Conjecture as to things useful, is good; but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, is very idle.
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified..
A man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Disease is a physical process that generally begins that equality which death completes.
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote.
I like a good hater.
Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction produces rivalry.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves, but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.
When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
John Wesley’s conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
My congratulations to you, sir. 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.
When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
London! the needy villain’s general home, The common sewer of Paris and of
Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.
Yet still he fills affection’s eye, Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
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.
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.
Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way.
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them..
As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life away in fruitless efforts.
When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints.
It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
Were it not for imagination, a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
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..
The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
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.
The future is purchased by the present.
The lustre of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue.
Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don’t let him go to the devil where he is known.
How guilt once harbour’d in the conscious breast, Intimidates the brave, degrades the great.
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.
The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.
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.
Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be..
The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
Let them call it mischief; Then it is past and prosper’d, ’twill be virtue.
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill … Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance.
No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.
Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.
Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.
Present opportunities are neglected, and attainable good is slighted, by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages.
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book..
Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.
We are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
There is nothing 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.
A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
I fly from pleasure, because pleasure has ceased to please: I am lonely because I am miserable.
Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.’ So it is with traveling. A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.
None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear, To pour at will the counterfeited tear; And, as their patron hints the cold or heat, To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.
The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind..
Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.
The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.
Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive .
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Despair is criminal.
The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
O, how vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base, uncomely things it makes men do.
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child’s rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man’s whore.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef, love, like being enlivened with champagne.
We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls.
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.
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.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence..
Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
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