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What A World Is This! What Is There In It Desirable? The Good We Hope For So Strangely Mixed, That One Knows Not What To Wish For!and One Half Of Mankind Tormenting The Other, And Being Tormented Themselves In Tormenting!

-Samuel Richardson

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What A World Is

Samuel Richardson

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What A World Is This! What Is There In It Desirable? The Good We Hope For So Strangely Mixed, That One Knows Not What To Wish For!and One Half Of Mankind Tormenting The Other, And Being Tormented Themselves In Tormenting!

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For The Human Mind Is Seldom At Stay: If You Do Not Grow Better, You Will Most Undoubtedly Grow Worse.

A Man Who Flatters A Woman Hopes Either To Find Her A Fool Or To Make Her One.

Love Gratified Is Love Satisfied, And Love Satisfied Is Indifference Begun.

Twenty-four Is A Prudent Age For Women To Marry At.

Vast Is The Field Of Science... The More A Man Knows, The More He Will Find He Has To Know.

Honeymoon Lasts Not Nowadays Above A Fortnight.

Men Are Less Forgiving Than Women.

The Uselessness And Expensiveness Of Modern Women Multiply Bachelors.

Married People Should Not Be Quick To Hear What Is Said By Either When In Ill Humor.

The English, The Plain English, Of The Politest Address Of A Gentleman To A Lady Is, I Am Now, Dear Madam, Your Humble Servant: Pray Be So Good As To Let Me Be Your Lord And Master.

Women Do Not Often Fall In Love With Philosophers.

It Is But Shaping The Bribe To The Taste, And Every One Has His Price.

But Let Not Those Worthy Young Women, Who May Think Themselves Destined To A Single Life, Repine Over-much At Their Lot; Since, Possibly, If They Have Had No Lovers, Or Having Had One, Two, Or Three, Have Not Found A Husband, They Have Had Rather A Miss Than A Loss, As Men Go.

Some Children Act As If They Thought Their Parents Had Nothing To Do, But To See Them Established In The World And Then Quit It.

Over-niceness May Be Under-niceness.

Humility Is A Grace That Shines In A High Condition But Cannot, Equally, In A Low One Because A Person In The Latter Is Already, Perhaps, Too Much Humbled.

The Companion Of An Evening, And The Companion For Life, Require Very Different Qualifications.

'passion' A Word Which Involves So Many Feelings. I Feel It When We Touch; I Feel It When We Kiss; I Feel It When I Look At You. For You Are My Passion; My One True Love.

If The Education And Studies Of Children Were Suited To Their Inclinations And Capacities, Many Would Be Made Useful Members Of Society That Otherwise Would Make No Figure In It.

We Can All Be Good When We Have No Temptation Or Provocation To The Contrary.

Parents Cannot Expect Advice To Have The Same Force Upon Their Children As Experience Has Upon Themselves.

The Grace That Makes Every Grace Amiable Is Humility.

Evil Courses Can Yield Pleasure No Longer Than While Thought And Reflection Can Be Kept Off.

Women Love Those Best (whether Men, Women, Or Children) Who Give Them Most Pain.

Prejudices In Disfavor Of A Person Fix Deeper, And Are Much More Difficult To Be Removed, Than Prejudices In Favor.

I Know Not My Own Heart If It Be Not Absolutely Free.

Nothing In Human Nature Is So God-like As The Disposition To Do Good To Our Fellow-creatures.

Reverence To A Woman In Courtship Is Less To Be Dispensed With, As, Generally, There Is But Little Of It Shown Afterwards.

Spiritual Pride Is The Most Dangerous And The Most Arrogant Of All Sorts Of Pride.

Marry First, And Love Will Come After Is A Shocking Assertion; Since A Thousand Things May Happen To Make The State But Barely Tolerable, When It Is Entered Into With Mutual Affection.

The Mind Can Be But Full. It Will Be As Much Filled With A Small Disagreeable Occurrence, Having No Other, As With A Large One.

Beauty Is An Accidental And Transient Good.

There Is A Pride, A Self-love, In Human Minds That Will Seldom Be Kept So Low As To Make Men And Women Humbler Than They Ought To Be.

Every One, More Or Less, Loves Power, Yet Those Who Most Wish For It Are Seldom The Fittest To Be Trusted With It.

A Good Man Will Honor Him Who Lives Up To His Religious Profession, Whatever It Be.

Distresses, However Heavy At The Time, Appear Light, And Even Joyous, To The Reflecting Mind, When Worthily Overcome.

Whenever We Approve, We Can Find A Hundred Good Reasons To Justify Our Approbation. Whenever We Dislike, We Can Find A Thousand To Justify Our Dislike.

Friendly Satire May Be Compared To A Fine Lancet, Which Gently Breathes A Vein For Health's Sake.

Tis Certain That Morality Is An Indispensable Requisite Of True Religion, And There Can Be None Without It. But It Would Become The Pride And Ignorance Of Pagans Only, To Magnify It, As The Whole Of What Is Necessary.

As A Child Is Indulged Or Checked In Its Early Follies, A Ground Is Generally Laid For The Happiness Or Misery Of The Future Man.

What We Want To Tell, We Wish Our Friend To Have Curiosity To Hear.

There Is A Good And A Bad Light In Which Every Thing That Befalls Us May Be Taken. If The Human Mind Will Busy Itself To Make Theworst Of Every Disagreeable Occurrence, It Will Never Want Woe.

All That Hoops Are Good For Is To Clean Dirty Shoes And Keep Fellows At A Distance.

Calamity Is The Test Of Integrity.

We All Know By Theory That There Is No Permanent Happiness In This Life: But The Weight Of The Precept Is Not Felt In The Same Manner As When It Is Confirmed To Us By A Heavy Calamity.

Superstitious Notions Propagated In Infancy Are Hardly Ever Totally Eradicate, Not Even In Minds Grown Strong Enough To Despise The Like Credulous Folly In Others.

Angry Men Make Themselves Beds Of Nettles.

Those Who Have Least To Do Are Generally The Most Busy People In The World.

I Never Knew A Man Who Deserved To Be Thought Well Of For His Morals Who Had A Slight Opinion Of Our Sex In General.

A Prudent Person, Having To Do With A Designing One, Will Always Distrust Most When Appearances Are Fairest.

Love Before Marriage Is Absolutely Necessary.

Before Marriage

...for My Master, Bad As I Have Thought Him, Is Not Half So Bad As This Woman.-to Be Sure She Must Be An Atheist!

To Be A Clergyman, And All That Is Compassionate And Virtuous, Ought To Be The Same Thing.

The Cause Of Women Is Generally The Cause Of Virtue.

Shame Is A Fitter And Generally A More Effectual Punishment For A Child Than Beating.

There Cannot Be Any Great Happiness In The Married Life Except Each In Turn Give Up His Or Her Own Humors And Lesser Inclinations.

A Good Man Will Not Engage Even In A National Cause, Without Examining The Justice Of It.

Women Love To Be Called Cruel, Even When They Are Kindest.

The Seeds Of Death Are Sown In Us When We Begin To Live, And Grow Up Till, Like Rampant Weeds, They Choak The Tender Flower Of Life.

It Is Better To Be Thought Perverse Than Insincere.

The Person Who Is Worthiest To Live, Is Fittest To Die.

From Sixteen To Twenty, All Women, Kept In Humor By Their Hopes And By Their Attractions, Appear To Be Good-natured.

There Is But One Pride Pardonable; That Of Being Above Doing A Base Or Dishonorable Action.

Wicked Words Are The Prelude To Wicked Deeds.

It May Be Very Generous In One Person To Offer What It Would Be Ungenerous In Another To Accept.

The Eye Is The Casement At Which The Heart Generally Looks Out. Many A Woman Who Will Not Show Herself At The Door, Has Tipt The Sly, The Intelligible Wink From The Window.

Platonic Love Is Platonic Nonsense.

Tis A Barbarous Temper, And A Sign Of A Very Ill Nature, To Take Delight In Shocking Any One: And, On The Contrary, It Is The Mark Of An Amiable And A Beneficent Temper, To Say All The Kind Things One Can, Without Flattery Or Playing The Hypocrite,--and What Never Fails Of Procuring The Love And Esteem Of Every One; Which, Next To Doing Good To A Deserving Object Who Wants It, Is One Of The Greatest Pleasures Of This Life.

A Stander-by Is Often A Better Judge Of The Game Than Those That Play.

A Good Man, Though He Will Value His Own Countrymen, Yet Will Think As Highly Of The Worthy Men Of Every Nation Under The Sun.

Old Men, Imagining Themselves Under Obligation To Young Paramours, Seldom Keep Any Thing From Their Knowledge.

When We Reflect Upon The Cruelties Daily Practised Upon Such Of The Animal Creation As Are Given Us For Food, Or Which We Ensnarefor Our Diversion, We Shall Be Obliged To Own That There Is More Of The Savage In Human Nature Than We Are Aware Of.

Why Do We Procrastinate? P - Postponing Life R - Resisting Change O - Overly Cautious C - Contemplating Course Of Action R - Reasoning And Justifying A - Afraid Of Success S - Summoning Up Some Courage T - Trouble Moving Forward I - Inability To See The Outcome N - Not Able To Trust In Your Abilities To Make Decisions A - Attempting To Control The Situation T - Time To Reflect On Your Motives E - Erodes Progress

An Acquaintance With The Muses, In The Education Of Youth, Contributes Not A Little To Soften Manners. It Gives A Delicate Turn To The Imagination And A Polish To The Mind.

What Likelihood Is There Of Corrupting A Man Who Has No Ambition.

Tired Of Myself Longing For What I Have Not

Virtue Only Is The True Beauty.

Whom We Fear More Than Love, We Are Not Far From Hating.

Men And Women Are Brothers And Sisters; They Are Not Of Different Species; And What Need Be Obtained To Know Both, But To Allow For Different Modes Of Education, For Situation And Constitution, Or Perhaps I Should Rather Say, For Habits, Whether Good Or Bad.

An Acknowledged Love Sanctifies Every Little Freedom; And Little Freedoms Beget Great Ones.

Nothing Can Be More Wounding To A Spirit Not Ungenerous, Than A Generous Forgiveness.

She Who Is More Ashamed Of Dishonesty Than Of Poverty Will Not Be Easily Overcome.

Quantity In Diet Is More To Be Regarded Than Quality. A Full Meal Is A Great Enemy Both To Study And Industry.

The Person Who Will Bear Much Shall Have Much To Bear, All The World Through.

For Tutors, Although They May Make Youth Learned, Do Not Always Make Them Virtuous.

The World Is Not Enough Used To This Way Of Writing, To The Moment. It Knows Not That In The Minutiae Lie Often The Unfoldings Ofthe Story, As Well As Of The Heart; And Judges Of An Action Undecided, As If It Were Absolutely Decided.

Those Who Respect Age, Deserve To Live To Be Old, And To Be Respected Themselves.

The Nature Of Familiar Letters, Written, As It Were, To The Moment, While The Heart Is Agitated By Hopes And Fears, On Events Undecided, Must Plead An Excuse For The Bulk Of A Collection Of This Kind. Mere Facts And Characters Might Be Comprised In A Much Smaller Compass: But, Would They Be Equally Interesting?

A Feeling Heart Is A Blessing That No One, Who Has It, Would Be Without; And It Is A Moral Security Of Innocence; Since The Heart That Is Able To Partake Of The Distress Of Another, Cannot Wilfully Give It.

Handsome Husbands Often Make A Wife's Heart Ache.

Those We Dislike Can Do Nothing To Please Us.

Every Thing Is Pretty That Is Young.

The Wisest Among Us Is A Fool In Some Things.

The Laws Were Not Made So Much For The Direction Of Good Men, As To Circumscribe The Bad.

Every Scholar, I Presume, Is Not, Necessarily, A Man Of Sense.

Of What Violences, Murders, Depredations, Have Not The Epic Poets, From All Antiquity, Been The Occasion, By Propagating False Honor, False Glory, And False Religion?

Women Are Always Most Observed When They Seem Themselves Least To Observe, Or To Lay Out For Observation.

Romances In General Are Calculated Rather To Fire The Imagination, Than To Inform The Judgment.

The Unhappy Never Want Enemies.

I Have My Choice: Who Can Wish For More? Free Will Enables Us To Do Everything Well While Imposition Makes A Light Burden Heavy.

We Are All Very Ready To Believe What We Like.

Parents Sometimes Make Not Those Allowances For Youth, Which, When Young, They Wished To Be Made For Themselves.

All Angry Persons Are To Be Treated, By The Prudent, As Children.

It Is A Happy Art To Know When One Has Said Enough. I Would Leave My Hearers Wishing Me To Say More Rather Than Give Them Cause Toshow, By Their Inattention, That I Had Said Too Much.

To What A Bad Choice Is Many A Worthy Woman Betrayed, By That False And Inconsiderate Notion, That A Reformed Rake Makes The Best Husband!

What Pleasure Can Those Over-happy Persons Know, Who, From Their Affluence And Luxury, Always Eat Before They Are Hungry And Drink Before They Are Thirsty?

Friendship Is The Perfection Of Love, And Superior To Love; It Is Love Purified, Exalted, Proved By Experience And A Consent Of Minds. Love, Madam, May, And Love Does, Often Stop Short Of Friendship.

Great Allowances Ought To Be Made For The Petulance Of Persons Labouring Under Ill-health.

The First Step In Achieving Prosperity And Wealth Is Learning To Appreciate What You Already Have.

Women's Eyes Are Wanderers, And Too Often Bring Home Guests That Are Very Troublesome To Them, And Whom, Once Introduced, They Cannot Get Out Of The House.

Love Will Draw An Elephant Through A Key-hole.

Necessity May Well Be Called The Mother Of Invention But Calamity Is The Test Of Integrity.

The Pleasures Of The Mighty Are Obtained By The Tears Of The Poor.

People Who Act Like Angels Ought To Have Angels To Deal With.

Men Will Bear Many Things From A Kept Mistress, Which They Would Not Bear From A Wife.

All Women, From The Countess To The Cook-maid, Are Put Into High Good Humor With Themselves When A Man Is Taken With Them At Firstsight. And Be They Ever So Plain, They Will Find Twenty Good Reasons To Defend The Judgment Of Such A Man.

Rakes Are More Suspicious Than Honest Men.

A Man Who Insults The Modesty Of A Woman, As Good As Tells Her That He Has Seen Something In Her Conduct That Warranted His Presumption.

The Difference In The Education Of Men And Women Must Give The Former Great Advantages Over The Latter, Even Where Geniuses Are Equal.

The Wife Of A Self-admirer Must Expect A Very Cold And Negligent Husband.

Youth Is Rather To Be Pitied Than Envied By People In Years Since It Is Doomed To Toil Through The Rugged Road Of Life Which The Others Have Passed Through, In Search Of Happiness That Is Not To Be Met With In It And That, At The Highest, Can Be Compounded For Only By The Blessing Of A Contented Mind.

Those Commands Of Superiors Which Are Contrary To Our First Duties Are Not To Be Obeyed.

Nothing Dries Sooner Than Tears.

Where Words Are Restrained, The Eyes Often Talk A Great Deal.

He Only Who Gave Life Has A Power Over It.

The Plays And Sports Of Children Are As Salutary To Them As Labor And Work Are To Grown Persons.

What Pity That Religion And Love, Which Heighten Our Relish For The Things Of Both Worlds, Should Ever Run The Human Heart Into Enthusiasm, Superstition, Or Uncharitableness!

A Beautiful Woman Must Expect To Be More Accountable For Her Steps, Than One Less Attractive.

Happy Womens Day

A Departure From The Truth Was Hardly Ever Known To Be A Single One.

The World, Thinking Itself Affronted By Superior Merit, Takes Delight To Bring It Down To Its Own Level.

The Readiness With Which Women Are Apt To Forgive The Men Who Have Deceived Other Women; And That Inconsiderate Notion Of Too Many Of Them That A Reformed Rake Makes The Best Husband, Are Great Encouragements To Vile Men To Continue Their Profligacy.

Love Is A Blazing, Crackling, Green-wood Flame, As Much Smoke As Flame; Friendship, Married Friendship Particularly, Is A Steady,intense, Comfortable Fire. Love, In Courtship, Is Friendship In Hope; In Matrimony, Friendship Upon Proof.

There Are Men Who Think Themselves Too Wise To Be Religious.

The Woman Who Thinks Meanly Of Herself Is Any Man's Purchase.

That Cruelty Which Children Are Permitted To Show To Birds And Other Animals Will Most Probably Exert Itself On Their Fellow Creatures When At Years Of Maturity.

Air And Manners Are More Expressive Than Words.

Those Who Can Least Bear A Jest Upon Themselves, Will Be Most Diverted With One Passed On Others.

Though A Censure Lies Against Those Who Are Poor And Proud, Yet Is Pride Sooner To Be Forgiven In A Poor Person Than In A Rich One; Since In The Latter It Is Insult And Arrogance; In The Former, It May Be A Defense Against Temptations To Dishonesty; And, If Manifested On Proper Occasions, May Indicate A Natural Bravery Of Mind, Which The Frowns Of Fortune Cannot Depress.

The Longer A Woman Remains Single, The More Apprehensive She Will Be Of Entering Into The State Of Wedlock. At Seventeen Or Eighteen, A Girl Will Plunge Into It, Sometimes Without Either Fear Or Wit; At Twenty, She Will Begin To Think; At Twenty-four, Will Weigh And Discriminate; At Twenty-eight, Will Be Afraid Of Venturing; At Thirty, Will Turn About, And Look Down The Hill She Has Ascended, And Sometimes Rejoice, Sometimes Repent, That She Has Gained That Summit Sola.

Women Are Sometimes Drawn In To Believe Against Probability By The Unwillingness They Have To Doubt Their Own Merit.

Who Would Not Rather Be The Sufferer Than The Defrauder?

People Hardly Ever Do Anything In Anger, Of Which They Do Not Repent.

Those Who Doubt Themselves Most Generally Err Least.

What We Look Upon As Our Greatest Unhappiness In A Difficulty We Are Involved In, May Possibly Be The Evil Hastening To Its Crisis, And Happy Days May Ensue.

Honesty Is Good Sense, Politeness, Amiableness,--all In One.

If A Woman Knows A Man To Be A Libertine, Yet Will, Without Scruple, Give Him Her Company, He Will Think Half The Ceremony Between Them Is Over; And Will Probably Only Want An Opportunity To Make Her Repent Of Her Confidence In Him.

Men Generally Are Afraid Of A Wife Who Has More Understanding Than Themselves.

In All Works Of This, And Of The Dramatic Kind, Story, Or Amusement, Should Be Considered As Little More Than The Vehicle To The More Necessary Instruction.

Marriage Is A State That Is Attended With So Much Care And Trouble, That It Is A Kind Of Faulty Indulgence And Selfishness To Livesingle, In Order To Avoid The Difficulties It Is Attended With.

The First Vice Of The First Woman Was Curiosity, And It Runs Through The Whole Sex.

What A World Is This! What Is There In It Desirable? The Good We Hope For So Strangely Mixed, That One Knows Not What To Wish For!and One Half Of Mankind Tormenting The Other, And Being Tormented Themselves In Tormenting!

The Coyest Maids Make The Fondest Wives.

O! What A Godlike Power Is That Of Doing Good! I Envy The Rich And The Great For Nothing Else!

Would Alexander, Madman As He Was, Have Been So Much A Madman, Had It Not Been For Homer?

The First Reading Of A Will, Where A Person Dies Worth Anything Considerable, Generally Affords A True Test Of The Relations' Love To The Deceased.

The Richest Princes And The Poorest Beggars Are To Have One Great And Just Judge At The Last Day Who Will Not Distinguish Betweenthem According To Their Ranks When In Life But According To The Neglected Opportunities Afforded To Each. How Much Greater Then, As The Opportunities Were Greater, Must Be The Condemnation Of The One Than Of The Other?

Things We Wish To Be True Are Apt To Gain Too Ready Credit With Us.

Marriage Is The Highest State Of Friendship. If Happy, It Lessens Our Cares By Dividing Them, At The Same Time That It Doubles Our Pleasures By Mutual Participation.

All Our Pursuits, From Childhood To Manhood, Are Only Trifles Of Different Sorts And Sizes, Proportioned To Our Years And Views.

The Most Innocent Heart Is Generally The Most Credulous.

Women Are So Much In Love With Compliments That Rather Than Want Them, They Will Compliment One Another, Yet Mean No More By It Than The Men Do.

A Fop Takes Great Pains To Hang Out A Sign, By His Dress, Of What He Has Within.

There Would Be No Supporting Life Were We To Feel Quite As Poignantly For Others As We Do For Ourselves.

A Good Man Will Extend His Munificence To The Industrious Poor Of All Persuasions Reduced By Age, Infirmity, Or Accident; To Thosewho Labour Under Incurable Maladies; And To The Youth Of Either Sex, Who Are Capable Of Beginning The World With Advantage, But Have Not The Means.

Smatterers In Learning Are The Most Opinionated.

All Human Excellence Is But Comparative — There Are Persons Who Excel Us, As Much As We Fancy We Excel The Meanest.

It Is Much Easier To Find Fault With Others, Than To Be Faultless Ourselves.

That Dangerous But Too Commonly Received Notion, That A Reformed Rake Makes The Best Husband.

By My Soul, I Can Neither Eat, Drink, Nor Sleep; Nor, What's Still Worse, Love Any Woman In The World But Her.

Men Know No Medium: They Will Either, Spaniel-like, Fawn At Your Feet, Or Be Ready To Leap Into Your Lap.

I Am Forced, As I Have Often Said, To Try To Make Myself Laugh, That I May Not Cry: For One Or Other I Must Do.

There Hardly Can Be A Greater Difference Between Any Two Men, Than There Too Often Is, Between The Same Man, A Lover And A Husband.

Love Is Not A Volunteer Thing.

Hope Is The Cordial That Keeps Life From Stagnating.

A Widow's Refusal Of A Lover Is Seldom So Explicit As To Exclude Hope.

The Little Words In The Republic Of Letters, Like The Little Folks In A Nation, Are The Most Useful And Significant.

Be Sure Don't Let People's Telling You, You Are Pretty, Puff You Up; For You Did Not Make Yourself, And So Can Have No Praise Due To You For It. It Is Virtue And Goodness Only, That Make The True Beauty.

Sorrow Makes An Ugly Face Odious.

Let A Man Do What He Will By A Single Woman, The World Is Encouragingly Apt To Think Marriage A Sufficient Amends.

The World, The Wise World, That Never Is Wrong Itself, Judges Always By Events. And If He Should Use Me Ill, Then I Shall Be Blamed For Trusting Him: If Well, O Then I Did Right, To Be Sure!--but How Would My Censurers Act In My Case, Before The Event Justifies Or Condemns The Action, Is The Question.

If Women Would Make Themselves Appear As Elegant To An Husband, As They Were Desirous To Appear To Him While A Lover, The Rake, Which All Women Love, Would Last Longer In The Husband Than It Generally Does.

We Have Nothing To Do, But To Choose What Is Right, To Be Steady In The Pursuit Of It, And Leave The Issue To Providence.

Good Men Must Be Affectionate Men.

Tho' Beauty Is Generally The Creature Of Fancy, Yet Are There Some Who Will Be Beauties In Every Eye.

What The Unpenetrating World Call Humanity, Is Often No More Than A Weak Mind Pitying Itself.

The Life Of A Good Man Was A Continual Warfare With His Passions.

People Of Little Understanding Are Most Apt To Be Angry When Their Sense Is Called Into Question.

Too Liberal Self-accusations Are Generally But So Many Traps For Acquittal With Applause.

Chastity, Like Piety, Is A Uniform Grace.

An Honest Heart Is Not To Be Trusted With Itself In Bad Company.

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