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When Men Come To Like A Sea-life, They Are Not Fit To Live On Land.
-Samuel Johnson
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When Men Come To

Samuel Johnson
...
When Men Come To Like A Sea-life, They Are Not Fit To Live On Land.

Understanding the Quote: "when men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to..."

This quote by Samuel Johnson reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Sea, Land, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Samuel Johnson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and sea. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Sea
Land
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We Love To Overlook The Boundaries Which We Do Not Wish To Pass.
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A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.
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I Deny The Lawfulness Of Telling A Lie To A Sick Man For Fear Of Alarming Him; You Have No Business With Consequences, You Are To Tell The Truth.
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Love Has No Great Influences Upon The Sum Of Life.
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Pour Forth Thy Fervors For A Healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, And A Will Resigned
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Books To Judicious Compilers, Are Useful; To Particular Arts And Professions, They Are Absolutely Necessary; To Men Of Real Science, They Are Tools: But More Are Tools To Them.
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To Excite Opposition And Inflame Malevolence Is The Unhappy Privilege Of Courage Made Arrogant By Consciousness Of Strength.
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Then With No Throbs Of Fiery Pain, No Cold Gradations Of Decay, Death Broke At Once The Vital Chain, And Freed His Soul The Nearest Way.
Pain
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There Are People Whom One Should Like Very Well To Drop, But Would Not Wish To Be Dropped By.
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Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.
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The Specualtist, Who Is Not Content With Superficial Views, Harasses Himself With Fruitless Curiosity; And Still, As He Inquires More, Perceives Only That He Knows Less.
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Plenty Is The Original Cause Of Many Of Our Needs; And Even The Poverty, Which Is So Frequent And Distressful In Civilized Nations, Proceeds Often From That Change Of Manners Which Opulence Has Produced. Nature Makes Us Poor Only When We Want Necessaries; But Custom Gives The Name Of Poverty To The Want Of Superfluities.
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Friendship Is Not Always The Sequel Of Obligation.
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Spring Is The Season Of Gaiety, And Winter Of Terror; In Spring The Heart Of Tranquility Dances To The Melody Of The Groves, And The Eye Of Benevolence Sparkles At The Sight Of Happiness And Plenty: In Winter, Compassion Melts At Universal Calamity, And The Tear Of Softness Starts At The Wailing Of Hunger And The Cries Of The Creation In Distress
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The Booksellers Are Generous Liberal-minded Men.
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Sir, It Is Wrong To Stir Up Law-suits; But When Once It Is Certain That A Law-suit Is To Go On, There Is Nothing Wrong In A Lawyer's Endeavouring That He Shall Have The Benefit, Rather Than Another.
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To Grieve For Evils Is Often Wrong; But It Is Much More Wrong To Grieve Without Them. All Sorrow That Lasts Longer Than Its Cause Is Morbid, And Should Be Shaken Off As An Attack Of Melancholy, As The Forerunner Of A Greater Evil Than Poverty Or Pain.
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Security Will Produce Danger.
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Each Person's Work Is Always A Portrait Of Himself.
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Wretched Un-idea'd Girls.
Girl
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Fears Of The Brave And Follies Of The Wise.
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He That Is Warm For Truth, And Fearless In Its Defense, Performs One Of The Duties Of A Good Man; He Strenghtens His Own Conviction, And Guards Others From Delusion; But Steadiness Of Belief, And Boldness Of Profession, Are Yet Only Part Of The Form Of Godliness.
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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.
Writing
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Keeping Accounts, Sir, Is Of No Use When A Man Is Spending His Own Money, And Has Nobody To Whom He Is To Account. You Won't Eat Less Beef Today Because You Have Written Down What It Cost Yesterday.
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Luncheon: As Much Food As One's Hand Can Hold.
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Courage Is A Quality So Necessary For Maintaining Virtue, That It Is Always Respected, Even When It Is Associated With Vice.
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Man Is A Transitory Being, And His Designs Must Partake Of The Imperfections Of Their Author. To Confer Duration Is Not Always In Our Power. We Must Snatch The Present Moment, And Employ It Well, Without Too Much Solicitude For The Future, And Content Ourselves With Reflecting That Our Part Is Performed. He That Waits For An Opportunity To Do Much At Once, May Breathe Out His Life In Idle Wishes, And Regret, In The Last Hour, His Useless Intentions And Barren Zeal.
Regret
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Almost All Absurdity Of Conduct Arises From The Imitation Of Those Who We Cannot Resemble.
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Criminal Mind
In The Condition Of Men, It Frequently Happens That Grief And Anxiety Lie Hid Under The Golden Robes Of Prosperity; And The Gloom Of Calamity Is Cheered By Secret Radiations Of Hope And Comfort; As In The Works Of Nature, The Bog Is Sometimes Covered With Flowers, And The Mine Concealed In The Barren Crags.
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The Real Satisfaction Which Praise Can Afford, Is When What Is Repeated Aloud Agrees With The Whispers Of Conscience, By Showing Us That We Have Not Endeavored To Deserve Well In Vain.
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As To Precedents, To Be Sure They Will Increase In Course Of Time; But The More Precedents There Are, The Less Occasion Is There For Law; That Is To Say, The Less Occasion Is There For Investigating Principles.
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I Am Not Yet So Lost In Lexicography, As To Forget That Words Are The Daughters Of The Earth, And That Things Are The Sons Of Heaven. Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas: I Wish, However, That The Instrument Might Be Less Apt To Decay, And That Signs Might Be Permanent, Like The Things Which They Denote.
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Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause Awhile From Letters, To Be Wise.
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It Is, Indeed, At Home That Every Man Must Be Known By Those Who Would Make A Just Estimate Either Of His Virtue Or Felicity; For Smiles And Embroidery Are Alike Occasional, And The Mind Is Often Dressed For Show In Painted Honor, And Fictitious Benevolence.
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Leave To Heaven The Measure And The Choice.
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It Is Thus That Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace. Were One Half Of Mankind Brave And One Cowards, The Brave Would Be Always Beating The Cowards. Were All Brave, They Would Lead A Very Uneasy Life; All Would Be Continually Fighting; But Being All Cowards, We Go On Very Well.
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Life Must Be Filled Up, And The Man Who Is Not Capable Of Intellectual Pleasures Must Content Himself With Such As His Senses Can Afford.
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When A Poet Mentions The Spring, We Know That The Zephyrs Are About To Whisper, That The Groves Are To Recover Their Verdure, The Linnets To Warble Forth Their Notes Of Love, And The Flocks And Herds To Frisk Over Vales Painted With Flowers: Yet, Who Is There So Insensible Of The Beauties Of Nature, So Little Delighted With The Renovation Of The World, As Not To Feel His Heart Bound At The Mention Of The Spring?
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In Order That All Men May Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It; For No Species Of Falsehood Is More Frequent Than Flattery, To Which The Coward Is Betrayed By Fear, The Dependent By Interest, And The Friend By Tenderness: Those Who Are Neither Servile Nor Timorous Are Yet Desirous To Bestow Pleasure; And, While Unjust Demands Of Praise Continue To Be Made, There Will Always Be Some Whom Hope, Fear, Or Kindness Will Dispose To Pay Them.
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Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.
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Self-confidence Is The First Requisite To Great Undertakings.
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Nothing Has So Exposed Men Of Learning To Contempt And Ridicule As Their Ignorance Of Things Which Are Known To All But Themselves. Those Who Have Been Taught To Consider The Institutions Of The Schools As Giving The Last Perfection To Human Abilities Are Surprised To See Men Wrinkled With Study, Yet Wanting To Be Instructed In The Minute Circumstances Of Propriety, Or The Necessary Form Of Daily Transaction; And Quickly Shake Off Their Reverence For Modes Of Education Which They Find To Produce No Ability Above The Rest Of Mankind.
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To Hear Complaints Is Wearisome Alike To The Wretched And The Happy.
Happiness
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Knowledge Is More Than Equivalent To Force. The Master Of Mechanics Laughs At Strength.
Knowledge
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None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.
Art
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Judging
The Greatest Human Virtue Bears No Proportion To Human Vanity. We Always Think Ourselves Better Than We Are, And Are Generally Desirous That Others Should Think Us Still Better Than We Think Ourselves. To Praise Us For Actions Or Dispositions Which Deserve Praise Is Not To Confer A Benefit, But To Pay A Tribute. We Have Always Pretensions To Fame Which, In Our Own Hearts, We Know To Be Disputable, And Which We Are Desirous To Strengthen By A New Suffrage; We Have Always Hopes Which We Suspect To Be Fallacious, And Of Which We Eagerly Snatch At Every Confirmation.
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Sir, I Do Not Call A Gamester A Dishonest Man; But I Call Him An Unsociable Man, An Unprofitable Man. Gaming Is A Mode Of Transferring Property Without Producing Any Intermediate Good.
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I Am Sorry I Have Not Learnt To Play At Cards. It Is Very Useful In Life: It Generates Kindness, And Consolidates Society.
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To Expect That The Intricacies Of Science Will Be Pierced By A Careless Glance, Or The Eminences Of Fame Ascended Without Labour, Is To Expect A Peculiar Privilege, A Power Denied To The Rest Of Mankind; But To Suppose That The Maze Is Inscrutable To Diligence, Or The Heights Inaccessible To Perseverance, Is To Submit Tamely To The Tyranny Of Fancy, And Enchain The Mind In Voluntary Shackles.
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I Am A Friend To Subordination, As Most Conducive To The Happiness Of Society. There Is A Reciprocal Pleasure In Governing And Being Governed.
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For Sorrow There Is No Remedy Provided By Nature; It Is Often Occasioned By Accidents Irreparable, And Dwells Upon Objects That Have Lost Or Changed Their Existence; It Requires What It Cannot Hope, That The Laws Of The Universe Should Be Repealed; That The Dead Should Return, Or The Past Should Be Recalled.
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Nothing Flatters A Man As Much As The Happiness Of His Wife; He Is Always Proud Of Himself As The Source Of It.
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In Sovereignty There Are No Gradations.
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It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.
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He That Never Thinks Can Never Be Wise.
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Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.
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The Habit Of Looking On The Bright Side Of Every Event Is Worth More Than A Thousand Pounds A Year.
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The Happiest Part Of A Man's Life Is What He Passes Lying Awake In Bed In The Morning.
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It Is Not Easy To Surround Life With Any Circumstances In Which Youth Will Not Be Delightful.
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Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition.
Hope
Anticipation
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The World Is Like A Grand Staircase, Some Are Going Up And Some Are Going Down.
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Life Is Surely Given Us For Higher Purposes Than To Gather What Our Ancestors Have Wisely Thrown Away, And To Learn What Is Of No Value But Because It Has Been Forgotten.
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Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.
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Misery And Shame Are Nearly Allied.
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The Size Of A Man's Understanding Might Always Be Justly Measured By His Mirth.
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Remember That Nothing Will Supply The Want Of Prudence, And That Negligence And Irregularity Long Continued Will Make Knowledge Useless, Wit Ridiculous, And Genius Contemptible.
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A Translator Is To Be Like His Author; It Is Not His Business To Excel Him.
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No Man But A Blockhead Ever Wrote Except For Money.
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Instead Of Rating The Man By His Performances, We Rate Too Frequently The Performances By The Man.
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A Newswriter Is A Man Without Virtue, Who Lies At Home For His Own Profit.
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Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.
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The Relief Of Enemies Has A Tendency To Unite Mankind In Fraternal Affection.
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When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was
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The Happiness Of Building Lasted But A Little While, For Though I Love To Spend, I Hate To Be Cheated; And I Soon Found, That To Build Is To Be Robbed.
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Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.
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Justice Is Indispensably And Universally Necessary, And What Is Necessary Must Always Be Limited, Uniform, And Distinct
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Be Not Too Hasty To Trust Or To Admire The Teachers Of Morality; They Discourse Like Angels, But They Live Like Men.
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There Are, Indeed, Few Kinds Of Composition From Which An Author, However Learned Or Ingenious, Can Hope A Long Continuance Of Fame.
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Long
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How Can Children Credit The Assertions Of Parents, Which Their Own Eyes Show Them To Be False? Few Parents Act In Such A Manner As Much To Enforce Their Maxims By The Credit Of Their Lives
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Parent
No One Is Much Pleased With A Companion Who Does Not Increase, In Some Respect, Their Fondness For Themselves.
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Increase
Among The Calamities Of War May Be Justly Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth By Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates And Credulity Encourages. A Peace Will Equally Leave The Warrior And The Relater Of Wars Destitute Of Employment; And I Know Not Whether More Is To Be Dreaded From Streets Filled With Soldiers Accustomed To Plunder, Or From Garrets Filled With Scribblers Accustomed To Lie.
War
Lying
Soldier
To Be Flattered Is Grateful, Even When We Know That Our Praises Are Not Believed By Those Who Pronounce Them; For They Prove, At Least, Our Power, And Show That Our Favour Is Valued, Since It Is Purchased By The Meanness Of Falsehood.
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Such Is The Pleasure Of Projecting That Many Content Themselves With A Succession Of Visionary Schemes, And Wear Out Their Allotted Time In The Calm Amusement Of Contriving What They Never Attempt Or Hope To Execute.
Visionaries
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I Believe Marriages Would In General Be As Happy, And Often More So, If They Were All Made By The Lord Chancellor, Upon A Due Consideration Of The Characters And Circumstances, Without The Parties Having Any Choice In The Matter.
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Character
If You Are Idle, Be Not Solitary; If You Are Solitary Be Not Idle.
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You Are Much Surer That You Are Doing Good When You Pay Money To Those Who Work, As The Recompense Of Their Labor, Than When You Give Money Merely In Charity.
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There Is A Frightful Interval Between The Seed And The Timber.
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Seeds
If I Have Said Something To Hurt A Man Once, I Shall Not Get The Better Of This By Saying Many Things To Please Him.
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We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.
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A Lawyer Has No Business With The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Which He Undertakes, Unless His Client Asks His Opinion, And Then He Is Bound To Give It Honestly. The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Is To Be Decided By The Judge.
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It Is In Refinement And Elegance That The Civilized Man Differs From The Savage.
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I Would Injure No Man, And Should Provoke No Resentment. I Would Relieve Every Distress, And Should Enjoy The Benedictions Of Gratitude. I Would Choose My Friends Among The Wise And My Wife Among The Virtuous, And Therefore Should Be In No Danger From Treachery Or Unkindness. My Children Should By My Care Be Learned And Pious, And Would Repay To My Age What Their Childhood Had Received.
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Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.
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I Never Desire To Converse With A Man Who Has Written More Than He Has Read.
Reading
Men
Political
Nay, Sir, Those Who Write In Them, Write Well, In Order To Be Paid Well.
Writing
Order
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Sir, You Have But Two Topics, Yourself And Me. I Am Sick Of Both.
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Sick
What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure.
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All Wonder Is The Effect Of Novelty On Ignorance.
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Novelty
Wonder
An Exotic And Irrational Entertainment.
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When Speculation Has Done Its Worst, Two And Two Still Make Four.
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Sleep Is A State In Which A Great Part Of Every Life Is Passed. No Animal Has Yet Been Discovered, Whose Existence Is Not Varied With Intervals Of Insensibility; And Some Late Philosophers Have Extended The Empire Of Sleep Over The Vegetable World.
Sleep
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Vegetables
I Know Not Any Crime So Great That A Man Could Contrive To Commit As Poisoning The Sources Of Eternal Truth.
Men
Crime
Source
The Hapless Wit Has His Labors Always To Begin, The Call For Novelty Is Never Satisfied, And One Jest Only Raises Expectation Of Another.
Expectations
Novelty
Jest
The Duty Of Criticism Is Neither To Depreciate Nor Dignify By Partial Representations, But To Hold Out The Light Of Reason, Whatever It May Discover; And To Promulgate The Determinations Of Truth, Whatever She Shall Dictate
Determination
Light
Criticism
All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.
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Triumph
Acrimony
Almost Every Man Wastes Part Of His Life Attempting To Display Qualities Which He Does Not Possess.
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Life
Being Yourself
The Truth Is That The Spectators Are Always In Their Senses, And Know, From The First Act To The Last, That The Stage Is Only A Stage, And That The Players Are Only Players.
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Theatre
Lasts
In His Comic Scenes, Shakespeare Seems To Produce, Without Labor, What No Labor Can Improve.
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Comic
Produce
Sir, A Man Who Cannot Get To Heaven In A Green Coat, Will Not Find His Way Thither The Sooner In A Grey One.
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Men
Heaven
At Length Weariness Succeeds To Labor, And The Mind Lies At Ease In The Contemplation Of Her Own Attainments Without Any Desire Of New Conquests Or Excursions. This Is The Age Of Recollection And Narrative; The Opinions Are Settled, And The Avenues Of Apprehension Shut Against Any New Intelligence; The Days That Are To Follow Must Pass In The Inculcation Of Precepts Already Collected, And Assertion Of Tenets Already Received; Nothing Is Henceforward So Odious As Opposition, So Insolent As Doubt, Or So Dangerous As Novelty.
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Mind
To Purchase Heaven Has Gold The Power? Can Gold Remove The Mortal Hour? In Life Can Love Be Bought With Gold? Are Friendship's Pleasures To Be Sold? No--all That's Worth A Wish--a Thought, Fair Virtue Gives Unbribed, Unbought. Cease Then On Trash Thy Hopes To Bind, Let Nobler Views Engage Thy Mind.
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Views
Giving
A Man Who Is Good Enough To Go To Heaven Is Good Enough To Be A Clergyman.
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There Is Not, Perhaps, To A Mind Well Instructed, A More Painful Occurrence, Than The Death Of One We Have Injured Without Reparation.
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Painful
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Happy
Laughter
Among The Calamities Of War May Be Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth, By The Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates, And Credulity Encourages.
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Courage
Truth
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.
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When The Desire Of Wealth Is Taking Hold Of The Heart, Let Us Look Round And See How It Operates Upon Than Whose Industry Or Fortune Has Obtained It. When We Find Them Oppressed With Their Own Abundance, Luxurious Without Pleasure, Idle Without Ease, Impatient And Querulous In Themselves, And Despised Or Hated By The Rest Of Mankind, We Shall Soon Be Convinced That If The Real Wants Of Our Condition Are Satisfied, There Remains Little To Be Sought With Solicitude Or Desired With Eagerness.
Real
Heart
Desire
There Are Few So Free From Vanity As Not To Dictate To Those Who Will Hear Their Instructions With A Visible Sense Of Their Own Beneficence.
Vanity
Advice
Instruction
Forgetfulness Is Necessary To Remembrance. Ideas Are Retained By Renovation Of That Impression Which Time Is Always Wearing Away,and Which New Images Are Striving To Obliterate. If Useless Thoughts Could Be Expelled From The Mind, All The Valuable Parts Of Our Knowledge Would More Frequently Recur, And Every Recurrence Would Reinstate Them In Their Former Place.
Ideas
Remembrance
Mind
I Am Always Sorry When Any Language Is Lost, Because Languages Are The Pedigrees Of Nations.
Sorry
Communication
Tongue
Friendship Is Seldom Lasting But Between Equals, Or Where The Superiority On One Side Is Reduced By Some Equivalent Advantage On The Other.
Sides
Advantage
Lasting
To Be Free It Is Not Enough To Beat The System, One Must Beat The System Every Day
Enough
Beats
Everything That Enlarges The Sphere Of Human Powers, That Shows Man He Can Do What He Thought He Could Not Do, Is Valuable.
Life
Men
Spheres
To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labor Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.
Ambition
Home
Desire
New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.
Made
Familiar
Familiar Things
Towering Is The Confidence Of Twenty-one.
Twenties
Twenty One
No Man Tells His Opinion So Freely As When He Imagines It Received With Implicit Veneration.
Men
Advice
Opinion
Prejudice Is A Great Time-saver. You Can Form Opinions Without Having To Get The Facts. Prejudice Not Being Founded On Reason Cannot Be Removed By Argument.
Prejudice
Facts
Opinion
Admiration Begins Where Acquaintance Ceases
Admiration
Acquaintance
Cease
Inquiries Into The Heart Are Not For Man.
Heart
Men
Inquiry
The Hopes Of Zeal Are Not Wholly Groundless.
Zeal
Works Of Imagination Excel By Their Allurement And Delight; By Their Power Of Attracting And Detaining The Attention. That Book Is Good In Vain Which The Reader Throws Away. He Only Is The Master Who Keeps The Mind In Pleasing Captivity; Whose Pages Are Perused With Eagerness, And In Hope Of New Pleasure Are Perused Again; And Whose Conclusion Is Perceived With An Eye Of Sorrow, Such As The Traveller Casts Upon Departing Day.
Book
Writing
Eye
Life Consists Not Of A Series Of Illustrious Actions Or Elegant Enjoyments. The Greater Part Of Our Time Passes In Compliance With Necessities, In The Performance Of Daily Duties, In The Removal Of Small Inconveniences, In The Procurement Of Petty Pleasures; And We Are Well Or Ill At Ease, As The Main Stream Of Life Glides On Smoothly, Or Is Ruffled By Small Obstacles And Frequent Interruption.
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Ease
Action
I Will Be Conquered; I Will Not Capitulate.
Death
Dying
Power Is Not Sufficient Evidence Of Truth.
Good And Evil
Evidence
Sufficient
The Wise Man Applauds He Who He Thinks Most Virtuous; The Rest Of The World Applauds The Wealthy.
Wise
Men
Thinking
The Vanity Of Being Known To Be Trusted With A Secret Is Generally One Of The Chief Motives To Disclose It.
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Secret
Chiefs
Oats. A Grain, Which In England Is Generally Given To Horses, But In Scotland Supports The People.
Horse
Food
Oats
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.
Friendship
Years
Long
The Prospect Of Penury In Age Is So Gloomy And Terrifying That Every Man Who Looks Before Him Must Resolve To Avoid It; And It Must Be Avoided Generally By The Science Of Sparing.
Men
Age
Looks
The Hostility Perpetually Exercised Between One Man And Another, Is Caused By The Desire Of Many For That Which Only Few Can Possess. Every Man Would Be Rich, Powerful, And Famous; Yet Fame, Power, And Riches, Are Only The Names Of Relative Conditions, Which Imply The Obscurity, Dependence, And Poverty Of Greater Numbers.
Powerful
Men
Numbers
Art Hath An Enemy Called Ignorance.
Art
Philosophy
Ignorance
The Majority Have No Other Reason For Their Opinions Than That They Are The Fashion.
Fashion
Freedom
Majority
Fear Naturally Quickens The Flight Of Guilt.
Fear
Guilt
Flight
Classical Quotation Is The Parole Of Literary Men All Over The World.
Book
Beer
Men
It Is Not Uncommon To Charge The Difference Between Promise And Performance, Between Profession And Reality, Upon Deep Design And Studied Deceit; But The Truth Is, That There Is Very Little Hypocrisy In The World.
Reality
Differences
Hypocrisy
From Thee, Great God, We Spring, To Thee We Tend,- Path, Motive, Guide, Original, And End.
Spring
Path
Originality
Life Affords No Higher Pleasure Than That Of Surmounting Difficulties, Passing From One Step Of Success To Another, Forming New Wishes And Seeing Them Gratified.
Life
Motivational
Achievement
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.
Journey
Choices
Too Much
When The Eye Or The Imagination Is Struck With An Uncommon Work, The Next Transition Of An Active Mind Is To The Means By Which It Was Performed
Mean
Eye
Imagination
That Man Is Never Happy For The Present Is So True, That All His Relief From Unhappiness Is Only Forgetting Himself For A Little While. Life Is A Progress From Want To Want, Not From Enjoyment To Enjoyment.
Life
Men
Progress
An Infallible Characteristic Of Meanness Is Cruelty. Men Who Have Practiced Tortures On Animals Without Pity, Relating Them Without Shame, How Can They Still Hold Their Heads Among Human Beings?
Animal
Men
Shame
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.
Views
Poetry
Phrases
Attention And Respect Give Pleasure, However Late, Or However Useless. But They Are Not Useless, When They Are Late, It Is Reasonable To Rejoice, As The Day Declines, To Find That It Has Been Spent With The Approbation Of Mankind.
Respect
Giving
Attention
Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money; Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured; But Thousands And Millions Are Of Small Avail To Alleviate The Protracted Tortures Of The Gout, To Repair The Broken Organs Of Sense, Or Resuscitate The Powers Of Digestion. Poverty Is, Indeed, An Evil From Which We Naturally Fly, But Let Us Not Run From One Enemy To Another, Nor Take Shelter In The Arms Of Sickness.
Running
Health
Broken
We Are Easily Shocked By Crimes Which Appear At Once In Their Full Magnitude, But The Gradual Growth Of Our Own Wickedness, Endeared By Interest, And Palliated By All The Artifices Of Self-deceit, Gives Us Time To Form Distinctions In Our Own Favor
Self
Giving
Growth
It Was His Peculiar Happiness That He Scarcely Ever Found A Stranger Whom He Did Not Leave A Friend; But It Must Likewise Be Added, That He Had Not Often A Friend Long Without Obliging Him To Become A Stranger.
Long
Peculiar
Stranger
Rain Is Good For Vegetables, And For The Animals Who Eat Those Vegetables, And For The Animals Who Eat Those Animals.
Nature
Rain
Animal
Exactness Is First Obtained, And Afterwards Elegance. But Diction, Merely Vocal, Is Always In Its Childhood. As No Man Leaves His Eloquence Behind Him, The New Generations Have All To Learn. There May Possibly Be Books Without A Polished Language, But There Can Be No Polished Language Without Books.
Book
Men
Childhood
Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance.
Ignorance
Pure
He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.
Stupid
People
Intelligence
Locke, Whom There Is No Reason To Suspect Of Being A Favorer Of Idleness Or Libertinism, Has Advanced That Whoever Hopes To Employ Any Part Of His Time With Efficacy And Vigor Must Allow Some Of It To Pass With Trifles.
Vigor
Reason
Efficacy
Misfortunes Should Always Be Expected.
Should
Expected
Misfortunes
All Envy Is Proportionate To Desire.
Envy
Desire
Few Have Abilities So Much Needed By The Rest Of The World As To Be Caressed On Their Own Terms; And He That Will Not Condescend To Recommend Himself By External Embellishments Must Submit To The Fate Of Just Sentiment Meanly Expressed, And Be Ridiculed And Forgotten Before He Is Understood.
Fate
Arrogance
World
A Writer Only Begins A Book. A Reader Finishes It.
Book
Reading
Writing
As The Greatest Liar Tells More Truths Than Falsehoods, So May It Be Said Of The Worst Man, That He Does More Good Than Evil.
Liars
Men
Evil
High People, Sir, Are The Best; Take A Hundred Ladies Of Quality, You'll Find Them Better Wives, Better Mothers, More Willing To Sacrifice Their Own Pleasures To Their Children, Than A Hundred Other Woman.
Mother
Children
Sacrifice
All The Arguments Which Are Brought To Represent Poverty As No Evil Show It Evidently To Be A Great Evil.
Evil
Poverty
Argument
Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.
Marriage
Wedding
Pain
Nothing Will Ever Be Attempted If All Possible Objections Must First Be Overcome.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
General Irregularities Are Known In Time To Remedy Themselves. By The Constitution Of Ancient Egypt, The Priesthood Was Continually Increasing, Till At Length There Was No People Beside Themselves; The Establishment Was Then Dissolved, And The Number Of Priests Was Reduced And Limited. Thus Among Us, Writers Will, Perhaps, Be Multiplied, Till No Readers Will Be Found, And Then The Ambition Of Writing Must Necessarily Cease.
Ambition
Writing
Egypt
A Decent Provision For The Poor Is The True Test Of Civilization.
Civilization
History
Political
The Natural Flights Of The Human Mind Are Not From Pleasure To Pleasure, But From Hope To Hope.
Happiness
Uplifting
Hope
No Man Was More Foolish When He Had Not A Pen In His Hand, Or More Wise When He Had
Wise
Men
Hands
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.
Men
Order
Discipline
In This Work Are Exhibited, In A Very High Degree, The Two Most Engaging Powers Of An Author. New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.
Writing
Two
Degrees
What Is Good Only Because It Pleases Cannot Be Pronounced Good Till It Has Been Found To Please.
Goodness
Found
Please
Resentment Is A Union Of Sorrow With Malignity; A Combination Of A Passion Which All Endeavor To Avoid With A Passion Which All Concur To Detest.
Passion
Sorrow
Unions
We May Take Fancy For A Companion, But Must Follow Reason As Our Guide.
May
Fancy
Reason
There Will Always Be A Part, And Always A Very Large Part Of Every Community, That Have No Care But For Themselves, And Whose Care For Themselves Reaches Little Further Than Impatience Of Immediate Pain, And Eagerness For The Nearest Good.
Pain
Community
Care
A Short Letter To A Distant Friend Is, In My Opinion, An Insult Like That Of A Slight Bow Or Cursory Salutation - A Proof Of Unwillingness To Do Much, Even Where There Is A Necessity Of Doing Something.
Letters
Bows
Opinion
Reason And Truth Will Prevail At Last
Truth Will Prevail
Lasts
Reason
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.
Passion
Men
Indulge In
Sir, I Did Not Count Your Glasses Of Wine, Why Should You Number Up My Cups Of Tea?
Wine
Glasses
Numbers
There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness Than To Be Able To Look Back On A Life Usefully And Virtuously Employed, To Trace Our Own Progress In Existence, By Such Tokens As Excite Neither Shame Nor Sorrow.
Memories
Sorrow
Progress
A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write. The Regard Of The Public Is Not To Be Kept But By Tribute, And The Remembrance Of Past Service Will Quickly Languish Unless Successive Performances Frequently Revive It. Yet In Every New Attempt There Is New Hazard, And There Are Few Who Do Not, At Some Unlucky Time, Injure Their Own Characters By Attempting To Enlarge Them.
Writing
Character
Successful
What Is The Reason That Women Servants ... Have Much Lower Wages Than Men Servants ... When In Fact Our Female House Servants Work Much Harder Than The Male?
Men
House
Wages
Among The Numerous Stratagems By Which Pride Endeavors To Recommend Folly To Regard, There Is Scarcely One That Meets With Less Success Than Affectation, Or A Perpetual Disguise Of The Real Character By Fictitious Appearances.
Real
Character
Pride
Avarice Is A Uniform And Tractable Vice; Other Intellectual Distempers Are Different In Different Constitutions Of Mind. That Which Soothes The Pride Of One Will Offend The Pride Of Another, But To The Favor Of The Covetous Bring Money, And Nothing Is Denied.
Pride
Intellectual
Mind
A Scotchman Must Be A Very Sturdy Moralist Who Does Not Love Scotland Better Than Truth.
Scotland
Doe
Sturdy
There Is Such A Difference Between The Pursuits Of Men In Great Cities That One Part Of The Inhabitants Lives To Little Other Purpose Than To Wonder At The Rest. Some Have Hopes And Fears, Wishes And Aversions, Which Never Enter Into The Thoughts Of Others, And Inquiry Is Laboriously Exerted To Gain That Which Those Who Possess It Are Ready To Throw Away.
Men
Cities
Differences
It Is More Reasonable To Wish For Reputation While It May Be Enjoyed, As Anacreon Calls Upon His Companions To Give Him For Present Use The Wine And Garlands Which They Propose To Bestow Upon His Tomb.
Wine
Giving
Wish
Men Seldom Give Pleasure When They Are Not Pleased Themselves.
Men
Giving
Pleasure
Every Man's Affairs, However Little, Are Important To Himself.
Men
Important
Littles
There Is Nothing Against Which An Old Man Should Be So Much Upon His Guard As Putting Himself To Nurse.
Men
Nurse
Age
Levellers Wish To Level Down As Far As Themselves; But They Cannot Bear Levelling Up To Themselves.
Wish
Levels
Bears
Extended Empires Are Like Expanded Gold, Exchanging Solid Strength For Feeble Splendor.
Focus
Gold
Empires
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