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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.
-Samuel Johnson
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Your Manuscript Is Both

Samuel Johnson
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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.

Understanding the Quote: "your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is..."

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

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

Lessons From the Quote

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

About Samuel Johnson

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

Actionable Takeaways

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

Closing Thoughts

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

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Topic
Science
Belief
Favourite
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Pension: An Allowance Made To Anyone Without An Equivalent. In England It Is Generally Understood To Mean Pay Given To A State Hireling For Treason To His Country.
Country
Mean
Pay
Sir, They Are A Race Of Convicts, And Ought To Be Thankful For Any Thing We Allow Them Short Of Hanging.
Grateful
Race
Insulting
Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent. He Has Facts Ready To His Hand; So There Is No Exercise Of Invention. Imagination Is Not Required In Any Degree; Only About As Much As Is Used In The Lowest Kinds Of Poetry. Some Penetration, Accuracy, And Coloring, Will Fit A Man For The Task, If He Can Give The Application Which Is Necessary.
Exercise
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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.
Book
Writing
Two
That The Happiness Of Man May Still Remain Imperfect, As Wants In This Place Are Easily Supplied, New Wants Likewise Are Easily Created; Every Man, In Surveying The Shops Of London, Sees Numberless Instruments And Conveniencies, Of Which, While He Did Not Know Them, He Never Felt The Need; And Yet, When Use Has Made Them Familiar, Wonders How Life Could Be Supported Without Them. Thus It Comes To Pass, That Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions; The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed, Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.
Men
Desire
Needs
Shame Arises From The Fear Of Men, Conscience From The Fear Of God.
God
Men
Shame
Where There Is Emulation, There Will Be Vanity; Where There Is Vanity, There Will Be Folly.
Vanity
Emulation
Folly
I Am A Friend To Subordination, As Most Conducive To The Happiness Of Society. There Is A Reciprocal Pleasure In Governing And Being Governed.
Pleasure
Subordination
Reciprocal
The Prosperity Of A People Is Proportionate To The Number Of Hands And Minds Usefully Employed. To The Community, Sedition Is A Fever, Corruption Is A Gangrene, And Idleness Is An Atrophy. Whatever Body Or Society Wastes More Than It Acquires, Must Gradually Decay, And Every Being That Continues To Be Fed, And Eases To Labor, Takes Away Something From The Public Stock.
Hands
Numbers
People
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.
Believe
Adventure
Accomplishment
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.
Wise
Money
Men
I Also Admit, That There Are Some Sluggish Men Who Are Improved By Drinking; As There Are Fruits Which Are Not Good Till They Are Rotten.
Drinking
Men
Alcohol
Disease Generally Begins That Equality Which Death Completes; The Distinctions Which Set One Man So Much Above Another Are Very Little Perceived In The Gloom Of A Sick Chamber, Where It Will Be Vain To Expect Entertainment From The Gay, Or Instruction From The Wise; Where All Human Glory Is Obliterated, The Wit Is Clouded, The Reasoner Perplexed, And The Hero Subdued; Where The Highest And Brightest Of Mortal Beings Finds Nothing Left Him But The Consciousness Of Innocence.
Wise
Hero
Gay
Spite And Ill-nature Are Among The Most Expensive Luxuries In Life.
Luxury
Rudeness
Spite
The Usual Fortune Of Complaint Is To Excite Contempt More Than Pity.
Usual
Complaining
Pity
I Never Take A Nap After Dinner But When I Have Had A Bad Night, And Then The Nap Takes Me.
Night
Naps
Dinner
It Is More From Carelessness About Truth Than From Intentionally Lying That There Is So Much Falsehood In The World.
Truth
Lying
World
Prudence Operates On Life In The Same Manner As Rule Of Composition; It Produces Vigilance Rather Than Elevation; Rather Prevents Loss Than Procures Advantage; And Often Miscarriages, But Seldom Reaches Either Power Or Honor.
Life
Success
Miscarriage
The Applause Of A Single Human Being Is Of Great Consequence.
Appreciation
Appreciate
Approval
Frugality May Be Termed The Daughter Of Prudence, The Sister Of Temperance, And The Parent Of Liberty.
Daughter
Parent
Liberty
For Gold The Hireling Judge Distorts The Laws.
Law
Judging
Gold
Nothing Flatters A Man As Much As The Happiness Of His Wife; He Is Always Proud Of Himself As The Source Of It.
Happiness
Men
Wife
Our Desires Always Increase With Our Possessions. The Knowledge That Something Remains Yet Unenjoyed Impairs Our Enjoyment Of The Good Before Us.
Inspirational
Self Improvement
Desire
The Drama's Laws The Drama's Patrons Give. For We That Live To Please Must Please To Live.
Life
Drama
Law
Without Good Humour, Learning And Bravery Can Only Confer That Superiority Which Swells The Heart Of The Lion In The Desert, Where He Roars Without Reply, And Ravages Without Resistance. Without Good Humour Virtue May Awe By Its Dignity And Amaze By Its Brightness, But Must Always Be Viewed At A Distance, And Will Scarcely Gain A Friend Or Attract An Imitator.
Distance
Heart
Bravery
Ignorance Cannot Always Be Inferred From Inaccuracy; Knowledge Is Not Always Present.
Ignorance
No One Ever Became Great By Imitation.
Greatness
Imitation
Though The Wisdom Or Virtue Of One Can Very Rarely Make Many Happy, The Folly Or Vice Of One Man Often Make Many Miserable.
Responsibility
Men
Vices
As Any Action Or Posture, Long Continued, Will Distort And Disfigure The Limbs, So The Mind Likewise Is Crippled And Contracted By Perpetual Application To The Same Set Of Ideas.
Ideas
Long
Mind
Even Those To Whom Providence Has Allotted Greater Strength Of Understanding Can Expect Only To Improve A Single Science.
Understanding
Study
Providence
Fine Clothes Are Good Only As They Supply The Want Of Other Means Of Procuring Respect.
Fashion
Mean
Clothes
All Intellectual Improvement Arises From Leisure.
Work
Intellectual
Statistics
Who Left Nothing Of Authorship Untouched, And Touched Nothing Which He Did Not Adorn. [lat., Qui Nullum Fere Scribendi Genus Non Tetigit; Nullum Quod Tetigit Non Ornavit.]
Authorship
Touched
Left
It Is Unpleasing To Represent Our Affairs To Our Own Disadvantage; Yet It Is Necessary To Shew The Evils Which We Desire To Be Removed.
Evil
Desire
Patriot
Wheresoe'er I Turn My View, All Is Strange, Yet Nothing New: Endless Labor All Along, Endless Labor To Be Wrong: Phrase That Time Has Flung Away; Uncouth Words In Disarray, Trick'd In Antique Ruff And Bonnet, Ode, And Elegy, And Sonnet.
Views
Poetry
Phrases
A Wise Man Is Cured Of Ambition By Ambition Itself; His Aim Is So Exalted That Riches, Office, Fortune And Favour Cannot Satisfy Him.
Life
Wise
Ambition
No Writer Can Be Fully Convicted Of Imitation Except There Is A Concurrence Of More Resemblance Than Can Be Imagined To Have Happened By Chance; As Where The Same Ideas Are Conjoined Without Any Natural Series Or Necessary Coherence, Or Where Not Only The Thought But The Words Are Copied.
Writing
Ideas
Coherence
The Belief Of Immortality Is Impressed Upon All Men, And All Men Act Under An Impression Of It, However They May Talk, And Though, Perhaps, They May Be Scarcely Sensible Of It.
Men
May
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Treating Your Adversary With Respect Is Striking Soft In Battle.
Battle
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He That Would Be Superior To External Influences Must First Become Superior To His Own Passions.
Wisdom
Courage
Passion
Among The Calamities Of War May Be Numbered The Diminution Of The Love Of Truth, By The Falsehoods Which Interest Dictates, And Credulity Encourages.
Love
Courage
Truth
It Is Not Difficult To Conceive, However, That For Many Reasons A Man Writes Much Better Than He Lives. For Without Entering Into Refined Speculations, It May Be Shown Much Easier To Design Than To Perform. A Man Proposes His Schemes Of Life In A State Of Abstraction And Disengagement, Exempt From The Enticements Of Hope, The Solicitations Of Affection, The Importunities Of Appetite, Or The Depressions Of Fear.
Writing
Men
Design
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.
Home
Ambition
Men
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.
Past
Cities
Confusion
Advice Is Seldom Welcome. Those Who Need It Most, Like It Least.
Advice
Needs
Welcome
[the Poet] Must Write As The Interpreter Of Nature And The Legislator Of Mankind, And Consider Himself As Presiding Over The Thoughts And Manners Of Future Generations, As A Being Superior To Time And Place.
Writing
Generations
Poet
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.
Strong
Writing
Attention
Poverty Has, In Large Cities, Very Different Appearances; It Is Often Concealed In Splendour, And Often In Extravagance.
Cities
Different
Extravagance
Turn On The Prudent Ant, Thy Heedful Eyes, Observe Her Labours, Sluggard, And Be Wise.
Wise
Eye
Laziness
The Whole Of Life Is But Keeping Away The Thoughts Of Death.
Life Is
Thoughts Of Death
Whole
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.
Two
Use
May
To Be Prejudiced Is Always To Be Weak
Weak
Always, Sir, Set A High Value On Spontaneous Kindness.
Kindness
Spontaneous
Values
While An Author Is Yet Living, We Estimate His Powers By His Worst Performance; And When He Is Dead, We Rate Him By His Best.
Writing
Worst
Rate
He Was So Generally Civil, That Nobody Thanked Him For It.
Courtesy
Manners
Man's Chief Merit Consists In Resisting The Impulses Of His Nature.
Men
Temptation
Merit
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.
Thinking
Long
Secret
Exercise Is Labor Without Weariness.
Fitness
Exercise
Labor
Norway, Too, Has Noble Prospects; And Lapland Is Remarkable For Prodigious Noble Wild Prospects. But, Sir, Let Me Tell You, The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever Sees Is The High Road That Leads Him To England!
Noble
Lapland
Norway
A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing - It Only Hastens Fools To Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread.
Angel
Littles
Fool
When A Man Marries A Widow His Jealousies Revert To The Past: No Man Is As Good As His Wife Says Her First Husband Was
Jealousy
Husband
Past
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.
Honesty
Men
People
A Man Is In General Better Pleased When He Has A Good Dinner Upon His Table, Than When His Wife Talks Greek.
Food
Men
Wife
A Fly, Sir, May Sting A Stately Horse And Make Him Wince; But, One Is But An Insect, And The Other Is A Horse Still.
Horse
Pet
Criticism
Probably No One Will Ever Know Whether It Is Better To Wear A Nightcap Or Not.
Sleep
Nightcap
Knows
Suspicion Is Most Often Useless Pain.
Pain
Useless
Suspicion
Such Is The State Of Every Age, Every Sex, And Every Condition: All Have Their Cares, Either From Nature Or From Folly; And Whoever, Therefore, Finds Himself Inclined To Envy Another, Should Remember That He Knows Not The Real Condition Which He Desires To Obtain, But Is Certain That By Indulging A Vicious Passion, He Must Lessen That Happiness Which He Thinks Already Too Sparingly Bestowed.
Sex
Real
Passion
Little Would Be Wanting To The Happiness Of Life, If Every Man Could Conform To The Right As Soon As He Was Shown It.
Men
Advice
Would Be
All Argument Is Against It; But All Belief Is For It.
Atheism
Belief
Argument
It Is One Of The Maxims Of The Civil Law, That Definitions Are Hazardous.
Law
Definitions
Maxims
All Imposture Weakens Confidence And Chills Benevolence.
Deceit
Chill
Benevolence
To Hear Complaints Is Wearisome Alike To The Wretched And The Happy.
Happiness
Complaints
Wretched
Deign On The Passing World To Turn Thine Eyes, And Pause Awhile From Letters, To Be Wise.
Wise
Art
Philosophy
Riches Seldom Make Their Owners Rich.
Riches
Wealth
Rich
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.
Men
Example
Watches
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
Crucible
Body
Limits
When First The College Rolls Receive His Name, The Young Enthusiast Quilts His Ease For Fame; Through All His Veins The Fever Of Renown Burns From The Strong Contagion Of The Gown
Education
Strong
Quilts
In The Motive Lies The Good Or Ill.
Lying
Motive
Ill
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.
Happiness
He Who Would Govern His Actions By The Laws Of Virtue Must Regulate His Thoughts By Those Of Reason.
Law
Action
Virtue
The Necessities Of Our Condition Require A Thousand Offices Of Tenderness, Which Mere Regard For The Species Will Never Dictate.
Office
Humanity
Thousand
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.
Men
Fool
Zealous
Riches Are Of No Value In Themselves; Their Use Is Discovered Only In That Which They Procure.
Use
Riches
Values
Nothing Is More Common Than Mutual Dislike, Where Mutual Approbation Is Particularly Expected.
Common
Mutual
Expected
Thought Is Always Troublesome To Him Who Lives Without His Own Approbation.
Troublesome
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.
Pain
Stupid
Taken
Those Who Are In The Power Of Evil Habits Must Conquer Them As They Can; And Conquered They Must Be, Or Neither Wisdom Nor Happiness Can Be Attained: But Those Who Are Not Yet Subject To Their Influence May, By Timely Caution, Preserve Their Freedom.
Evil
May
Influence
Want Of Tenderness Is Want Of Parts, And Is No Less A Proof Of Stupidity Than Depravity.
Stupidity
Want
Proof
Whatever You Have Spend Less.
Money
He That Is Already Corrupt Is Naturally Suspicious, And He That Becomes Suspicious Will Quickly Become Corrupt.
Suspicion
Suspicious
None But Those Who Have Learned The Art Of Subjecting Their Senses As Well As Reason To Hypothetical Systems Can Be Persuaded By The Most Specious Rhetorician That The Lots Of Life Are Equal; Yet It Cannot Be Denied That Every One Has His Peculiar Pleasures And Vexations, That External Accidents Operate Variously Upon Different Minds, And That No Man Can Exactly Judge From His Own Sensations What Another Would Feel In The Same Circumstances.
Art
Men
Judging
Between Falsehood And Useless Truth There Is Little Difference. As Gold Which He Cannot Spend Will Make No Man Rich, So Knowledge Which Cannot Apply Will Make No Man Wise.
Wise
Wisdom
Knowledge
From Ignorance Our Comfort Flows, The Only Wretched Are The Wise
Wise
Ignorance
Comfort
The Love Of Life Is Necessary To The Vigorous Prosecution Of Any Undertaking
Love
Life
Enthusiasm
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.
Memories
Men
Desire
No Man Can Fall Into Contempt But Those Who Deserve It.
Fall
Men
Contempt
The Morality Of An Action Depends On The Motive From Which We Act. If I Fling Half A Crown To A Beggar With Intention To Break His Head And He Picks It Up And Buy Victuals With It, The Physical Effect Is Good. But With Respect To Me The Action Is Very Wrong.
Crowns
Half
Morality
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.
Writing
Understanding
Littles
It Generally Happens That Assurance Keeps An Even Pace With Ability.
Confidence
Genius
Pace
It Is Commonly Observed, That When Two Englishmen Meet, Their First Talk Is Of The Weather; They Are In Haste To Tell Each Other, What Each Must Already Know, That It Is Hot Or Cold, Bright Or Cloudy, Windy Or Calm.
Weather
Two
Haste
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.
Men
Tasks
May
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.
Marriage
Men
Wife
Superfluous Lags The Veteran On The Stage, Till Pitying Nature Signs The Last Release, And Bids Afflicted Worth Retire To Peace.
Age
Lasts
Lag
The Natural Progress Of The Works Of Men Is From Rudeness To Convenience, From Convenience To Elegance, And From Elegance To Nicety.
Men
Progress
Rudeness
Mutual Cowardice Keeps Us In Peace.
Peace
Cowardice
Mutual
Patriotism Is The Last Refuge Of The Scoundrel.
Patriotic
Patriotism
Lasts
Wit Will Never Make A Man Rich, But There Are Places Where Riches Will Always Make A Wit.
Men
Riches
Rich
Bias And Impartiality Is In The Eye Of The Beholder.
Eye
Perspective
Beholder
Hypocrisy Is The Necessary Burden Of Villainy, Affectation Part Of The Chosen Trappings Of Folly; The One Completes A Villain, The Other Only Finishes A Fop.
Hypocrisy
Villain
Burden
Some Claim A Place In The List Of Patriots, By An Acrimonious And Unremitting Opposition To The Court. This Mark Is By No Means Infallible. Patriotism Is Not Necessarily Included In Rebellion. A Man May Hate His King, Yet Not Love His Country.
Country
Kings
Hate
The Time Will Come To Every Human Being When It Must Be Known How Well He Can Bear To Die.
Death
Bears
Wells
The Certainty That Life Cannot Be Long, And The Probability That It Will Be Much Shorter Than Nature Allows, Ought To Awaken Every Man To The Active Prosecution Of Whatever He Is Desirous To Perform. It Is True, That No Diligence Can Ascertain Success; Death May Intercept The Swiftest Career; But He Who Is Cut Off In The Execution Of An Honest Undertaking Has At Least The Honour Of Falling In His Rank, And Has Fought The Battle, Though He Missed The Victory.
Fall
Procrastination
Cutting
Players, Sir! I Look On Them As No Better Than Creatures Set Upon Tables And Joint Stools To Make Faces And Produce Laughter, Like Dancing Dogs.
Dog
Laughter
Player
The Roads Of Science Are Narrow, So That They Who Travel Them, Must Wither Follow Or Meet One Another.
Science
Men
These Are The Men Who, Without Virtue, Labour, Or Hazard, Are Growing Rich, As Their Country Is Impoverished; They Rejoice, When Obstinacy Or Ambition Adds Another Year To Slaughter And Devastation; And Laugh, From Their Desks, At Bravery And Science, While They Are Adding Figure To Figure, And Cipher To Cipher, Hoping For A New Contract From A New Armament, And Computing The Profits Of A Siege Or Tempest.
Country
Honesty
Integrity
Other Things May Be Seized By Might, Or Purchased With Money, But Knowledge Is To Be Gained Only By Study, And Study To Be Prosecuted Only In Retirement.
Retirement
Knowledge
May
Large Offers And Sturdy Rejections Are Among The Most Common Topics Of Falsehood.
Rejection
Topics
Common
When A Man Says He Had Pleasure With A Woman He Does Not Mean Conversation.
Mean
Men
Doe
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.
Unhappiness
Authority
Controversy
The Great Source Of Pleasure Is Variety.
Life
Pleasure
Source
There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration.
Admiration
Charm
Made
To Have The Management Of The Mind Is A Great Art, And It May Be Attained In A Considerable Degree By Experience And Habitual Exercise... Let Him Take A Course Of Chemistry, Or A Course Of Rope-dance, Or A Course Of Any Thing To Which He Is Inclined At The Time. Let Him Contrive To Have As Many Retreats For His Mind As He Can, As Many Things To Which It Can Fly From Itself.
Happiness
Art
Exercise
No Man Tells His Opinion So Freely As When He Imagines It Received With Implicit Veneration.
Men
Advice
Opinion
Celestial Wisdom Calms The Mind.
Mind
Calm
Celestial
History Can Be Formed From Permanent Monuments And Records; But Lives Can Only Be Written From Personal Knowledge, Which Is Growing Every Day Less, And In A Short Time Is Lost Forever.
Personal Knowledge
Forever
Records
Politeness Is One Of Those Advantages Which We Never Estimate Rightly But By The Inconvenience Of Its Loss.
Loss
Advantage
Politeness
Sir, It Is Wrong To Stir Up Law-suits; But When Once It Is Certain That A Law-suit Is To Go On, There Is Nothing Wrong In A Lawyer's Endeavouring That He Shall Have The Benefit, Rather Than Another.
Law
Goes On
Benefits
There Is Nothing Which Has Yet Been Contrived By Man, By Which So Much Happiness Is Produced As By A Good Tavern.
Happiness
Beer
Men
Slander Is The Revenge Of A Coward, And Dissimulation Of His Defense.
Revenge
Coward
Defense
It Very Seldom Happens To A Man That His Business Is His Pleasure.
Business
Men
Pleasure
There Is Little Peace Or Comfort In Life If We Are Always Anxious As To Future Events. He That Worries Himself With The Dread Of Possible Contingencies Will Never Be At Rest.
Life
Peace
Future
There Are Few So Free From Vanity As Not To Dictate To Those Who Will Hear Their Instructions With A Visible Sense Of Their Own Beneficence.
Vanity
Advice
Instruction
He Was Dull In A New Way, And That Made Many Think Him Great.
Greatness
Thinking
Dull
Great Abilities Are Not Requisite For An Historian; For In Historical Composition, All The Greatest Powers Of The Human Mind Are Quiescent.
Historical
Mind
Penetration
In Lapidary Inscriptions A Man Is Not Upon Oath.
Memories
Writing
Men
Differences, We Know, Are Never So Effectually Laid Asleep As By Some Common Calamity; An Enemy Unites All To Whom He Threatens Danger.
Differences
Enemy
Common
Contempt Is A Kind Of Gangrene Which, If It Seizes One Part Of A Character, Corrupts All The Rest By Degrees.
Character
Degrees
Kind
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.
Power
Government
Long
The Pleasure Of Expecting Enjoyment Is Often Greater Than That Of Obtaining It, And The Completion Of Almost Every Wish Is Found A Disappointment.
Disappointment
Wish
Pleasure
I Have Adopted The Roman Sentiment, That It Is More Honorable To Save A Citizen Than To Kill An Enemy.
Enemy
Citizens
Honorable
Scarce Any Man Becomes Eminently Disagreeable But By A Departure From His Real Character, And An Attempt At Something For Which Nature Or Education Has Left Him Unqualified.
Real
Character
Men
[w]ith An Unquiet Mind, Neither Exercise, Nor Diet, Nor Physick Can Be Of Much Use.
Exercise
Mind
Use
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.
Past
Thinking
Dignity
I Love The Acquaintance Of Young People; Because, In The First Place, I Do Not Like To Think Myself Growing Old. In The Next Place, Young Acquaintances Must Last Longest, If They Do Last; And Then, Sir, Young Men Have More Virtue Than Old Men; They Have More Generous Sentiments In Every Respect.
Men
Thinking
People
It Was The Peculiar Artifice Of Habit Not To Suffer Her Power To Be Felt At First. Those Whom She Led, She Had The Address Of Appearing Only To Attend, But Was Continually Doubling Her Chains Upon Her Companions; Which Were So Slender In Themselves, And So Silently Fastened, That While The Attention Was Engaged By Other Objects, They Were Not Easily Perceived. Each Link Grew Tighter As It Had Been Longer Worn; And When By Continual Additions They Became So Heavy As To Be Felt, They Were Very Frequently Too Strong To Be Broken.
Strong
Broken
Suffering
Men Hate More Steadily Than They Love.
Love
Hate
Men
You Can Never Be Wise Unless You Love Reading.
Wise
Reading
Being Wise
Sir, He [bolingbroke] Was A Scoundrel And A Coward: A Scoundrel For Charging A Blunderbuss Against Religion And Morality; A Coward, Because He Had Not Resolution To Fire It Off Himself, But Left Half A Crown To A Beggarly Scotsman To Draw The Trigger At His Death.
Fire
Religion
Coward
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.
Miscarriage
Envy
Excellence
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.
Marriage
Character
Men
If You Are Idle, Be Not Solitary; If You Are Solitary Be Not Idle.
Advice
Solitude
Sloth
Sir, I Did Not Count Your Glasses Of Wine, Why Should You Number Up My Cups Of Tea?
Wine
Glasses
Numbers
When Emulation Leads Us To Strive For Self-elevation By Merit Alone, And Not By Belittling Another, Then It Is One Of The Grandest Possible Incentives To Action.
Self
Incentives
Emulation
In Traveling, A Man Must Carry Knowledge With Him, If He Would Bring Home Knowledge.
Travel
Home
Men
Flattery Pleases Very Generally. In The First Place, The Flatterer May Think What He Says To Be True; But, In The Second Place, Whether He Thinks So Or Not, He Certainly Thinks Those Whom He Flatters Of Consequence Enough To Be Flattered.
Thinking
May
Firsts
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.
Art
Thinking
Principles
Revenge Is An Act Of Passion; Vengeance Of Justice. Injuries Are Revenged; Crimes Are Avenged.
Revenge
Passion
Justice
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.
Life
Disappointment
Grief
Studious To Please, Yet Not Ashamed To Fail.
Failure
Failing
Ashamed
A Blaze First Pleases And Then Tires The Sight.
Sight
Firsts
Tire
The Desires Of Man Increase With His Acquisitions.
Men
Desire
Acquisition
Some Have Little Power To Do Good, And Have Likewise Little Strength To Resist Evil.
Power
Evil
Littles
It Is Indeed Not Easy To Distinguish Affectation From Habit; He That Has Once Studiously Developed A Style, Rarely Writes Afterwards With Complete Ease.
Writing
Style
Ease
I Am Very Fond Of The Company Of Ladies. I Like Their Beauty, I Like Their Delicacy, I Like Their Vivacity, And I Like Their Silence.
Beauty
Silence
Delicacy
Men More Frequently Require To Be Reminded Than Informed.
Inspirational
Happiness
Knowledge
Their Origin Is Commonly Unknown; For The Practice Often Continues When The Cause Has Ceased, And Concerning Superstitious Ceremonies It Is In Vain To Conjecture; For What Reason Did Not Dictate, Reason Cannot Explain.
Practice
Causes
Reason
Where There Is No Difficulty There Is No Praise.
Effort
Praise
Difficulty
When A Man Is Tried Of London, He Is Tired Of Life.
Travel
Tired
Men
We Have Less Reason To Be Surprised Or Offended When We Find Others Differ From Us In Opinion, Because We Very Often Differ From Ourselves.
Opinion
Reason
Offended
Unconstraint Is The Grace Of Conversation.
Grace
Conversation
Power Is Gradually Stealing Away From The Many To The Few, Because The Few Are More Vigilant And Consistent.
Evil
Stealing
Consistent
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.
Crush
Evil
Misery
Wine Gives Great Pleasure; And Every Pleasure Is Of Itself A Good. It Is A Good, Unless Counterbalanced By Evil.
Wine
Evil
Giving
I Wish There Were Some Cure, Like The Lover's Leap, For All Heads Of Which Some Single Idea Has Obtained An Unreasonable And Irregular Possession.
Ideas
Wish
Lovers
For Patience, Sov'reign O'er Transmuted Ill.
Patience
Reign
Ill
The Whole World Is Put In Motion By The Wish For Riches And The Dread Of Poverty.
Wish
Poverty
World
Gloomy Calm Of Idle Vacancy.
Vacancy
Calm
Gloomy
Almost All The Moral Good Which Is Left Among Us Is The Apparent Effect Of Physical Evil.
Evil
Wickedness
Moral
Modern Writers Are The Moons Of Literature; They Shine With Reflected Light, With Light Borrowed From The Ancients.
Book
Moon
Light
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.
Hands
Mind
Example
Before Dinner Men Meet With Great Inequality Of Understanding.
Food
Men
Understanding
New Things Are Made Familiar, And Familiar Things Are Made New.
Made
Familiar
Familiar Things
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.
School
Mind
Radiation
To Scatter Praise Or Blame Without Regard To Justice Is To Destroy The Distinction Of Good And Evil. Many Have No Other Test Of Actions Than General Opinion; And All Are So Far Influenced By A Sense Of Reputation That They Are Often Restrained By Fear Of Reproach, And Excited By Hope Of Honour, When Other Principles Have Lost Their Power.
Evil
Justice
Principles
No Degree Of Knowledge Attainable By Man Is Able To Set Him Above The Want Of Hourly Assistance.
Men
Want
Able
Depend Upon It, Sir, It Is When You Come Close To A Man In Conservation That You Discover What His Real Abilities Are; To Make A Speech In A Public Assembly Is A Knack.
Real
Men
Knack
A Lawyer Has No Business With The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Which He Undertakes, Unless His Client Asks His Opinion, And Then He Is Bound To Give It Honestly. The Justice Or Injustice Of The Cause Is To Be Decided By The Judge.
Giving
Justice
Judging
No Man Likes To Live Under The Eye Of Perpetual Disapprobation.
Eye
Men
Likes
Assertion Is Not Argument; To Contradict The Statement Of An Opponent Is Not Proof That You Are Correct.
Opponents
Belief
Argument
Cunning Has Effect From The Credulity Of Others, Rather Than From The Abilities Of Those Who Are Cunning. It Requires No Extraordinary Talents To Lie And Deceive.
Lying
Deceit
Talent
To Talk In Public, To Think In Solitude, To Read And To Hear, To Inquire And Answer Inquiries, Is The Business Of The Scholar
Thinking
Solitude
Inquiry
That Is The Happiest Conversation Where There Is No Competition, No Vanity, But A Calm, Quiet Interchange Of Sentiments...
Communication
Vanity
Competition
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.
Wise
Country
Wall
The Habit Of Looking On The Bright Side Of Every Event Is Worth More Than A Thousand Pounds A Year.
Optimistic
Positive Thinking
Years
The Superiority Of Some Men Is Merely Local. They Are Great Because Their Associates Are Little.
Greatness
Men
Littles
When Any Fit Of Gloominess, Or Perversion Of Mind, Lays Hold Upon You, Make It A Rule Not To Publish It By Complaints, But Exert Your Whole Care To Hide It; By Endeavouring To Hide It; You Will Dry It Away. Be Always Busy.
Mind
Complaining
Fit
It Is Not The Desire Of New Acquisitions, But The Glory Of Conquests, That Fires The Soldier's Breast; As Indeed The Town Is Seldom Worth Much, When It Has Suffered The Devastations Of A Siege.
Fire
Soldier
Desire
All Unnecessary Vows Are Folly, Because They Suppose A Prescience Of The Future, Which Has Not Been Given Us.
Unnecessary
Vow
Given
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.
Men
Years
Next Year
A Man, Doubtful Of His Dinner, Or Trembling At A Creditor, Is Not Much Disposed To Abstracted Meditation, Or Remote Enquiries.
Food
Men
Meditation
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