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Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded; For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadsul Than Its Extinction.

-Samuel Johnson

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Yet It Is Necessary

Samuel Johnson

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Yet It Is Necessary To Hope, Though Hope Should Always Be Deluded; For Hope Itself Is Happiness, And Its Frustrations, However Frequent, Are Yet Less Dreadsul Than Its Extinction.

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A Writer Only Begins A Book. A Reader Finishes It.

The Limbs Will Quiver And Move After The Soul Is Gone.

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.

Love Is Only One Of Many Passions.

Fear Is Implanted In Us As A Preservative From Evil But Its Duty, Like That Of Other Passions, Is Not To Overbear Reason, But To Assist It. It Should Not Be Suffered To Tyrannize In The Imagination, To Raise Phantoms Of Horror, Or To Beset Life With Supernumerary Distresses.

Hunger Is Never Delicate.

No Man Can Have Much Kindness For Him By Whom He Does Not Believe Himself Esteemed, And Nothing So Evidently Proves Esteem As Imitation.

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. This Is So Evidently True With Regard To The Whole Of Our Existence That All Precepts Of Theology Have No Other Tendency Than To Enforce A Life Of Faith; A Life Regulated Not By Our Senses But By Our Belief; A Life In Which Pleasures Are To Be Refused For Fear Of Invisible Punishments, And Calamities Sometimes To Be Sought, And Always Endured, In Hope Of Rewards That Shall Be Obtained In Another State.

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

Too Much Nicety Of Detail Disgusts The Greatest Part Of Readers, And To Throw A Multitude Of Particulars Under General Heads, And Lay Down Rules Of Extensive Comprehension, Is To Common Understandings Of Little Use.

How Small Of All That Human Hearts Endure/that Part Which Laws Or Kings Can Cause Or Cure.

Jesting, Often, Only Proves A Want Of Intellect.

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

We Must Consider How Very Little History There Is--i Mean Real, Authentic History. That Certain Kings Reigned And Certain Battles Were Fought, We Can Depend Upon As True; But All The Coloring, All The Philosophy, Of History Is Conjecture.

The Seeds Of Knowledge May Be Planted In Solitude, But Must Be Cultivated In Public.

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

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.

We Are More Pained By Ignorance Than Delighted By Instruction.

You Hesitate To Stab Me With A Word, And Know Not - Silence Is The Sharper Sword.

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.

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.

Security Will Produce Danger.

Where Secrecy Or Mystery Begins, Vice Or Roguery Is Not Far Off.

A Woman Of Fortune Being Used The Handling Of Money, Spends It Judiciously; But A Woman Who Gets The Command Of Money For The First Time Upon Her Marriage, Has Such A Gust In Spending It, That She Throws It Away With Great Profusion.

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

Advice Is Offensive, It Shows Us That We Are Known To Others As Well As To Ourselves.

It Is Commonly Supposed That The Uniformity Of A Studious Life Affords No Matter For Narration: But The Truth Is, That Of The Most Studious Life A Great Part Passes Without Study. An Author Partakes Of The Common Condition Of Humanity; He Is Born And Married Like Another Man; He Has Hopes And Fears, Expectations And Disappointments, Griefs And Joys, And Friends And Enemies, Like A Courtier Or A Statesman; Nor Can I Conceive Why His Affairs Shuld Not Excite Curiosity As Much As The Whisper Of A Drawing-room, Or The Factions Of A Camp.

The Habit Of Looking On The Bright Side Of Every Event Is Worth More Than A Thousand Pounds A Year.

Positive Thinking

Unless A Woman Has An Amorous Heart, She Is A Dull Companion.

I Soon Found That Wit, Like Every Other Power, Has Its Boundaries; That Its Success Depends Upon The Aptitude Of Others To Receive Impressions; And That As Some Bodies, Indissoluble By Heat, Can Set The Furnace And Crucible At Defiance, There Are Min

Pleasure Itself Is Not A Vice

The Joy Of Life Is Variety; The Tenderest Love Requires To Be Rekindled By Intervals Of Absence.

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

Every Other Enjoyment Malice May Destroy; Every Other Panegyric Envy May Withhold; But No Human Power Can Deprive The Boaster Of His Own Encomiums.

A Man Who Is Good Enough To Go To Heaven Is Good Enough To Be A Clergyman.

Not Good Enough

Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.

It Requires But Little Acquaintance With The Heart To Know That Woman's First Wish Is To Be Handsome; And That, Consequently, The Readiest Method Of Obtaining Her Kindness Is To Praise Her Beauty.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

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

The Irish Are A Fair People: They Never Speak Well Of One Another.

Ireland And The Irish

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

The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.

The Main Of Life Is Composed Of Small Incidents And Petty Occurrences; Of Wishes For Objects Not Remote, And Grief For Disappointments Of No Fatal Consequence.

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

A Man Used To Vicissitudes Is Not Easily Dejected.

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

To Use Two Languages Familiarly And Without Contaminating One By The Other, Is Very Difficult; And To Use More Than Two Is Hardly To Be Hoped. The Prizes Which Some Have Received For Their Multiplicity Of Languages May Be Sufficient To Excite Industry, But Can Hardly Generate Confidence.

A Quibble Is To Shakespeare What Luminous Vapours Are To The Traveller: He Follows It At All Adventures; It Is Sure To Lead Him Out Of His Way And Sure To Engulf Him In The Mire.

Let Observation With Extensive View, Survey Mankind From China To Peru; Remark Each Anxious Toil, Each Eager Strife, And Watch The Busy Scenes Of Crowded Life.

He That Compares What He Has Done With What He Has Left Undone, Will Feel The Effect Which Must Always Follow The Comparison Of Imagination With Reality; He Will Look With Contempt On His Own Unimportance, And Wonder To What Purpose He Came Into The World; He Will Repine That He Shall Leave Behind Him No Evidence Of His Having Been, That He Has Added Nothing To The System Of Life, But Has Glided From Youth To Age Among The Crowd, Without Any Effort For Distinction.

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

To Exact Of Every Man Who Writes That He Should Say Something New, Would Be To Reduce Authors To A Small Number; To Oblige The Most Fertile Genius To Say Only What Is New, Would Be To Contract His Volumes To A Few Pages. Yet, Surely, There Ought To Be Some Bounds To Repetition; Libraries Ought No More To Be Heaped For Ever With The Same Thoughts Differently Expressed, Than With The Same Books Differently Decorated.

Nothing Detains The Reader's Attention More Powerfully Than Deep Involutions Of Distress, Or Sudden Vicissitudes Of Fortune; And These Might Be Abundantly Afforded By Memoirs Of The Sons Of Literature. They Are Entangled By Contracts Which They Know Not How To Fulfill, And Obliged To Write On Subjects Which They Do Not Understand. Every Publication Is A New Period Of Time, From Which Some Increase Or Declension Of Fame Is To Be Reckoned. The Gradations Of A Hero's Life Are From Battle To Battle, And Of An Author's From Book To Book.

I Would Consent To Have A Limb Amputated To Recover My Spirits

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

A Fallible Being Will Fail Somewhere.

Nothing Is Difficult, When Gain And Honour Unite Their Influence.

The Common People Do Not Accurately Adapt Their Thoughts To Objects; Nor, Secondly, Do They Accurately Adapt Their Words To Their Thoughts; They Do Not Mean To Lie; But, Taking No Pains To Be Exact, They Give You Very False Accounts. A Great Part Of Their Language Is Proverbial; If Anything Rocks At All, They Say It Rocks Like A Cradle; And In This Way They Go On.

People In Distress Never Think That You Feel Enough.

There Is In This World No Real Delight (excepting Those Of Sensuality), But Exchange Of Ideas In Conversation.

Sir, I Have No Objection To A Man's Drinking Wine, If He Can Do It In Moderation. I Found Myself Apt To Go To Excess In It, And Therefore, After Having Been For Some Time Without It, On Account Of Illness, I Thought It Better Not To Return To It. Every Man Is To Judge For Himself, According To The Effects Which He Experiences.

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.

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

Lawyers Know Life Practically. A Bookish Man Should Always Have Them To Converse With.

Religion Informs Us That Misery And Sin Were Produced Together. The Depravation Of Human Will Was Followed By A Disorder Of The Harmony Of Nature; And By That Providence Which Often Places Antidotes In The Neighborhood Of Poisons, Vice Was Checked By Misery, Lest It Should Swell To Universal And Unlimited Dominion.

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.

We May Take Fancy For A Companion, But Must Follow Reason As Our Guide.

Our Aspirations Are Our Possibilities.

The Necessities Of Our Condition Require A Thousand Offices Of Tenderness, Which Mere Regard For The Species Will Never Dictate.

Language Is The Dress Of Thought; Every Time You Talk Your Mind Is On Parade.

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

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.

As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance.

Resentment Gratifies Him Who Intended An Injury, And Pains Him Unjustly Who Did Not Intend It.

Turn On The Prudent Ant, Thy Heedful Eyes, Observe Her Labours, Sluggard, And Be Wise.

The Time Will Come To Every Human Being When It Must Be Known How Well He Can Bear To Die.

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

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

The Next Best Thing To Knowing Something Is Knowing Where To Find It.

The Wise Man Applauds He Who He Thinks Most Virtuous; The Rest Of The World Applauds The Wealthy.

I Have Protracted My Work Till Most Of Those Whom I Wished To Please Have Sunk Into The Grave, And Success And Miscarriage Are Empty Sounds: I Therefore Dismiss It With Frigid Tranquillity, Having Little To Fear Or Hope From Censure Or From Praise.

No Man Is Much Regarded By The Rest Of The World. He That Considers How Little He Dwells Upon The Condition Of Others, Will Learn How Little The Attention Of Others Is Attracted By Himself. While We See Multitudes Passing Before Us, Of Whom Perhaps Not One Appears To Deserve Our Notice Or Excites Our Sympathy, We Should Remember, That We Likewise Are Lost In The Same Throng, That The Eye Which Happens To Glance Upon Us Is Turned In A Moment On Him That Follows Us, And That The Utmost Which We Can Reasonably Hope Or Fear Is To Fill A Vacant Hour With Prattle, And Be Forgotten.

Evil Is Uncertain In The Same Degree As Good, And For The Reason That We Ought Not To Hope Too Securely, We Ought Not To Fear With To Much Dejection.

Censure Is Willingly Indulged, Because It Always Implies Some Superiority: Men Please Themselves With Imagining That They Have Made A Deeper Search, Or Wider Survey Than Others, And Detected Faults And Follies Which Escape Vulgar Observation.

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.

Such Is The Constitution Of Man That Labour May Be Styled Its Own Reward; Nor Will Any External Incitements Be Requisite, If It Be Considered How Much Happiness Is Gained, And How Much Misery Escaped, By Frequent And Violent Agitation Of The Body.

Every Desire Is A Viper In The Bosom, Who While He Was Chill Was Harmless; But When Warmth Gave Him Strength, Exerted It In Poison.

The Really Happy Woman Is The One Who Can Enjoy The Scenery When She Has To Take A Detour. Happiness Is Not A State To Arrive At, But Rather A Manner Of Traveling.

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

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

Life, However Short, Is Made Still Shorter By Waste Of Time.

Language Is Only The Instrument Of Science, And Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

Men Do Not Suspect Faults Which They Do Not Commit

Hope Is Necessary In Every Condition. The Miseries Of Poverty, Sickness And Captivity Would, Without This Comfort, Be Insupportable.

Everybody Loves To Have Things Which Please The Palate Put In Their Way, Without Trouble Or Preparation.

Indolence Is The Devil's Cushion.

Every Man Is Of Importance To Himself, And, Therefore, In His Own Opinion, To Others; And, Supposing The World Already Acquainted With His Pleasures And His Pains, Is Perhaps The First To Publish Injuries Or Misfortunes Which Had Never Been Known Unless Related By Himself, And At Which Those That Hear Them Will Only Laugh, For No Man Sympathises With The Sorrows Of Vanity.

Wasting A Fortune Is Evaporation By A Thousand Imperceptible Means.

Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.

Languages Are The Pedigree Of Nations.

The Usual Fortune Of Complaint Is To Excite Contempt More Than Pity.

Irresolution And Mutability Are Often The Faults Of Men Whose Views Are Wide, And Whose Imagination Is Vigorous And Excursive.

I Inherited A Vile Melancholy From My Father, Which Has Made Me Mad All My Life, At Least Not Sober.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

There Is, Indeed, Nothing That So Much Seduces Reason From Vigilance, As The Thought Of Passing Life With An Amiable Woman.

Labor's Face Is Wrinkled With The Wind, And Swarthy With The Sun.

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

There Is No Wisdom In Useless And Hopeless Sorrow.

A Minute Analysis Of Life At Once Destroys That Splendor Which Dazzles The Imagination. Whatsoever Grandeur Can Display, Or Luxury Enjoy, Is Procured By Offices Of Which The Mind Shrinks From The Contemplation. All The Delicacies Of The Table May Be Traced Back To The Shambles And The Dunghill; All Magnificence Of Building Was Hewn From The Quarry, And All The Pomp Of Ornament Dug From Among The Damps And Darkness Of The Mine.

Wickedness Is Always Easier Than Virtue; For It Takes The Short Cut To Everything.

Gloomy Calm Of Idle Vacancy.

It Is Generally Allowed, That No Man Ever Found The Happiness Of Possession Proportionate To That Expectation Which Incited His Desire, And Invigorated His Pursuit; Nor Has Any Man Found The Evils Of Life So Formidable In Reality, As They Were Described To Him By His Own Imagination; Every Species Of Distress Brings With It Some Peculiar Supports, Some Unforeseen Means Of Resisting, Or Powers Of Enduring.

It Is A Most Mortifying Reflection For A Man To Consider What He Has Done, Compared To What He Might Have Done.

Whatever Enlarges Hope Will Also Exalt Courage.

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

I Advised Chambers, And Would Advise Every Young Man Beginning To Compose, To Do It As Fast As He Can, To Get A Habit Of Having His Mind To Start Promptly; It Is So Much More Difficult To Improve In Speed Than In Accuracy.

Of The Blessings Set Before You Make Your Choice, And Be Content.

All The Arguments Which Are Brought To Represent Poverty As No Evil Show It Evidently To Be A Great Evil.

Surely, It Is Much Easier To Respect A Man Who Has Always Had Respect, Than To Respect A Man Who We Know Was Last Year No Better Than Ourselves, And Will Be No Better Next Year.

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

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

Men Become Friends By A Community Of Pleasures.

The Parallel Circumstances And Kindred Images To Which We Readily Conform Our Minds Are, Above All Other Writings, To Be Found In The Lives Of Particular Persons, And Therefore No Species Of Writing Seems More Worthy Of Cultivation Than Biography.

The Mischief Of Flattery Is, Not That It Persuades Any Man That He Is What He Is Not, But That It Suppresses The Influence Of Honest Ambition, By Raising An Opinion That Honour May Be Gained Without The Toil Of Merit.

I Am Always Sorry When Any Language Is Lost, Because Languages Are The Pedigrees Of Nations.

Wealth Is Nothing In Itself; It Is Not Useful But When It Departs From Us.

Courage Is A Quality So Necessary For Maintaining Virtue, That It Is Always Respected, Even When It Is Associated With Vice.

Nothing Is More Common Than For Men To Make Partial And Absurd Distinctions Between Vices Of Equal Enormity, And To Observe Some Of The Divine Commands With Great Scrupulousness, While They Violate Others, Equally Important, Without Any Concern, Or The Least Apparent Conciousness Of Guilt. Alas, It Is Only Wisdom Which Perceives This Tragedy.

Sir, What Is Poetry? Why, Sir, It Is Much Easier To Say What It Is Not. We All Know What Light Is; But It Is Not Easy To Tell What It Is.

The Trappings Of A Monarchy Would Set Up An Ordinary Commonwealth.

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.

Human Happiness Has Always Its Abatements; The Brightest Sunshine Of Success Is Not Without A Cloud.

Never Mind The Use--do It!

There Is A Frightful Interval Between The Seed And The Timber.

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.

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

We Often Need Reminding Even If We Do Not Often Need Educating.

Conjecture As To Things Useful, Is Good; But Conjecture As To What It Would Be Useless To Know, Is Very Idle.

The Reciprocal Civility Of Authors Is One Of The Most Risible Scenes In The Farce Of Life.

Friendship Is Seldom Lasting But Between Equals, Or Where The Superiority On One Side Is Reduced By Some Equivalent Advantage On The Other.

It Seems To Be Remarkable That Death Increases Our Veneration For The Good, And Extenuates Our Hatred For The Bad.

Much Is Due To Those Who First Broke The Way To Knowledge, And Left Only To Their Successors The Task Of Smoothing It.

Such Is The State Of Life, That None Are Happy But By The Anticipation Of Change: The Change Itself Is Nothing; When We Have Made It, The Next Wish Is To Change Again.

Levellers Wish To Level Down As Far As Themselves; But They Cannot Bear Levelling Up To Themselves.

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

Nothing Is More Idle Than To Inquire After Happiness, Which Nature Has Kindly Placed Within Our Reach.

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.

Wine Gives Great Pleasure, And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. And A Man Should Cultivate His Mind So As To Have That Confidence And Readiness Without Wine, Which Wine Gives.

From Bard, To Bard, The Frigid Caution Crept, Till Declamation Roar'd, While Passion Slept.

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

It Is Generally Agreed, That Few Men Are Made Better By Affluence Or Exaltation.

To Be Free It Is Not Enough To Beat The System, One Must Beat The System Every Day

You Cannot Spend Money In Luxury Without Doing Good To The Poor. Nay, You Do More Good To Them By Spending It In Luxury, Than By Giving It; For By Spending It In Luxury, You Make Them Exert Industry, Whereas By Giving It, You Keep Them Idle.

Parents Are By No Means Exempt From The Intoxication Of Dominion.

The World Will Never Be Long Without Some Good Reason To Hate The Unhappy; Their Real Faults Are Immediately Detected; And If Those Are Not Sufficient To Sink Them Into Infamy, An Individual Weight Of Calumny Will Be Super-added.

He Is A Benefactor Of Mankind Who Contracts The Great Rules Of Life Into The Short Sentences, That May Be Easily Impressed On The Memory, And So Recur Habitually To The Mind.

Philosophy Has Often Attempted To Repress Insolence By Asserting That All Conditions Are Leveled By Death; A Position Which, However It May Defect The Happy, Will Seldom Afford Much Comfort To The Wretched.

Sir, There Is No End Of Negative Criticism.

Negative Criticism

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

Books That You May Carry To The Fire, And Hold Readily In Your Hand, Are The Most Useful After All.

It Is Very Natural For Young Men To Be Vehement, Acrimonious And Severe. For As They Seldom Comprehend At Once All The Consequences Of A Position, Or Perceive The Difficulties By Which Cooler And More Experienced Reasoners Are Restrained From Confidence, They Form Their Conclusions With Great Precipitance. Seeing Nothing That Can Darken Or Embarrass The Question, They Expect To Find Their Own Opinion Universally Prevalent, And Are Inclined To Impute Uncertainty And Hesitation To Want Of Honesty, Rather Than Of Knowledge.

No Knowledge Is Useless, With The Exception Of Heraldry.

Profuseness Is A Cruel And Crafty Demon, That Gradually Involves Her Followers In Dependence And Debt; That Is, Fetters Them With Irons That Enter Into Their Souls.

That What Cannot Be Repaired Is Not To Be Regretted.

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.

The Man Who Feels Himself Ignorant Should, At Least, Be Modest.

Almost Every Man Wastes Part Of His Life Attempting To Display Qualities Which He Does Not Possess.

In Order That All Men Might Be Taught To Speak Truth, It Is Necessary That All Likewise Should Learn To Hear It.

Love Has No Great Influences Upon The Sum Of Life.

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

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.

Poetry Is The Art Of Uniting Pleasure With Truth.

A Blade Of Grass Is Always A Blade Of Grass, Whether In One Country Or Another.

I Hate Mankind, For I Think Myself One Of The Best Of Them, And I Know How Bad I Am.

Truth Has No Gradations; Nothing Which Admits Of Increase Can Be So Much What It Is, As Truth Is Truth. There May Be A Strange Thing, And A Thing More Strange. But If A Proposition Be True, There Can Be None More True.

Good-humor Is A State Between Gayety And Unconcern,--the Act Or Emanation Of A Mind At Leisure To Regard The Gratification Of Another.

Order Is A Lovely Nymph, The Child Of Beauty And Wisdom; Her Attendants Are Comfort, Neatness, And Activity; Her Abode Is The Valley Of Happiness: She Is Always To Be Found When Sought For, And Never Appears So Lovely As When Contrasted With Her Opponent, Disorder.

I Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.

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

Critics Ought Never To Be Consulted, But While Errors May Yet Be Rectified Or Insipidity Suppressed. But When The Book Has Once Been Dismissed Into The World, And Can Be No More Retouched, I Know Not Whether A Very Different Conduct Should Not Be Prescribed, And Whether Firmness And Spirit May Not Sometimes Be Of Use To Overpower Arrogance And Repel Brutality.

It Is The Just Doom Of Laziness And Gluttony To Be Inactive Without Ease And Drowsy Without Tranquility.

It Is True That Of Far The Greater Part Of Things, We Must Content Ourselves With Such Knowledge As Description May Exhibit, Or Analogy Supply; But It Is True Likewise, That These Ideas Are Always Incomplete, And That At Least, Till We Have Compared Them With Realities, We Do Not Know Them To Be Just. As We See More, We Become Possessed Of More Certainties, And Consequently Gain More Principles Of Reasoning, And Found A Wider Base Of Analogy.

There Is No Kind Of Idleness By Which We Are So Easily Seduced As That Which Dignifies Itself By The Appearance Of Business.

Admiration Begins Where Acquaintance Ceases

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

The Misery Of Man Proceeds Not From Any Single Crush Of Overwhelming Evil, But From Small Vexations Continually Repeated.

Words Are But The Signs Of Ideas.

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.

It Is Very Common For Us To Desire Most What We Are Least Qualified To Obtain.

He Said That Few People Had Intellectual Resources Sufficient To Forgo The Pleasures Of Wine. They Could Not Otherwise Contrive How To Fill The Interval Between Dinner And Supper.

Age Is Rarely Despised But When It Is, Contemptible.

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

Virtue Is Too Often Merely Local.

Nothing Is More Common Than Mutual Dislike, Where Mutual Approbation Is Particularly Expected.

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.

If We Estimate Dignity By Immediate Usefulness, Agriculture Is Undoubtedly The First And Noblest Science.

Nothing Has Tended More To Retard The Advancement Of Science Than The Disposition In Vulgar Minds To Vilify What They Cannot Comprehend.

He That Voluntarily Continues In Ignorance, Is Guilty Of All The Crimes Which Ignorance Produces.

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

Ignorance, When It Is Voluntary, Is Criminal.

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