhaps, As Thou Imaginest. In The Meantime I Am Alive. I Move About. I Am Worth Twenty Of Thee. Know Thy Betters!
Tombstone
Moving
Men
We Encourage One Another In Mediocrity.
Mediocrity
Some People Have A Knack Of Putting Upon You Gifts Of No Real Value, To Engage You To Substantial Gratitude. We Thank Them For Nothing.
Christmas
Thank You
Gratitude
The Man Must Have A Rare Recipe For Melancholy, Who Can Be Dull In Fleet Street.
Men
Recipes
Dull
Coleridge Declares That A Man Cannot Have A Good Conscience Who Refuses Apple Dumplings, And I Confess That I Am Of The Same Opinion.
Men
Apples
Opinion
Fly Not Yet; 't Is Just The Hour When Pleasure, Like The Midnight Flower That Scorns The Eye Of Vulgar Light, Begins To Bloom For Sons Of Night And Maids Who Love The Moon.
Love
Flower
Eye
Every Commonplace Or Trite Observation Is Not A Truism.
Observation
Truism
Commonplace
Farewell, Farewell To Thee, Araby's Daughter! Thus Warbled A Peri Beneath The Dark Sea.
Daughter
Farewell
Dark
The Drinking Man Is Never Less Himself Than During His Sober Intervals.
Drinking
Men
Sober
Ceremony Is An Invention To Take Off The Uneasy Feeling Which We Derive From Knowing Ourselves To Be Less The Object Of Love And Esteem With A Fellow-creature Than Some Other Person Is. It Endeavours To Make Up, By Superior Attentions In Little Points, For That Invidious Preference Which It Is Forced To Deny In The Greater.
Knowing
Feelings
Attention
My Only Books Were Woman's Looks,- And Folly 's All They 've Taught Me.
Book
Looks
Taught
Can We Ring The Bells Backward? Can We Unlearn The Arts That Pretend To Civilize, And Then Burn The World? There Is A March Of Science; But Who Shall Beat The Drums For Its Retreat?
Art
Science
World
May My Last Breath Be Drawn Through A Pipe, And Exhaled In A Jest.
Smoking
May
Lasts
Dehortations From The Use Of Strong Liquors Have Been The Favourite Topic Of Sober Declaimers In All Ages, And Have Been Received With Abundance Of Applause By Water-drinking Critics. But With The Patient Himself, The Man That Is To Be Cured, Unfortunately Their Sound Has Seldom Prevailed.
Strong
Drinking
Men
Antiquity! Thou Wondrous Charm, What Art Thou? That Being Nothing Art Everything? When Thou Wert, Thou Wert Not Antiquity - Then Thou Wert Nothing, But Hadst A Remoter Antiquity, As Thou Calledst It, To Look Back To With Blind Veneration; Thou Thyself Being To Thyself Flat, Jejune, Modern! What Mystery Lurks In This Retroversion? Or What Half Januses Are We, That Cannot Look Forward With The Same Idolatry With Which We For Ever Revert! The Mighty Future Is As Nothing, Being Everything! The Past Is Everything, Being Nothing!
Art
Past
Looks
If Dirt Were Trumps, What Hands You Would Hold!
Hands
Dirt
Trump
The Only True Time Which A Man Can Properly Call His Own, Is That Which He Has All To Himself; The Rest, Though In Some Sense He May Be Said To Live It, Is Other People's Time, Not His.
Time
Men
People
I Have Passed All My Days In London, Until I Have Formed As Many And Intense Local Attachments As Any Of You Mountaineers Can Have Done With Dead Nature.
Attachment
Done
London
I Counsel Thee, Shut Not Thy Heart, Nor Thy Library.
Heart
Library
Thee
I Have Had Playmates, I Have Had Companions; In My Days Of Childhood, In My Joyful School Days - All, All Are Gone, The Old Familiar Faces.
School
Childhood
Gone
Shut Not Thy Purse-strings Always Against Painted Distress.
Charity
Purses
Philanthropy
He Might Have Proved A Useful Adjunct, If Not An Ornament To Society.
Society
Ornaments
Might
Let Us Live For The Beauty Of Our Own Reality.
Beauty
Reality
Man Is A Gaming Animal.
Animal
Men
Gambling
The Muses Were Dumb While Apollo Lectured.
Silence
Dumb
Apollo
To Pile Up Honey Upon Sugar, And Sugar Upon Honey, To An Interminable Tedious Sweetness.
Sugar
Honey
Sweetness
He Who Hath Not A Dram Of Folly In His Mixture Hath Pounds Of Much Worse Matter In His Composition.
Perfection
Mixtures
Matter
Dream Not ... Of Having Tasted All The Grandeur And Wildness Of Fancy Till You Have Gone Mad!
Dream
Mad
Gone
He Is No Lawyer Who Cannot Take Two Sides.
Law
Two Sides
Feet
As Half In Shade And Half In Sun This World Along Its Path Advances, May That Side The Sun 's Upon Be All That E'er Shall Meet Thy Glances!
Half
World
May
I Know That A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature?but The Prettier The Kind Of A Thing Is, The More Desirable It Is That It Should Be Pretty Of Its Kind.
Sweet
Children
Kind
A Poor Relation—is The Most Irrelevant Thing In Nature.
Family
Irrelevance
Poor
In The Indications Of Female Poverty There Can Be No Disguise. No Woman Dresses Below Herself From Caprice.
Dresses
Female
Poverty
How Often You Are Irresistibly Drawn To A Plain, Unassuming Woman, Whose Soft Silvery Tones Render Her Positively Attractive! In The Social Circle, How Pleasant It Is To Hear A Woman Talk In That Low Key Which Always Characterizes The True Lady. In The Sanctuary Of Home, How Such A Voice Soothes The Fretful Child And Cheers The Weary Husband!
Cheer
Children
Husband
I Hate The Man Who Eats Without Knowing What He’s Eating. I Doubt His Taste In More Important Things.
Hate
Men
Knowing
Lawyers, I Suppose, Were Children Once.
Children
Law
Political
(the Pig) Hath A Fair Sepulchre In The Grateful Stomach Of The Judicious Epicure - And For Such A Tomb Might Be Content To Die.
Grateful
Pigs
Might
Were I Diogenes, I Would Not Move Out Of A Kilderkin Into A Hogshead, Though The First Had Had Nothing But Small Beer In It, And The Second Reeked Claret.
Moving
Home
Beer
No Work Is Worse Than Overwork; The Mind Preys On Itself,--the Most Unwholesome Of Food.
Work
Mind
Prey
To Be Sick Is To Enjoy Monarchical Prerogatives.
Sick
Enjoy
Prerogative
Dr Parr...asked Him, How He Had Acquired His Power Of Smoking At Such A Rate? Lamb Replied, 'i Toiled After It, Sir, As Some Men Toil After Virtue.'
Men
Smoking
Toil
If There Be A Regal Solitude, It Is A Sick-bed. How The Patient Lords It There!
Sick
Solitude
Bed
I Know That A Sweet Child Is The Sweetest Thing In Nature, Not Even Excepting The Delicate Creatures Which Bear Them.
Sweet
Children
Bears
My Theory Is To Enjoy Life, But My Practice Is Against It.
Practice
Enjoy Life
Theory
The Good Things Of Life Are Not To Be Had Singly, But Come To Us With A Mixture; Like A School-boy's Holiday, With A Task Affixed To The Tail Of It.
School
Holiday
Boys
Take All The Pleasures Of All The Spheres, And Multiply Each Through Endless Years,- One Minute Of Heaven Is Worth Them All.
Years
Heaven
Spheres
Sassafras Wood Boiled Down To A Kind Of Tea, And Tempered With An Infusion Of Milk And Sugar Hath To Some A Delicacy Beyond The China Luxury.
Luxury
Tea
Delicacy
Beholding Heaven, And Feeling Hell.
Heaven
Feelings
Hell
Our Appetites, Of One Or Another Kind, Are Excellent Spurs To Our Reason, Which Might Otherwise But Feebly Set About The Great Ends Of Preserving And Continuing The Species.
Spurs
Might
Kind
It Is Good To Have Friends At Court.
Friends
Court
Man Is A Gaming Animal. He Must Always Be Trying To Get The Better In Something Or Other.
Men
Animal
Gambling
I Love To Lose Myself In Other Men's Minds.... Books Think For Me.
Book
Men
Thinking
Reader, If You Are Gifted With Nerves Like Mine, Aspire To Any Character But That Of A Wit.
Character
Nerves
Wit
I Hate A Man Who Swallows [his Food], Affecting Not To Know What He Is Eating. I Suspect His Taste In Higher Matters.
Hate
Men
Matter
The Pilasters Reaching Down Were Adorned With A Glistering Substance (i Know Not What) Under Glass (as It Seemed), Resembling - A Homely Fancy, But I Judged It To Be Sugar-candy; Yet To My Raised Imagination, Divested Of Its Homelier Qualities, It Appeared A Glorified Candy.
Glasses
Imagination
Quality
Merit, God Knows, Is Very Little Rewarded.
Littles
Merit
God Knows
I Have Something More To Do Than To Feel.
Feels
New Year's Day Is Every Man's Birthday.
Birthday
New Year
Holiday
The World Meets Nobody Half Way.
Half
World
Way
There Is A Pleasure In Affecting Affectation.
Pleasure
While Childhood, And While Dreams, Producing Childhood, Shall Be Left, Imagination Shall Not Have Spread Her Holy Wings Totally To Fly The Earth.
Dream
Children
Wings
I Grow Ominously Tired Of Official Confinement. Thirty Years Have I Served The Philistines, And My Neck Is Not Subdued To The Yoke. You Don't Know How Wearisome It Is To Breathe The Air Of Four Pent Walls Without Relief Day After Day, All The Golden Hours Of The Day Between Ten And Four Without Ease Or Interposition ... These Pestilential Clerk-faces Always In One's Dish. O For A Few Years Between The Grave And The Desk!
Wall
Tired
Air
Cards Are War, In Disguise Of A Sport.
Sports
War
Games
Friend Of My Bosom, Thou More Than A Brother, Why Wert Thou Not Born In My Father's Dwelling?
Cousin
Brother
Father
And The Tear That We Shed, Though In Secret It Rolls, Shall Long Keep His Memory Green In Our Souls.
Memories
Long
Soul
Wert Thou All That I Wish Thee, Great, Glorious, And Free, First Flower Of The Earth And First Gem Of The Sea.
Flower
Sea
Wish
All People Have Their Blind Side-their Superstitions.
People
Superstitions
Sides
Is It A Stale Remark To Say That I Have Constantly Found The Interest Excited At A Playhouse To Bear An Exact Inverse Proportion To The Price Paid For Admission?
Acting
Bears
Excited
I Like You And Your Book, Ingenious Hone! In Whose Capacious All-embracing Leaves The Very Marrow Of Tradition 's Shown; And All That History, Much That Fiction Weaves.
I Like You
Book
Historical
May Be The Truth Is, That One Pipe Is Wholesome, Two Pipes Toothsome, Three Pipes Noisome, Four Pipes Fulsome, Five Pipes Quarrelsome; And That's The Some On't.
Two
Smoking
Three
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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