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When The Original Is Well Chosen And Judiciously Copied, The Imitator Often Arrives At Excellence Which He Could Never Have Attained Without Direction; For Few Are Formed With Abilities To Discover New Possibilities Of Excellence, And To Distinguish Themselves By Means Never Tried Before.

-Samuel Johnson

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When The Original Is

Samuel Johnson

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When The Original Is Well Chosen And Judiciously Copied, The Imitator Often Arrives At Excellence Which He Could Never Have Attained Without Direction; For Few Are Formed With Abilities To Discover New Possibilities Of Excellence, And To Distinguish Themselves By Means Never Tried Before.

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

No Wise Man Will Go To Live In The Country, Unless He Has Something To Do Which Can Be Better Done In The Country. For Instance, If He Is To Shut Himself Up For A Year To Study Science, It Is Better To Look Out To The Fields, Than To An Opposite Wall. Then, If A Man Walks Out In The Country, There Is Nobody To Keep Him From Walking In Again: But If A Man Walks Out In London, He Is Not Sure When He Will Walk In Again. A Great City Is, To Be Sure, The School For Studying Life.

There Is Always Something A Woman Will Prefer To The Truth.

The Applause Of A Single Human Being Is Of Great Consequence.

We Go From Anticipation To Anticipation, Not From Satisfaction To Satisfaction.

Corneille Is To Shakespeare As A Clipped Hedge Is To A Forest.

Wasting A Fortune Is Evaporation By A Thousand Imperceptible Means.

He Who Would Bring Home The Wealth Of The Indies Must Carry The Wealth Of The Indies With Him.

Except During The Nine Months Before He Draws His First Breath, No Man Manages His Affairs As Well As A Tree. We Are Inclined To Believe Those Whom We Do Not Know Because They Have Never Deceived Us.

A Man Had Rather Have A Hundred Lies Told Of Him Than One Truth Which He Does Not Wish Should Be Told.

For Patience, Sov'reign O'er Transmuted Ill.

The Authors That In Any Nation Last From Age To Age Are Very Few, Because There Are Very Few That Have Any Other Claim To Notice Than That They Catch Hold On Present Curiosity, And Gratify Some Accidental Desire, Or Produce Some Temporary Conveniency.

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.

To Hear Complaints Is Wearisome Alike To The Wretched And The Happy.

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

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.

In Proportion As Our Cares Are Employed Upon The Future, They Are Abstracted From The Present, From The Only Time Which We Can Call Our Own, And Of Which, If We Neglect The Apparent Duties To Make Provision Against Visionary Attacks, We Shall Certainly Counteract Our Own Purpose.

What Signifies Protesting So Against Flattery When A Person Speaks Well Of One, It Must Either Be True Or False, You Know If True, Let Us Rejoice In His Good Opinion If He Lies, It Is A Proof At Least That He Loves More To Please Me, Than To Sit S

Riches Are Of No Value In Themselves; Their Use Is Discovered Only In That Which They Procure.

If I Had No Duties, And No Reference To Futurity, I Would Spend My Life In Driving Briskly In A Post-chaise With A Pretty Woman.

Surely A Long Life Must Be Somewhat Tedious, Since We Are Forced To Call In So Many Trifling Things To Help Rid Us Of Our Time, Which Will Never Return.

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding; And Those Who Are Conscious Of Their Inferiority Have The Modesty Not To Talk; When They Have Drunk Wine, Every Man Feels Himself Happy, And Loses That Modesty, And Grows Impudent And Vociferous; But He Is Not Improved; He Is Only Not Sensible Of His Defects.

Gratitude Is A Fruit Of Great Cultivation; You Do Not Find It Among Gross People.

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

Claret Is The Liquor For Boys; Port For Men; But He Who Aspires To Be A Hero Must Drink Brandy.

Where No Man Thinks Himself Under Any Obligation To Submit To Another, And, Instead Of Co-operating In One Great Scheme, Every One Hastens Through By-paths To Private Profit, No Great Change Can Suddenly Be Made; Nor Is Superior Knowledge Of Much Effect, Where Every Man Resolves To Use His Own Eyes And His Own Judgment, And Every One Applauds His Own Dexterity And Diligence, In Proportion As He Becomes Rich Sooner Than His Neighbour.

The Mere Power Of Saving What Is Already In Our Hands Must Be Of Easy Acquisition To Every Mind; And As The Example Of Lord Bacon May Show That The Highest Intellect Cannot Safely Neglect It, A Thousand Instances Every Day Prove That The Humblest May Practise It With Success.

Providence Has Fixed The Limits Of Human Enjoyment By Immovable Boundaries, And Has Set Different Gratifications At Such A Distance From Each Other, That No Art Or Power Can Bring Them Together. This Great Law It Is The Business Of Every Rational Being To Understand, That Life May Not Pass Away In An Attempt To Make Contradictions Consistent, To Combine Opposite Qualities, And To Unite Things Which The Nature Of Their Being Must Always Keep Asunder.

Whatever Is Proposed, It Is Much Easier To Find Reasons For Rejecting Than Embracing.

Those Writers Who Lie On The Watch For Novelty Can Have Little Hope Of Greatness; For Great Things Cannot Have Escaped Former Observation.

Every Man Is Prompted By The Love Of Himself To Imagine That He Possesses Some Qualities Superior, Either In Kind Or Degree, To Those Which He Sees Allotted To The Rest Of The World.

We May Have Uneasy Feelings For Seeing A Creature In Distress Without Pity; For We Have Not Pity Unless We Wish To Relieve Them.

No Man Is Obliged To Do As Much As He Can Do. A Man Is To Have Part Of His Life To Himself.

Prejudice, Not Being Founded On Reason, Cannot Be Removed By Argument.

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.

In My Early Years I Read Very Hard. It Is A Sad Reflection, But A True One, That I Knew Almost As Much At Eighteen As I Do Now.

I Respect Millar, Sir: He Has Raised The Price Of Literature.

Those That Have Done Nothing In Life, Are Not Qualified To Judge Of Those That Have Done Little

An Englishman Is Content To Say Nothing When He Has Nothing To Say.

English Language

Apologies Are Seldom Of Any Use.

The Whole Of Life Is But Keeping Away The Thoughts Of Death.

Thoughts Of Death

To Live Without Feeling Or Exciting Sympathy, To Be Fortunate Without Adding To The Felicity Of Others, Or Afflicted Without Tasting The Balm Of Pity, Is A State More Gloomy Than Solitude; It Is Not Retreat, But Exclusion From Mankind. Marriage Has Many Pains, But Celibacy Has No Pleasures.

When Any Calamity Is Suffered, The First Thing To Be Remembered Is, How Much Has Been Escaped.

God Himself, Sir, Does Not Propose To Judge A Man Until His Life Is Over. Why Should You And I?

He That Never Labors May Know The Pains Of Idleness, But Not The Pleasures.

The Desires Of Man Increase With His Acquisitions.

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

It Is Advantageous To An Author That His Book Should Be Attacked As Well As Praised. Fame Is A Shuttlecock. If It Be Struck At One End Of The Room, It Will Soon Fall To The Ground. To Keep It Up, It Must Be Struck At Both Ends.

Every Cold Empirick, When His Heart Is Expanded By A Successful Experiment, Swells Into A Theorist.

As He That Lives Longest Lives But A Little While, Every Man May Be Certain That He Has No Time To Waste. The Duties Of Life Are Commensurate To Its Duration; And Every Day Brings Its Task, Which, If Neglected, Is Doubled On The Morrow.

Memory Is Like All Other Human Powers, With Which No Man Can Be Satisfied Who Measures Them By What He Can Conceive, Or By What He Can Desire.

The True Measure Of A Man Is How He Treats Someone Who Can Do Him Absolutely No Good.

Scarcely Any Degree Of Judgment Is Sufficient To Restrain The Imagination From Magnifying That On Which It Is Long Detained

To Hear Complaints With Patience, Even When Complaints Are Vain, Is One Of The Duties Of Friendship.

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.

Surely Nothing Is More Reproachful To A Being Endowed With Reason, Than To Resign Its Powers To The Influence Of The Air, And Live In Dependence On The Weather And The Wind, For The Only Blessings Which Nature Has Put Into Our Power, Tranquillity And Benevolence. To Look Up To The Sky For The Nutriment Of Our Bodies, Is The Condition Of Nature; To Call Upon The Sun For Peace And Gaiety, Or Deprecate The Clouds Lest Sorrow Should Overwhelm Us, Is The Cowardice Of Idleness, And The Idolatry Of Folly.

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

Instead Of Rating The Man By His Performances, We Rate Too Frequently The Performances By The Man.

Life Protracted Is Protracted Woe.

A Man Guilty Of Poverty Easily Believes Himself Suspected.

An Age That Melts In Unperceiv'd Decay, And Glides In Modest Innocence Away.

Time Is, Of All Modes Of Existence, Most Obsequious To The Imagination.

Just Praise Is Only A Debt, But Flattery Is A Present. The Acknowledgment Of Those Virtues On Which Conscience Congratulates Us Is A Tribute That We Can At Any Tine Exact With Confidence; But The Celebration Of Those Which We Only Feign, Or Desire Without Any Vigorous Endeavours To Attain Them, Is Received As A Confession Of Sovereignty Over Regions Never Conquered, As A Favourable Decision Of Disputable Claims, And Is More Welcome As More Gratuitous.

To Me - The Choice Of Life Is Become Less Important; I Hope Hereafter To Think Only On The Choice Of Eternity.

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.

Laws Teach Us To Know When We Commit Injury And When We Suffer It.

Politics Are Now Nothing More Than Means Of Rising In The World.

He That Wishes To See His Country Robbed Of Its Rights Cannot Be A Patriot.

In The Description Of Night In Macbeth, The Beetle And The Bat Detract From The General Idea Of Darkness - Inspissated Gloom.

As I Know More Of Mankind I Expect Less Of Them, And Am Ready Now To Call A Man A Good Man Upon Easier Terms Than I Was Formerly.

The Power Of Punishment Is To Silence, Not To Confute.

There Is A Certain Race Of Men That Either Imagine It Their Duty, Or Make It Their Amusement, To Hinder The Reception Of Every Work Of Learning Or Genius, Who Stand As Sentinels In The Avenues Of Fame, And Value Themselves Upon Giving Ignorance And Envy The First Notice Of A Prey.

A Family ... Is A Little Kingdom, Torn With Factions And Exposed To Revolutions.

For Who Is Pleased With Himself.

The Work Of A Correct And Regular Writer Is A Garden Accurately Formed And Diligently Planted, Varied With Shades, And Scented With Flowers.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

There May Be Community Of Material Possessions, But There Can Never Be Community Of Love Or Esteem.

For Gold The Hireling Judge Distorts The Laws.

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.

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

There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.

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.

Genius Now And Then Produces A Lucky Trifle. We Still Read The Dove Of Anacreon, And Sparrow Of Catullus; And A Writer Naturally Pleases Himself With A Performance Which Owes Nothing To The Subject.

To Embarrass Justice By Multiplicity Of Laws, Or To Hazard It By Confidence In Judges, Seem To Be The Opposite Rocks On Which All Civil Institutions Have Been Wrecked, And Between Which Legislative Wisdom Has Never Yet Found An Open Passage.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

Invention Is Almost The Only Literary Labour Which Blindness Cannot Obstruct.

Riches Exclude Only One Inconvenience,--that Is, Poverty.

Pour Forth Thy Fervors For A Healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, And A Will Resigned

Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause A While From Learning To Be Wise. There Mark What Ills The Scholar's Life Assail,- Toil, Envy, Want, The Patron, And The Jail.

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.

Yet Reason Frowns In War's Unequal Game, Where Wasted Nations Raise A Single Name; And Mortgag'd States Their Grandsire's Wreaths Regret, From Age To Age In Everlasting Debt; Wreaths Which At Last The Dear-bought Right Convey To Rust On Medals, Or On Stones Decay.

He That Reads And Grows No Wiser Seldom Suspects His Own Deficiency, But Complains Of Hard Words And Obscure Sentences, And Asks Why Books Are Written Which Cannot Be Understood.

The Only End Of Writing Is To Enable Readers Better To Enjoy Life Or Better To Endure It.

It Is The Great Privilege Of Poverty To Be Happy Unenvied, To Be Healthful Without Physic, And Secure Without A Guard; To Obtain From The Bounty Of Nature, What The Great And Wealthy Are Compelled To Procure By The Help Of Artists And Attendants, Of Flatterers And Spies.

The Equity Of Providence Has Balanced Peculiar Sufferings With Peculiar Enjoyments.

Liberty Is, To The Lowest Rank Of Every Nation, Little More Than The Choice Of Working Or Starving.

Combinations Of Wickedness Would Overwhelm The World, By The Advantage Which Licentious Principles Afford, Did Not Those Who Have Long Practised Perfidy Grow Faithless To Each Other.

When I Find That So Much Of My Life Has Stolen Unprofitably Away, And That I Can Descry By Retrospection Scarcely A Few Single Days Properly And Vigorously Employed, Why Do I Yet Try To Resolve Again? I Try, Because Reformation Is Necessary And Despair Is Criminal. I Try, In Humble Hope Of The Help Of God.

Those Who Have Past Much Of Their Lives In This Great City, Look Upon Its Opulence And Its Multitudes, Its Extent And Variety, With Cold Indifference; But An Inhabitant Of The Remoter Parts Of The Kingdom Is Immediately Distinguished By A Kind Of Dissipated Curiosity, A Busy Endeavour To Divide His Attention Amongst A Thousand Objects, And A Wild Confusion Of Astonishment And Alarm.

Words Too Familiar, Or Too Remote, Defeat The Purpose Of A Poet. From Those Sounds Which We Hear On Small Or On Coarse Occasions, We Do Not Easily Receive Strong Impressions, Or Delightful Images; And Words To Which We Are Nearly Strangers, Whenever They Occur, Draw That Attention On Themselves Which They Should Transmit To Other Things.

There Are Goods So Opposed That We Cannot Seize Both, But, By Too Much Prudence, May Pass Between Them At Too Great A Distance To Reach Either.

To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak

Whoever Rises Above Those Who Once Pleased Themselves With Equality, Will Have Many Malevolent Gazers At His Eminence.

Beauty, Without Kindness, Dies Unenjoyed And Undelighting.

Assertion Is Not Argument; To Contradict The Statement Of An Opponent Is Not Proof That You Are Correct.

No Government Power Can Be Abused Long. Mankind Will Not Bear It.... There Is A Remedy In Human Nature Against Tyranny, That Will Keep Us Safe Under Every Form Of Government.

Those Authors Who Would Find Many Readers, Must Endeavour To Please While They Instruct.

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal; And He May Be Properly Charged With Evil Who Refused To Learn How He Might Prevent It.

Such Is The Common Process Of Marriage. A Youth And Maiden Exchange Meeting By Chance, Or Brought Together By Artifice, Exchange Glances, Reciprocate Civilities, Go Home, And Dream Of One Another. Having Little To Divert Attention, Or Diversify Thought, They Find Themselves Uneasy When They Are Apart, And Therefore Conclude That They Shall Be Happy Together. They Marry, And Discover What Nothing But Voluntary Blindness Had Before Concealed; They Wear Out Life In Altercations, And Charge Nature With Cruelty.

Such Are The Vicissitudes Of The World, Through All Its Parts, That Day And Night, Labor And Rest, Hurry And Retirement, Endear Each Other; Such Are The Changes That Keep The Mind In Action: We Desire, We Pursue, We Obtain, We Are Satiated; We Desire Something Else And Begin A New Pursuit.

In Sovereignty There Are No Gradations.

Whoever Wishes To Attain An English Style, Familiar But Not Coarse, And Elegant But Not Ostentatious, Must Give His Days And Nights To The Volumes Of Addison.

Every One Should Consider Himself As Intrusted Not Only With His Own Conduct, But With That Of Others; And As Accountable, Not Only For The Duties Which He Neglects, Or The Crimes That He Commits, But For That Negligence And Irregularity Which He May Encourage Or Inculcate. Every Man, In Whatever Station, Has, Or Endeavours To Have His Followers, Admirers, And Imitators, And Has Therefore The Influence Of His Example To Watch With Care.

Confidence Is A Plant Of Slow Growth; Especially In An Aged Bosom

In Questions Of Law Or Of Fact Conscience Is Very Often Confounded With Opinion. No Man's Conscience Can Tell Him The Rights Of Another Man; They Must Be Known By Rational Investigation Or Historical Inquiry.

There Are Two Types Of Knowledge. One Is Knowing A Thing. The Other Is Knowing Where To Find It.

Paradise Lost Is A Book That, Once Put Down, Is Very Hard To Pick Up Again.

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

Never, My Dear Sir, Do You Take It Into Your Head That I Do Not Love You; You May Settle Yourself In Full Confidence Both Of My Love And My Esteem; I Love You As A Kind Man, I Value You As A Worthy Man, And Hope In Time To Reverence You As A Man Of Exemplary Piety.

The Feeling Of Friendship Is Like That Of Being Comfortably Filled With Roast Beef; Love, Like Being Enlivened With Champagne.

In All Political Regulations, Good Cannot Be Complete, It Can Only Be Predominant.

What Provokes Your Risibility, Sir? Have I Said Anything That You Understand? Then I Ask Pardon Of The Rest Of The Company.

Among The Calamities Of War May Be Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth, By The Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates, And Credulity Encourages.

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.

Men Have Been Wise In Many Different Modes; But They Have Always Laughed The Same Way.

There Is No Crime More Infamous Than The Violation Of Truth. It Is Apparent That Men Can Be Social Beings No Longer Than They Believe Each Other. When Speech Is Employed Only As The Vehicle Of Falsehood, Every Man Must Disunite Himself From Others, Inhabit His Own Cave And Seek Prey Only For Himself.

I Look Upon Every Day To Be Lost, In Which I Do Not Make A New Acquaintance.

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

None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.

Bravery Has No Place Where It Can Avail Nothing.

He Is Not Only Dull Himself, But The Cause Of Dulness In Others.

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.

We Are Inclined To Believe Those Whom We Do Not Know Because They Have Never Deceived Us.

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.

The Inevitable Consequence Of Poverty Is Dependence.

I Am Willing To Love All Of Mankind, Except An American.

Many Causes May Vitiate A Writer's Judgement Of His Own Works. On That Which Has Cost Him Much Labour He Sets A High Value, Because He Is Unwilling To Think That He Has Been Diligent In Vain: What Has Been Produced Without Toilsome Efforts Is Considered With Delight As A Proof Of Vigorous Faculties And Fertile Invention; And The Last Work, Whatever It Be, Has Necessarily Most Of The Grace Of Novelty.

Sir, Sorrow Is Inherent In Humanity. As You Cannot Judge Two And Two To Be Either Five, Or Three, But Certainly Four, So, When Comparing A Worse Present State With A Better Which Is Past, You Cannot But Feel Sorrow. It Is Not Cured By Reason, But By The Incursion Of Present Objects, Which Bear Out The Past.

In A Man's Letters You Know, Madam, His Soul Lies Naked, His Letters Are Only The Mirrour Of His Breast.

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.

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.

Procrastination

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.

Much May Be Made Of A Scotchman, If He Be Caught Young.

A Cow Is A Very Good Animal In The Field; But We Turn Her Out Of A Garden.

Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

I Remember A Passage In Goldsmith's "vicar Of Wakefield," Which He Was Afterwards Fool Enough To Expunge: "i Do Not Love A Man Who Is Zealous For Nothing.

It Is Scarcely Credible To What Degree Discernment May Be Dazzled By The Mist Of Pride, And Wisdom Infatuated By The Intoxication Of Flattery.

The Happiness Of London Is Not To Be Conceived But By Those Who Have Been In It.

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

To Tell Your Own Secrets Is Generally Folly, But That Folly Is Without Guilt; To Communicate Those With Which We Are Intrusted Is Always Treachery, And Treachery For The Most Part Combined With Folly.

Quotation Is The Highest Compliment You Can Pay An Author.

Compliments You

Gratitude Is A Species Of Justice.

Of Him That Hopes To Be Forgiven It Is Indispensably Required That He Forgive. It Is, Therefore, Superfluous To Urge Any Other Motive. On This Great Duty Eternity Is Suspended, And To Him That Refuses To Practise It, The Throne Of Mercy Is Inaccessible, And The Saviour Of The World Has Been Born In Vain.

Ignorance Cannot Always Be Inferred From Inaccuracy; Knowledge Is Not Always Present.

Nothing Concentrates One's Mind So Much As The Realization That One Is Going To Be Hanged In The Morning!

The Commodiousness Of Money Is Indeed Great; But There Are Some Advantages Which Money Cannot Buy, And Which Therefore No Wise Man Will By The Love Of Money Be Tempted To Forego.

Fate Wings, With Every Wish, The Afflictive Dart, Each Gift Of Nature, And Each Grace Of Art.

It May Be Observed In General That The Future Is Purchased By The Present. It Is Not Possible To Secure Distant Or Permanent Happiness But By The Forbearance Of Some Immediate Gratification.

Life Is A Pill Which None Of Us Can Bear To Swallow Without Gilding.

Oats. A Grain, Which In England Is Generally Given To Horses, But In Scotland Supports The People.

Pointed Axioms And Acute Replies Fly Loose About The World, And Are Assigned Successively To Those Whom It May Be The Fashion To Celebrate.

Here Lies Our Good Edmund, Whose Genius Was Such, We Scarcely Can Praise It Or Blame It Too Much; Who, Born For The Universe, Narrowed His Mind, And To Party Gave Up What Was Meant For Mankind.

Pride Is Seldom Delicate, It Will Please Itself With Very Mean Advantages; And Envy Feels Not Its Own Happiness, But When It May Be Compared With The Misery Of Others

Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness.

Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.

A Fishing Rod Is A Stick With A Hook At One End And A Fool At The Other.

It Is Much Easier Not To Write Like A Man Than To Write Like A Woman.

The Uniform Necessities Of Human Nature Produce In A Great Measure Uniformity Of Life, And For Part Of The Day Make One Place Like Another; To Dress And To Undress, To Eat And To Sleep, Are The Same In London As In The Country.

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.

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

There Is Reason To Suspect, That The Distinctions Of Mankind Have More Show Than Value, When It Is Found That All Agree To Be Weary Alike Of Pleasures And Of Cares; That The Powerful And The Weak, The Celebrated And Obscure, Join In One Common Wish, And Implore From Nature's Hand The Nectar Of Oblivion.

Preserve Me From Unseasonable And Immoderate Sleep.

The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England.

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.

Every Other Author May Aspire To Praise; The Lexicographer Can Only Hope To Escape Reproach.

To Forget, Or Pretend To Do So, To Return A Borrowed Article, Is The Meanest Sort Of Petty Theft.

The History Of Mankind Is Little Else Than A Narrative Of Designs Which Have Failed And Hopes That Have Been Disappointed.

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

It Is Wonderful To Think How Men Of Very Large Estates Not Only Spend Their Yearly Income, But Are Often Actually In Want Of Money. It Is Clear, They Have Not Value For What They Spend.

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.

The Present Is Never A Happy State To Any Human Being.

Lichfield, England. Swallows Certainly Sleep All Winter. A Number Of Them Conglobulate Together, By Flying Round And Round, And Then All In A Heap Throw Themselves Under Water, And Lye In The Bed Of A River.

No Man Hates Him At Whom He Can Laugh.

Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.

Now ... That You Are Going To Marry, Do Not Expect More From Life, Than Life Will Afford.

It Is Better That Some Should Be Unhappy Rather Than That None Should Be Happy, Which Would Be The Case In A General State Of Equality.

Every Old Man Complains Of The Growing Depravity Of The World, Of The Petulance And Insolence Of The Rising Generation.

Sir, If You Wish To Have A Just Notion Of The Magnitude Of This City, You Must Not Be Satisfied With Seeing Its Great Streets And Squares, But Must Survey The Innumerable Little Lanes And Courts. It Is Not In The Showy Evolutions Of Buildings, But In The Multiplicity Of Human Habitations Which Are Crowded Together, That The Wonderful Immensity Of London Consists.

It Is Not True That People Are Naturally Equal For No Two People Can Be Together For Even A Half An Hour Without One Acquiring An Evident Superiority Over The Other.

In All Pleasures Hope Is A Considerable Part.

No Man Should Attempt To Teach Others What He Has Never Learned Himself

None Can Be Pleased Without Praise, And Few Can Be Praised Without Falsehood.

He Was Dull In A New Way, And That Made Many Think Him Great.

A Successful Author Is Equally In Danger Of The Diminution Of His Fame, Whether He Continues Or Ceases To Write.

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.

Differences, We Know, Are Never So Effectually Laid Asleep As By Some Common Calamity; An Enemy Unites All To Whom He Threatens Danger.

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.

He That Hopes To Look Back Hereafter With Satisfaction Upon Past Years Must Learn To Know The Present Value Of Single Minutes, And Endeavour To Let No Particle Of Time Fall Useless To The Ground.

Adversity Leads Us To Think Properly Of Our State, And So Is Most Beneficial To Us.

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