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1. Turn All Care Out Of Your Head As Soon As You Mount The Chaise. 2. Do Not Think About Frugality: Your Health Is Worth More Than It Can Cost. 3. Do Not Continue Any Day's Journey To Fatigue. 4. Take Now And Then A Day's Rest. 5. Get A Smart Seasickness If You Can. 6. Cast Away All Anxiety, And Keep Your Mind Easy. This Last Direction Is The Principal; With An Unquiet Mind Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physic Can Be Of Much Use.

-Samuel Johnson

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1. Turn All Care

Samuel Johnson

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1. Turn All Care Out Of Your Head As Soon As You Mount The Chaise. 2. Do Not Think About Frugality: Your Health Is Worth More Than It Can Cost. 3. Do Not Continue Any Day's Journey To Fatigue. 4. Take Now And Then A Day's Rest. 5. Get A Smart Seasickness If You Can. 6. Cast Away All Anxiety, And Keep Your Mind Easy. This Last Direction Is The Principal; With An Unquiet Mind Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physic Can Be Of Much Use.

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

All Violation Of Established Practice Implies In Its Own Nature A Rejection Of The Common Opinion, A Defiance Of Common Censure, And An Appeal From General Laws To Private Judgment: He, Therefore, Who Differs Form Others Without Apparent Advantage, Ought Not To Be Angry If His Arrogance Is Punished With Ridicule; If Those Whose Example He Superciliously Overlooks, Point Him Out To Derision, And Hoot Him Back Again Into The Common Road.

We Owe To Memory Not Only The Increase Of Our Knowledge, And Our Progress In Rational Inquiries, But Many Other Intellectual Pleasures

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

Integrity Without Knowledge Is Weak And Useless, And Knowledge Without Integrity Is Dangerous And Dreadful.

Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.

I Do Not Wonder That, Where The Monastick Life Is Permitted, Every Order Finds Votaries, And Every Monastery Inhabitants. Men Will Submit To Any Rule, By Which They May Be Exempted From The Tyranny Of Caprice And Of Chance. They Are Glad To Supply By External Authority Their Own Want Of Constancy And Resolution, And Court The Government Of Others, When Long Experience Has Convinced Them Of Their Own Inability To Govern Themselves.

If One Was To Think Constantly Of Death, The Business Of Life Would Stand Still

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

To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.

Wisdom And Virtue Are By No Means Sufficient, Without The Supplemental Laws Of Good-breeding, To Secure Freedom From Degenerating Into Rudeness, Or Self Esteem From Swelling Into Insolence. A Thousand Incivilities May Be Committed, And A Thousand Offices Neglected. Without Any Remorse Of Conscience, Or Reproach From Reason.

Reflect That Life, Like Every Other Blessing, Derives Its Value From Its Use Alone.

All Industry Must Be Excited By Hope.

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

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

London! The Needy Villain's General Home, The Common Sewer Of Paris And Of Rome! With Eager Thirst, By Folly Or By Fate, Sucks In The Dregs Of Each Corrupted State.

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.

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

No Man Hates Him At Whom He Can Laugh.

But It Is Evident, That These Bursts Of Universal Distress Are More Dreaded Than Felt; Thousands And Ten Thousands Flourish In Youth, And Wither In Age, Without The Knowledge Of Any Other Than Domestic Evils, And Share The Same Pleasures And Vexations, Whether Their Kings Are Mild Or Cruel, Whether The Armies Of Their Country Pursue Their Enemies Or Retreat Before Them.

Contempt Is A Kind Of Gangrene Which, If It Seizes One Part Of A Character, Corrupts All The Rest By Degrees.

Attack Is The Reaction. I Never Think I Have Hit Hard Unless It Rebounds.

Every Man Has Something To Do Which He Neglects, Every Man Has Faults To Conquer Which He Delays To Combat.

To Get A Name Can Happen But To Few. A Name, Even In The Most Commercial Nation, Is One Of The Few Things Which Cannot Be Bought . It Is The Free Gift Of Mankind, Which Must Be Deserved Before It Will Be Granted, And Is At Last Unwillingly Bestowed.

Politics Are Now Nothing More Than Means Of Rising In The World. With This Sole View Do Men Engage In Politics, And Their Whole Conduct Proceeds Upon It.

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

The Accidental Prescriptions Of Authority, When Time Has Procured Them Veneration, Are Often Confounded With The Laws Of Nature, And Those Rules Are Supposed Coeval With Reason, Of Which The First Rise Cannot Be Discovered.

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

The Friendship Which Is To Be Practised Or Expected By Common Mortals, Must Take Its Rise From Mutual Pleasure, And Must End When The Power Ceases Of Delighting Each Other.

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

Every Class Of Society Has Its Cant Of Lamentation, Which Is Understood Or Regarded By None But Themselves; And Every Part Of Life Has Its Uneasiness, Which Those Who Do Not Feel Them Will Not Commiserate. An Event Which Spreads Distraction Over Half The Commercial World, Assembles The Trading Companies In Councils And Committees, And Shakes The Nerves Of A Thousand Stockjobbers, Is Read By The Landlord And The Farmer With Frigid Indifference.

The Most Fatal Disease Of Friendship Is Gradual Decay, Or Dislike Hourly Increased By Causes Too Slender For Complaint, And Too Numerous For Removal.

He That Is Much Flattered Soon Learns To Flatter Himself.

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.

To A Poet Nothing Can Be Useless.

The Drama's Laws The Drama's Patrons Give. For We That Live To Please Must Please To Live.

Faults And Defects Every Work Of Man Must Have.

Luxury, So Far As It Reaches The People, Will Do Good To The Race Of People; It Will Strengthen And Multiply Them. Sir, No Nation Was Ever Hurt By Luxury; For, As I Said Before; It Can Reach But A Very Few.

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

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak

It Is Not Easy To Surround Life With Any Circumstances In Which Youth Will Not Be Delightful.

The Majority Have No Other Reason For Their Opinions Than That They Are The Fashion.

We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.

No Man Will Be A Sailor Who Has Contrivance Enough To Get Himself Into A Jail; For Being In A Ship Is Being In A Jail, With The Chance Of Being Drowned... A Man In A Jail Has More Room, Better Food, And Commonly Better Company.

A Small Country Town Is Not The Place In Which One Would Choose To Quarrel With A Wife; Every Human Being In Such Places Is A Spy.

He That Accepts Protection, Stipulates Obedience. We Have Always Protected The Americans; We May Therefore Subject Them To Government.

Occupation Alone Is Happiness.

Falsehoods Of Convenience Or Vanity, Falsehoods From Which No Evil Immediately Visible Ensues, Except The General Degradation Of Human Testimony, Are Very Lightly Uttered, And Once Uttered Are Sullenly Supported.

Every Government Is Perpetually Degenerating Towards Corruption, From Which It Must Be Rescued At Certain Periods By The Resuscitation Of Its First Principles, And The Re-establishment Of Its Original Constitution.

Of All The Griefs That Harass The Distress'd, Sure The Most Bitter Is A Scornful Jest; Fate Never Wounds More Deep The Generous Heart, Than When A Blockhead's Insult Points The Dart.

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

The Fountain Of Contentment Must Spring Up In The Mind.

To Those Who Have Lived Long Together, Everything Heard And Everything Seen Recalls Some Pleasure Communicated, Some Benefit Conferred, Some Petty Quarrel Or Some Slight Endearment. Esteem Of Great Powers, Or Amiable Qualities Newly Discovered May Embroider A Day Or A Week, But A Friendship Of Twenty Years Is Interwoven With The Texture Of Life.

Nature Never Gives Everything At Once.

The Stream Of Time, Which Is Continually Washing The Dissoluble Fabrics Of Other Poets, Passes Without Injury By The Adamant Of Shakespeare.

I Am Not So Lost In Lexicography As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven.

In Life's Last Scene What Prodigies Surprise, Fears Of The Brave, And Follies Of The Wise! From Marlborough's Eyes The Streams Of Dotage Flow, And Swift Expires A Driveller And A Show.

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

No Evil Is Insupportable But That Which Is Accompanied With Consciousness Of Wrong.

Time Quickly Puts An End To Artificial And Accidental Fame

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

If You Are Idle, Be Not Solitary; If You Are Solitary Be Not Idle.

Guilt Once Harbored In The Conscious Breast, Intimidates The Brave, Degrades The Great.

The Advice That Is Wanted Is Commonly Not Welcome And That Which Is Not Wanted, Evidently An Effrontery.

A Merchant May, Perhaps, Be A Man Of An Enlarged Mind, But There Is Nothing In Trade Connected With An Enlarged Mind.

The True Art Of Memory Is The Art Of Attention.

Read Over Your Compositions And Whenever You Meet With A Passage Which You Think Is Particularly Fine, Strike It Out.

No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance, Or To Extinguish The Desire Of Fond Endearments And Tender Officiousness; And, Therefore, No One Should Think It Unnecessary To Learn Those Arts By Which Friendship May Be Gained.

He Who Attempts To Do All Will Waste His Life In Doing Little.

All Argument Is Against It; But All Belief Is For It.

Their Origin Is Commonly Unknown; For The Practice Often Continues When The Cause Has Ceased, And Concerning Superstitious Ceremonies It Is In Vain To Conjecture; For What Reason Did Not Dictate, Reason Cannot Explain.

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

Life Of Ages, Richly Poured, Love Of God Unspent And Free, Flowing In The Prophet's Word And The People's Liberty! Never Was To Chosen Race That Unstinted Tide Confined; Thine Is Every Time And Place, Fountain Sweet Of Heart And Mind!

A Man Who Has Not Been In Italy, Is Always Conscious Of An Inferiority.

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

A Man, Doubtful Of His Dinner, Or Trembling At A Creditor, Is Not Much Disposed To Abstracted Meditation, Or Remote Enquiries.

The Process Is The Reality.

The Love Of Life Is Necessary To The Vigorous Prosecution Of Any Undertaking

He That Fails In His Endeavors After Wealth Or Power Will Not Long Retain Either Honesty Or Courage.

Happiness Is Enjoyed Only In Proportion As It Is Known; And Such Is The State Or Folly Of Man, That It Is Known Only By Experience Of Its Contrary.

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

Ye Who Listen With Credulity To The Whispers Of Fancy, And Pursue With Eagerness The Phantoms Of Hope; Who Expect That Age Will Perform The Promises Of Youth, And That The Deficiencies Of The Present Day Will Be Supplied By The Morrow, - Attend To The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia.

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

Sir, You Must Not Neglect Doing A Thing Immediately Good From Fear Of Remote Evil; - From Fear Of Its Being Abused.

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.

The Mathematicians Are Well Acquainted With The Difference Between Pure Science, Which Has Only To Do With Ideas, And The Application Of Its Laws To The Use Of Life, In Which They Are Constrained To Submit To The Imperfections Of Matter And The Influence Of Accidents.

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

Sorrow Is The Mere Rust Of The Soul. Activity Will Cleanse And Brighten It.

No People Can Be Great Who Have Ceased To Be Virtuous.

He Was So Generally Civil, That Nobody Thanked Him For It.

Change Is Not Made Without Inconvenience.

Project Management

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

Idleness And Timidity Often Despair Without Being Overcome, And Forbear Attempts For Fear Of Being Defeated; And We May Promote The Invigoration Of Faint Endeavors, By Showing What Has Already Been Performed.

Babies Do Not Want To Hear About Babies; They Like To Be Told Of Giants And Castles.

Riches Seldom Make Their Owners Rich.

Prudence Is An Attitude That Keeps Life Safe, But Does Not Often Make It Happy.

Ladies, Stock And Tend Your Hive, Trifle Not At Thirty-five; For, Howe'er We Boast And Strive, Life Declines From Thirty-five; He That Ever Hopes To Thrive Must Begin By Thirty-five.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

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

Had I Learned To Fiddle, I Should Have Done Nothing Else.

The Insolence Of Wealth Will Creep Out.

That There Is Something In Advice Very Useful And Salutary, Seems To Be Equally Confessed On All Hands; Since Even Those That Reject It, Allow For The Most Part That Rejection To Be Wrong, But Charge The Fault Upon The Unskilful Manner In Which It Is Given; They Admit The Efficacy Of The Medicine, But Abhor The Nauseousness Of The Vehicle.

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

He Who Endeavors To Please Must Appear Pleased.

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

The Finest Landscape In The World Is Improved By A Good Inn In The Foreground.

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.

Social Sorrow Loses Half Its Pain.

Our Senses, Our Appetite, And Our Passions Are Our Lawful And Faithful Guides In Things That Relate Solely To This Life.

The Love Of Fame Is A Passion Natural And Universal, Which No Man, However High Or Mean, However Wise Or Ignorant, Was Yet Able To Despise.

It Is Natural For Every Man Uninstructed To Murmur At His Condition, Because, In The General Infelicity Of Life, He Feels His Own Miseries Without Knowing That They Are Common To All The Rest Of The Species; And, Therefore, Though He Will Not Be Less Sensible Of Pain By Being Told That Others Are Equally Tormented, He Will At Least Be Freed From The Temptation Of Seeking, By Perpetual Changes, That Ease Which Is No Where To Be Found, And Though His Diseases Still Continue, He Escapes The Hazard Of Exasperating It By Remedies.

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

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.

Courage Is The Greatest Of All Virtues, Because If You Haven't Courage, You May Not Have An Opportunity To Use Any Of The Others.

Deceit And Falsehood, Whatever Conveniences They May For A Time Promise Or Produce, Are, In The Sum Of Life, Obstacles To Happiness. Those Who Profit By The Cheat Distrust The Deceiver; And The Act By Which Kindness Was Sought Puts An End To Confidence.

Pendantry Is The Unseasonable Ostentation Of Learning. It May Be Discovered Either In The Choice Of A Subject Or In The Manner D Treating It.

The True Effect Of Genuine Politeness Seems To Be Rather Ease Than Pleasure.

I Would Advise You, Sir, To Study Algebra, If You Are Not An Adept Already In It: Your Head Would Get Less Muddy, And You Will Leave Off Tormenting Your Neighbours About Paper And Packthread, While We All Live Together In A World That Is Bursting With Sin And Sorrow.

All Knowledge Is Of Itself Of Some Value. There Is Nothing So Minute Or Inconsiderable, That I Would Not Rather Know It Than Not. In The Same Manner, All Power, Of Whatever Sort, Is Of Itself Desirable. A Man Would Not Submit To Learn To Hem A Ruffle, Of His Wife, Or His Wife's Maid; But If A Mere Wish Could Attain It, He Would Rather Wish To Be Able To Hem A Ruffle.

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.

Those Who Have No Power To Judge Of Past Times But By Their Own, Should Always Doubt Their Conclusions

Who Left Nothing Of Authorship Untouched, And Touched Nothing Which He Did Not Adorn. [lat., Qui Nullum Fere Scribendi Genus Non Tetigit; Nullum Quod Tetigit Non Ornavit.]

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.

It Is, However, Not Necessary, That A Man Should Forbear To Write, Till He Has Discovered Some Truth Unknown Before; He May Be Sufficiently Useful, By Only Diversifying The Surface Of Knowledge, And Luring The Mind By A New Appearance To A Second View Of Those Beauties Which It Had Passed Over Inattentively Before.

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

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment.

They Whose Activity Of Imagination Is Often Shifting The Scenes Of Expectation, Are Frequently Subject To Such Sallies Of Caprice As Make All Their Actions Fortuitous, Destroy The Value Of Their Friendship, Obstruct The Efficacy Of Their Virtues, And Set Them Below The Meanest Of Those Who Persist In Their Resolutions, Execute What They Design, And Perform What They Have Promised.

He Who Would Have Fine Guests, Let Him Have A Fine Wife.

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

Patriotism Is The Last Refuge Of The Scoundrel.

They Make A Rout About Universal Liberty, Without Considering That All That Is To Be Valued, Or Indeed Can Be Enjoyed By Individuals, Is Private Liberty.

I Know Not, Madam, That You Have A Right, Upon Moral Principles, To Make Your Readers Suffer So Much.

Marriage Is The Best State For Man In General, And Every Man Is A Worst Man In Proportion To The Level He Is Unfit For Marriage.

If A Man Has A Science To Learn He Must Regularly And Resolutely Advance.

Tears Are Often To Be Found Where There Is Little Sorrow, And The Deepest Sorrow Without Any Tears.

All Severity That Does Not Tend To Increase Good, Or Prevent Evil, Is Idle.

Life Is Not Long, And Too Much Of It Must Not Pass In Idle Deliberation How It Shall Be Spent.

Other Things May Be Seized By Might, Or Purchased With Money, But Knowledge Is To Be Gained Only By Study, And Study To Be Prosecuted Only In Retirement.

Whatever Professes To Benefit By Pleasing Must Please At Once. The Pleasures Of The Mind Imply Something Sudden And Unexpected; That Which Elevates Must Always Surprise.

As To The Christian Religion, Besides The Strong Evidence Which We Have For It, There Is A Balance In Its Favor From The Number Of Great Men Who Have Been Convinced Of Its Truth After A Serious Consideration Of The Question. Grotius Was An Acute Man, A Lawyer, A Man Accustomed To Examine Evidence, And He Was Convinced. Grotius Was Not A Recluse, But A Man Of The World, Who Certainly Had No Bias On The Side Of Religion. Sir Isaac Newton Set Out An Infidel, And Came To Be A Very Firm Believer.

One Of The Amusements Of Idleness Is Reading Without Fatigue Of Close Attention; And The World, Therefore, Swarms With Writers Whose Wish Is Not To Be Studied, But To Be Read.

Allow Children To Be Happy In Their Own Way, For What Better Way Will They Find?

We Consider Ourselves As Defective In Memory, Either Because We Remember Less Than We Desire, Or Less Than We Suppose Others To Remember.

He Who Is Extravagant Will Quickly Become Poor; And Poverty Will Enforce Dependence, And Invite Corruption.

The Pleasure Of Expecting Enjoyment Is Often Greater Than That Of Obtaining It, And The Completion Of Almost Every Wish Is Found A Disappointment.

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.

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.

Some Claim A Place In The List Of Patriots, By An Acrimonious And Unremitting Opposition To The Court. This Mark Is By No Means Infallible. Patriotism Is Not Necessarily Included In Rebellion. A Man May Hate His King, Yet Not Love His Country.

Being Reproached For Giving To An Unworthy Person, Aristotle Said, I Did Not Give It To The Man, But To Humanity.

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

I Would Not Give Half A Guinea To Live Under One Form Of Government Rather Than Another. It Is Of No Moment To The Happiness Of An Individual.

The Purpose Of A Writer Is To Be Read, And The Criticism Which Would Destroy The Power Of Pleasing Must Be Blown Aside

He Who Sees Different Ways To The Same End, Will, Unless He Watches Carefully Over His Own Conduct, Lay Out Too Much Of His Attention Upon The Comparison Of Probabilities And The Adjustment Of Expedients, And Pause In The Choice Of His Road, Till Some Accident Intercepts His Journey.

It Was The Peculiar Artifice Of Habit Not To Suffer Her Power To Be Felt At First. Those Whom She Led, She Had The Address Of Appearing Only To Attend, But Was Continually Doubling Her Chains Upon Her Companions; Which Were So Slender In Themselves, And So Silently Fastened, That While The Attention Was Engaged By Other Objects, They Were Not Easily Perceived. Each Link Grew Tighter As It Had Been Longer Worn; And When By Continual Additions They Became So Heavy As To Be Felt, They Were Very Frequently Too Strong To Be Broken.

Of A Thousand Shavers, Two Do Not Shave So Much Alike As Not To Be Distinguished.

A Voyage To The Moon, However Romantick And Absurd The Scheme May Now Appear, Since The Properties Of Air Have Been Better Understood, Seemed Highly Probable To Many Of The Aspiring Wits In The Last Century

The Return Of My Birthday, If I Remember It, Fills Me With Thoughts Which It Seems To Be The General Care Of Humanity To Escape.

Glory, The Casual Gift Of Thoughtless Crowds! Glory, The Bribe Of Avaricious Virtue!

There Are Few Ways In Which A Man Can Be More Innocently Employed Than In Getting Money.

The Vicious Count Their Years; Virtuous, Their Acts.

Making A Difference

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

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil.

He That Would Travel For The Entertainment Of Others Should Remember That The Great Object Of Remark Is Human Life.

It Is Good Sense Applied With Diligence To What Was At First A Mere Accident, And Which By Great Application Grew To Be Called, By The Generality Of Mankind, A Particular Genius.

Politeness Is Fictitious Benevolence. Depend Upon It, The Want Of It Never Fails To Produce Something Disagreeable To One Or Other.

This World, Where Much Is To Be Done And Little To Be Known.

No One Is Much Pleased With A Companion Who Does Not Increase, In Some Respect, Their Fondness For Themselves.

Happiness," Said He, "must Be Something Solid And Permanent, Without Fear And Without Uncertainty.

It Is Almost Always The Unhappiness Of A Victorious Disputant To Destroy His Own Authority By Claiming Too Many Consequences, Or Diffusing His Proposition To An Indefensible Extent.

Wheresoe'er I Turn My View, All Is Strange, Yet Nothing New: Endless Labor All Along, Endless Labor To Be Wrong: Phrase That Time Has Flung Away; Uncouth Words In Disarray, Trick'd In Antique Ruff And Bonnet, Ode, And Elegy, And Sonnet.

No Writer Can Be Fully Convicted Of Imitation Except There Is A Concurrence Of More Resemblance Than Can Be Imagined To Have Happened By Chance; As Where The Same Ideas Are Conjoined Without Any Natural Series Or Necessary Coherence, Or Where Not Only The Thought But The Words Are Copied.

Wine Gives A Man Nothing. It Neither Gives Him Knowledge Nor Wit; It Only Animates A Man, And Enables Him To Bring Out What A Dread Of The Company Has Repressed. It Only Puts In Motion What Had Been Locked Up In Frost.

The Student Who Would Build His Knowledge On Solid Foundations, And Proceed By Just Degrees To The Pinnacles Of Truth, Is Directed By The Great Philosopher Of France To Begin By Doubting Of His Own Existence. In Like Manner, Whoever Would Complete Any Arduous And Intricate Enterprise, Should, As Soon As His Imagination Can Cool After The First Blaze Of Hope, Place Before His Own Eyes Every Possible Embarrassment That May Retard Or Defeat Him. He Should First Question The Probability Of Success, And Then Endeavour To Remove The Objections That He Has Raised.

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

A Good Wife Is Like The Ivy Which Beautifies The Building To Which It Clings, Twining Its Tendrils More Lovingly As Time Converts The Ancient Edifice Into A Ruin.

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

Flattery Pleases Very Generally. In The First Place, The Flatterer May Think What He Says To Be True; But, In The Second Place, Whether He Thinks So Or Not, He Certainly Thinks Those Whom He Flatters Of Consequence Enough To Be Flattered.

Criticism, Though Dignified From The Earliest Ages By The Labours Of Men Eminent For Knowledge And Sagacity, Has Not Yet Attained The Certainty And Stability Of Science.

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

Riches, Perhaps, Do Not So Often Produce Crimes As Incite Accusers.

Subordination Tends Greatly To Human Happiness. Were We All Upon An Equality, We Should Have No Other Enjoyment Than Mere Animal Pleasure.

Those Authors Are To Be Read At Schools That Supply Most Axioms Of Prudence.

The Trade Of Advertising Is Now So Near To Perfection That It Is Not Easy To Propose Any Improvement. But As Every Art Ought To Be Exercized In Due Subordination To The Public Good, I Cannot But Propose It As A Moral Question To These Masters Of The Public Ear, Whether They Do Not Sometimes Play Too Wantonly With Our Passions.

Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill.

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

Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.

No Wonder, Sir, That He Is Vain; A Man Who Is Perpetually Flattered In Every Mode That Can Be Conceived. So Many Bellows Have Blown The Fire, That One Wonders He Is Not By This Time Become A Cinder.

A Coxcomb Is Ugly All Over With The Effectation Of A Fine Gentleman.

Power Is Not Sufficient Evidence Of Truth.

In General Those Parents Have The Most Reverence Who Most Deserve It; For He That Lives Well Cannot Be Despised.

Security Will Produce Danger.

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.

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

This Was A Good Dinner Enough, To Be Sure, But It Was Not A Dinner To Ask A Man To.

To Read, Write, And Converse In Due Proportions, Is, Therefore, The Business Of A Man Of Letters.

The Future Is Bought With The Present.

In Traveling, A Man Must Carry Knowledge With Him, If He Would Bring Home Knowledge.

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.

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

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