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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.

-Samuel Johnson

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Yet Reason Frowns In

Samuel Johnson

...

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.

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Friendship, Peculiar Boon Of Heaven, The Noble Mind's Delight And Pride, To Men And Angels Only Given, To All The Lower World Denied.

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

What Is Twice Read Is Commonly Better Remembered That What Is Transcribed.

Love Is Only One Of Many Passions.

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

Merriment Is Always The Effect Of A Sudden Impression. The Jest Which Is Expected Is Already Destroyed.

Ancient Travelers Guessed; Modern Travelers Measure.

The Traveler That Resolutely Follows A Rough And Winding Path Will Sooner Reach The End Of His Journey Than He That Is Always Changing His Direction, And Wastes The Hour Of Daylight In Looking For Smoother Ground And Shorter Passages.

A Horse That Can Count To Ten Is A Remarkable Horse, Not A Remarkable Mathematician.

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?

Curiosity Is One Of The Permanent And Certain Characteristics Of A Vigorous Intellect. Every Advance Into Knowledge Opens New Prospects, And Produces New Incitements To Farther Progress.

A Man Is In General Better Pleased When He Has A Good Dinner Upon His Table, Than When His Wife Talks Greek.

I Have No More Pleasure In Hearing A Man Attempting Wit And Failing, Than In Seeing A Man Trying To Leap Over A Ditch And Tumbling Into It

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

Every Man Is Rich Or Poor According To The Proportion Between His Desires And His Enjoyments.

No Member Of A Society Has A Right To Teach Any Doctrine Contrary To What The Society Holds To Be True.

Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.

If A Man Does Not Make New Acquaintances As He Advances Through Life, He Will Soon Find Himself Left Alone. A Man, Sir, Should Keep His Friendship In A Constant Repair.

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

Ireland And The Irish

The Happiest Conversation Is That Of Which Nothing Is Distinctly Remembered, But A General Effect Of Pleasing Impression.

Misery Is Caused For The Most Part, Not By A Heavy Crush Of Disaster, But By The Corrosion Of Less Visible Evils, Which Canker Enjoyment, And Undermine Security. The Visit Of An Invader Is Necessarily Rare, But Domestic Animosities Allow No Cessation.

Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes.

Want Of Tenderness Is Want Of Parts, And Is No Less A Proof Of Stupidity Than Depravity.

A Country Governed By A Despot Is An Inverted Cone.

Dictionaries Are Like Watches, The Worst Is Better Than None And The Best Cannot Be Expected To Go Quite True.

Few Enterprises Of Great Labor Or Hazard Would Be Undertaken If We Had Not The Power Of Magnifying The Advantages We Expect From Them.

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

The Use Of Travelling Is To Regulate Imagination By Reality, And Instead Of Thinking How Things May Be, To See Them As They Are.

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.

Few Of Those Who Fill The World With Books, Have Any Pretensions To The Hope Either Of Pleasing Or Instructing. They Have Often No Other Task Than To Lay Two Books Before Them, Out Of Which They Compile A Third, Without Any New Material Of Their Own, And With Very Little Application Of Judgment To Those Which Former Authors Have Supplied.

Our Minds, Like Our Bodies, Are In Continual Flux; Something Is Hourly Lost, And Something Acquired.... Do Not Suffer Life To Stagnate; It Will Grow Muddy For Want Of Motion: Commit Yourself Again To The Current Of The World.

There Are In Every Age New Errors To Be Rectified And New Prejudices To Be Opposed.

Whatever Withdraws Us From The Power Of Our Senses; Whatever Makes The Past, The Distant, Or The Future Predominate Over The Present, Advances Us In The Dignity Of Thinking Beings.

You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.

Persius Has Justly Observed, That Knowledge Is Nothing To Him Who Is Not Known By Others To Possess It: To The Scholar Himself It Is Nothing With Respect Either To Honour Or Advantage, For The World Cannot Reward Those Qualities Which Are Concealed From It; With Respect To Others It Is Nothing, Because It Affords No Help To Ignorance Or Errour.

Politeness Is One Of Those Advantages Which We Never Estimate Rightly But By The Inconvenience Of Its Loss.

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

No Weakness Of The Human Mind Has More Frequently Incurred Animadversion, Than The Negligence With Which Men Overlook Their Own Faults, However Flagrant, And The Easiness With Which They Pardon Them, However Frequently Repeated.

Sir, I Did Not Count Your Glasses Of Wine, Why Should You Number Up My Cups Of Tea?

Curiosity Is, In Great And Generous Minds, The First Passion And The Last.

The Life Of A Solitary Man Will Be Certainly Miserable, But Not Certainly Devout.

Those Who Have Any Intention Of Deviating From The Beaten Roads Of Life, And Acquiring A Reputation Superior To Names Hourly Swept Away By Time Among The Refuse Of Fame, Should Add To Their Reason And Their Spirit The Power Of Persisting In Their Pur

In Bed We Laugh, In Bed We Cry, And Born In Bed, In Bed We Die; The Near Approach A Bed May Show Of Human Bliss To Human Woe.

Every Man Who Attacks My Belief, Diminishes In Some Degree My Confidence In It, And Therefore Makes Me Uneasy; And I Am Angry With Him Who Makes Me Uneasy.

I Wish You Would Add An Index Rerum, That When The Reader Recollects Any Incident He May Easily Find It.

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

That Kind Of Life Is Most Happy Which Affords Us Most Opportunities Of Gaining Our Own Esteem.

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

More Is Learned In A Public Than In A Private School, From Emulation. There Is The Collision Of Mind With Mind, Or The Radiation Of Many Minds Pointing To One Center.

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

Poetry Cannot Be Translated; And, Therefore, It Is The Poets That Preserve The Languages; For We Would Not Be At The Trouble To Learn A Language If We Could Have All That Is Written In It Just As Well In A Translation. But As The Beauties Of Poetry Cannot Be Preserved In Any Language Except That In Which It Was Originally Written, We Learn The Language.

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.

Advice Is Offensive, Not Because It Lays Us Open To Unexpected Regret, Or Convicts Us Of Any Fault Which Had Escaped Our Notice, But Because It Shows Us That We Are Known To Others As Well As To Ourselves; And The Officious Monitor Is Persecuted With Hatred, Not Because His Accusation Is False, But Because He Assumes That Superiority Which We Are Not Willing To Grant Him, And Has Dared To Detect What We Desired To Conceal.

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

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.

It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.

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

Agriculture Not Only Gives Riches To A Nation, But The Only Riches She Can Call Her Own.

There Is Nothing, Sir, Too Little For So Little A Creature As Man. It Is By Studying Little Things That We Attain The Great Art Of Having As Little Misery And As Much Happiness As Possible.

Sir, When You Have Seen One Green Field, You Have Seen All Green Fields. Let Us Walk Down Cheapside.

Diffidence May Check Resolution And Obstruct Performance, But Compensates Its Embarrassments By More Important Advantages; It Conciliates The Proud, And Softens The Severe; Averts Envy From Excellence, And Censure From Miscarriage.

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

Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding.

By Taking A Second Wife He Pays The Highest Compliment To The First, By Showing That She Made Him So Happy As A Married Man, That He Wishes To Be So A Second Time.

Moral Sentences Appear Ostentatious And Tumid, When They Have No Greater Occasions Than The Journey Of A Wit To His Home Town: Yet Such Pleasures And Such Pains Make Up The General Mass Of Life; And As Nothing Is Little To Him That Feels It With Gre

A Man Should Be Careful Never To Tell Tales Of Himself To His Own Disadvantage. People May Be Amused At The Time, But They Will Be Remembered, And Brought Out Against Him Upon Some Subsequent Occasion.

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

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

Pleasure Itself Is Not A Vice

To Set The Mind Above The Appetites Is The End Of Abstinence, Which One Of The Fathers Observes To Be Not A Virtue, But The Groundwork Of Virtue.

Patriotism Is The Last Refuge Of The Scoundrel.

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

When A Man Is Tried Of London, He Is Tired Of Life.

If He Does Really Think That There Is No Distinction Between Virtue And Vice, Why, Sir, When He Leaves Our Houses Let Us Count Our Spoons.

They Who Have Already Enjoyed The Crowds And Noise Of The Great City, Know Their Desire To Return Is Little More Than The Restlessness Of A Vacant Mind, That They Are Not So Much Led By Hope As Driven By Disgust, And Wish Rather To Leave The Country Than To See The Town.

No Man Is A Hypocrite In His Pleasures.

In A Time Of War The Nation Is Always Of One Mind, Eager To Hear Something Good Of Themselves And Ill Of The Enemy. At This Time The Task Of The News-writer Is Easy; They Have Nothing To Do But To Tell That A Battle Is Expected, And Afterwards That A Battle Has Been Fought, In Which We And Our Friends, Whether Conquering Or Conquered, Did All, And Our Enemies Did Nothing.

Bachelors Have Consciences, Married Men Have Wives.

Lexicographer: A Writer Of Dictionaries, A Harmless Drudge, That Busies Himself In Tracing The Original, And Detailing The Signification Of Words.

Every Man May Be Observed To Have A Certain Strain Of Lamentation, Some Peculiar Theme Of Complaint On Which He Dwells In His Moments Of Dejection.

All To Whom Want Is Terrible, Upon Whatever Principle, Ought To Think Themselves Obliged To Learn The Sage Maxims Of Our Parsimonious Ancestors, And Attain The Salutary Arts Of Contracting Expense; For Without Economy None Can Be Rich, And With It Few Can Be Poor.

If Your Determination Is Fixed, I Do Not Counsel You To Despair. Few Things Are Impossible To Diligence And Skill. Great Works Are Performed Not By Strength, But Perseverance.

No Man Can Taste The Fruits Of Autumn While He Is Delighting His Scent With The Flowers Of Spring.

None But A Fool Worries About Things He Cannot Influence.

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

Silence Propagates Itself, And The Longer Talk Has Been Suspended, The More Difficult It Is To Find Anything To Say.

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.

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

Your Manuscript Is Both Good And Original; But The Part That Is Good Is Not Original, And The Part That Is Original Is Not Good.

All Truth Is Valuable, And Satirical Criticism May Be Considered As Useful When It Rectifies Error And Improves Judgment; He That Refines The Public Taste Is A Public Benefactor.

We Are Perpetually Moralists, But We Are Geometricians Only By Chance. Our Intercourse With Intellectual Nature Is Necessary; Our Speculations Upon Matter Are Voluntary, And At Leisure.

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.

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

No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.

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

It Seems Not More Reasonable To Leave The Right Of Printing Unrestrained, Because Writers May Be Afterwards Censured, Than It Would Be To Sleep With Doors Unbolted, Because By Our Laws We Can Hang A Thief.

...a Man Estimable For His Learning, Amiable For His Life, And Venerable For His Piety. Arbuthnot Was A Man Of Great Comprehension, Skilful In His Profession, Versed In The Sciences, Acquainted With Ancient Literature, And Able To Animate His Mass Of Knowledge By A Bright And Active Imagination; A Scholar With Great Brilliance Of Wit; A Wit Who, In The Crowd Of Life, Retained And Discovered A Noble Ardour Of Religious Zeal.

Sir, As A Man Advances In Life, He Gets What Is Better Than Admiration, - Judgement, To Estimate Things At Their True Value.

He That Thinks He Can Afford To Be Negligent Is Not Far From Being Poor.

It Is A Common Error, And The Greater And More Mischievous For Being So Common, To Believe That Repentance Best Becomes And Most Concerns Dying Men. Indeed, What Is Necessary Every Hour Of Our Life Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too, And As Long As One Lives He Will Have Need Of Repentance, And Therefore It Is Necessary In The Hour Of Death Too; But He Who Hath Constantly Exercised Himself In It In His Health And Vigor, Will Do It With Less Pain In His Sickness And Weakness; And He Who Hath Practiced It All His Life, Will Do It With More Ease And Less Perplexity In The Hour Of His Death.

There Is Nothing Against Which An Old Man Should Be So Much Upon His Guard As Putting Himself To Nurse.

Friends Are Often Chosen For Similitude Of Manners, And Therefore Each Palliates The Other's Failings Because They Are His Own.

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

The Safe And General Antidote Against Sorrow Is Employment. It Is Commonly Observed, That Among Soldiers And Seamen, Though There Is Much Kindness, There Is Little Grief; They See Their Friend Fall Without Any Of That Lamentation Which Is Indulged In Security And Idleness, Because They Have No Leisure To Spare From The Care Of Themselves; And Whoever Shall Keep His Thoughts Equally Busy Will Find Himself Equally Unaffected With Irretrievable Losses.

It Matters Not How A Man Dies, But How He Lives.

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.

Hunger Is Never Delicate; They Who Are Seldom Gorged To The Full With Praise May Be Safely Fed With Gross Compliments, For The Appetite Must Be Satisfied Before It Is Disgusted.

Human Life Is Everywhere A State In Which Much Is To Be Endured, And Little To Be Enjoyed.

A Patriot Is He Whose Public Conduct Is Regulated By One Single Motive, The Love Of His Country; Who, As An Agent In Parliament, Has, For Himself, Neither Hope Nor Fear, Neither Kindness Nor Resentment, But Refers Every Thing To The Common Interest

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

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

By Writing, You Learn To Write.

Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.

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

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.

To Paint Things As They Are Requires A Minute Attention, And Employs The Memory Rather Than The Fancy.

But To The Particular Species Of Excellence Men Are Directed, Not By An Ascendant Planet Or Predominating Humour, But By The First Book Which They Read, Some Early Conversation Which They Heard, Or Some Accident Which Excited Ardour And Emulation.

The Process Is The Reality.

Very Few Live By Choice. Every Man Is Placed In His Present Condition By Causes Which Acted Without His Foresight, And With Which He Did Not Always Willingly Cooperate; And Therefore You Will Rarely Meet One Who Does Not Think The Lot Of His Neighbor Better Than His Own.

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

I Have Always Suspected That The Reading Is Right, Which Requires Many Words To Prove It Wrong; And The Emendation Wrong, That Cannot Without So Much Labour Appear To He Right.

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

The Rules That I Shall Propose Concerning Secrecy, And From Which I Think It Not Safe To Deviate Without Long And Exact Deliberation, Are, Never To Solicit The Knowledge Of A Secret,--not Willingly, Nor Without Many Limitations, To Accept Such Confidence When It Is Offered; When A Secret Is Once Admitted, To Consider The Trust As Of A Very High Nature, Important As Society And Sacred As Truth, And Therefore Not To Be Violated For Any Incidental Convenience, Or Slight Appearance Of Contrary Fitness.

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

I Never Take A Nap After Dinner But When I Have Had A Bad Night, And Then The Nap Takes Me.

I Am Far From Any Intention To Limit Curiosity, Or Confine The Labours Of Learning To Arts Of Immediate And Necessary Use. It Is Only From The Various Essays Of Experimental Industry, And The Vague Excursions Of Mind Set Upon Discovery, That Any Advancement Of Knowledge Can Be Expected; And Though Many Must Be Disappointed In Their Labours, Yet They Are Not To Be Charged With Having Spent Their Time In Vain; Their Example Contributed To Inspire Emulation, And Their Miscarriage Taught Others The Way To Success.

A Country Gentleman Should Bring His Lady To Visit London As Soon As He Can, That They May Have Agreeable Topicks For Conversation When They Are By Themselves.

Timidity Is A Disease Of The Mind, Obstinate And Fatal; For A Man Once Persuaded That Any Impediment Is Insuperable Has Given It, With Respect To Himself, That Strength And Weight Which It Had Not Before.

Of All Noises, I Think Music Is The Least Disagreeable.

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

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.

[w]ith An Unquiet Mind, Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physick Can Be Of Much Use.

I Would Be Loath To Speak Ill Of Any Person Who I Do Not Know Deserves It, But I Am Afraid He Is An Attorney.

Was There Ever Yet Anything Written By Mere Man That Was Wished Longer By Its Readers, Excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, And The Pilgrim's Progress?

Robinson Crusoe

And Panting Time Toil'd After Him In Vain.

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

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

Social Sorrow Loses Half Its Pain.

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

Our Supple Tribes Repress Their Patriot Throats, And Ask No Questions But The Price Of Votes.

Criticism, As It Was First Instituted By Aristotle, Was Meant As A Standard Of Judging Well.

How Is It That We Hear The Loudest Yelps For Liberty Among The Drivers Of Negroes?

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

A Person Loves To Review His Own Mind. That Is The Use Of A Diary, Or Journal.

It Is Surely Very Narrow Policy That Supposes Money To Be The Chief Good.

Men Are Like Stone Jugs - You May Lug Them Where You Like By The Ears.

The Hour Of Reformation Is Always Delayed; Every Delay Gives Vice Another Opportunity Of Fortifying Itself By Habit.

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.

Your Aspirations Are Your Possibilities.

Health Is Certainly More Valuable Than Money, Because It Is By Health That Money Is Procured.

From Thee, Great God, We Spring, To Thee We Tend,- Path, Motive, Guide, Original, And End.

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

Everything That Enlarges The Sphere Of Human Powers, That Shows Man He Can Do What He Thought He Could Not Do, Is Valuable.

Let Us Be Quick To Repent Of Injuries While Repentance May Not Be A Barren Anguish.

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.

Bias And Impartiality Is In The Eye Of The Beholder.

Do Not Discourage Your Children From Hoarding, If They Have A Taste To It; Whoever Lays Up His Penny Rather Than Part With It For A Cake, At Least Is Not The Slave Of Gross Appetite; And Shows Besides A Preference Always To Be Esteemed, Of The Future To The Present Moment.

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

Self-love Is A Busy Prompter.

The Great End Of Prudence Is To Give Cheerfulness To Those Hours Which Splendour Cannot Gild, And Acclamation Cannot Exhilarate; Those Soft Intervals Of Unbended Amusement, In Which A Man Shrinks To His Natural Dimensions, And Throws Aside The Ornaments Or Disguises Which He Feels In Privacy To Be Useless Incumbrances, And To Lose All Effect When They Become Familiar. To Be Happy At Home Is The Ultimate Result Of All Ambition, The End To Which Every Enterprise And Labour Tends, And Of Which Every Desire Prompts The Prosecution.

We Have Now Learned That Rashness And Imprudence Will Not Be Deterred From Taking Credit; Let Us Try Whether Fraud And Avarice May Be More Easily Restrained From Giving It.

In Most Ages Many Countries Have Had Part Of Their Inhabitants In A State Of Slavery; Yet It May Be Doubted Whether Slavery Can Ever Be Supposed The Natural Condition Of Man. It Is Impossible Not To Conceive That Men In Their Original State Were Equal; And Very Difficult To Imagine How One Would Be Subjected To Another But By Violent Compulsion. An Individual May, Indeed, Forfeit His Liberty By A Crime; But He Cannot By That Crime Forfeit The Liberty Of His Children.

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.

When People Find A Man Of The Most Distinguished Abilities As A Writer Their Inferior While He Is With Them, It Must Be Highly Gratifying To Them.

Idleness Is Often Covered By Turbulence And Hurry. He That Neglects His Known Duty And Real Employment Naturally Endeavours To Crowd His Mind With Something That May Bar Out The Remembrance Of His Own Folly, And Does Any Thing But What He Ought To Do With Eager Diligence, That He May Keep Himself In His Own Favour.

I Am Not Able To Instruct You. I Can Only Tell That I Have Chosen Wrong. I Have Passed My Time In Study Without Experience; In The Attainment Of Sciences Which Can, For The Most Part, Be But Remotely Useful To Mankind. I Have Purchased Knowledge At The Expense Of All The Common Comforts Of Life: I Have Missed The Endearing Elegance Of Female Friendship, And The Happy Commerce Of Domestic Tenderness.

Diligence In Employments Of Less Consequence Is The Most Successful Introduction To Greater Enterprises.

Life Is Barren Enough Surely With All Her Trappings; Let Us Be Therefore Cautious Of How We Strip Her.

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?

All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.

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

Whatever You Have Spend Less.

Some People Wave Their Dogmatic Thinking Until Their Own Reason Is Entangled.

An Author Places Himself Uncalled Before The Tribunal Of Criticism And Solicits Fame At The Hazard Of Disgrace.

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.

In Matters Of Business, No Woman Stops At Integrity.

Distance Has The Same Effect On The Mind As On The Eye.

It Is Not From Reason And Prudence That People Marry, But From Inclination.

Why, Sir, Sherry Is Dull, Naturally Dull; But It Must Have Taken Him A Great Deal Of Pains To Become What We Now See Him. Such An Excess Of Stupidity, Sir, Is Not In Nature.

The Good Of Our Present State Is Merely Comparative, And The Evil Which Every Man Feels Will Be Sufficient To Disturb And Harass Him If He Does Not Know How Much He Escapes.

As Every One Is Pleased With Imagining That He Knows Something Not Yet Commonly Divulged, Secret History Easily Gains Credit; But It Is For The Most Part Believed Only While It Circulates In Whispers, And When Once It Is Openly Told, Is Openly Refuted.

Fraud And Falsehood Only Dread Examination. Truth Invites It.

The Excellence Of Aphorisms Consists Not So Much In The Expression Of Some Rare Or Abstruse Sentiment, As In The Comprehension Of Some Useful Truth In A Few Words.

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.

It Ought To Be The First Endeavour Of A Writer To Distinguish Nature From Custom; Or That Which Is Established Because It Is Right, From That Which Is Right Only Because It Is Established; That He May Neither Violate Essential Principles By A Desire Of Novelty, Nor Debar Himself From The Attainment Of Beauties Within His View, By A Needless Fear Of Breaking Rules Which No Literary Dictator Had Authority To Enact.

A Man Is Not Obliged Honestly To Answer A Question Which Should Not Properly Be Put.

No Man Is Defeated Without Some Resentment Which Will Be Continued With Obstinacy While He Believes Himself In The Right, And Asserted With Bitterness, If Even To His Own Conscience He Is Detected In The Wrong.

Applause Abates Diligence.

Round Numbers Are Always False.

Life Is Short. The Sooner That A Man Begins To Enjoy His Wealth The Better.

To Make Dictionaries Is Dull Work.

At Seventy-seven It Is Time To Be In Earnest.

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

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.

There Are Occasions On Which All Apology Is Rudeness.

A Transition From An Author's Book To His Conversation Is Too Often Like An Entrance Into A Large City, After A Distant Prospect. Remotely, We See Nothing But Spires Of Temples And Turrets Of Palaces, And Imagine It The Residence Of Splendour, Grandeur, And Magnificence; But When We Have Passed The Gates, We Find It Perplexed With Narrow Passages, Disgraced With Despicable Cottages, Embarrassed With Obstructions, And Clouded With Smoke.

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.

But The Distant Hope Of Being One Day Useful Or Eminent Ought Not To Mislead Us Too Far From That Study Which Is Equally Requisite To The Great And Mean, To The Celebrated And Obscure; The Art Of Moderating The Desires, Of Repressing The Appetites; And Of Conciliating Or Retaining The Favour Of Mankind.

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

Youth Enters The World With Very Happy Prejudices In Her Own Favor. She Imagines Herself Not Only Certain Of Accomplishing Every Adventure, But Of Obtaining Those Rewards Which The Accomplishment May Deserve. She Is Not Easily Persuaded To Believe That The Force Of Merit Can Be Resisted By Obstinacy And Avarice, Or Its Luster Darkened By Envy And Malignity.

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Leonard Peltier

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