Top quotes by Joseph Addison

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. Votes: 42

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Votes: 40

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius. Votes: 37

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. Votes: 36

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship. Votes: 28

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. Votes: 25

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body. Votes: 24

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. Votes: 22

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another. Votes: 19

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature. Votes: 18

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny. Votes: 17

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them. Votes: 16

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding. Votes: 15

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. Votes: 15

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes. Votes: 14

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee! Votes: 14

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt. Votes: 13

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion. Votes: 13

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Votes: 12

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures. Votes: 11

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble. Votes: 11

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. Votes: 10

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes. Votes: 10

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner. Votes: 8

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation. Votes: 8

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them. Votes: 6

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty. Votes: 5

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both. Votes: 4

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense. Votes: 2

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is. Votes: 1

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover. Votes: 0

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person. Votes: 0

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts. Votes: 0

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants. Votes: 0

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight. Votes: 0

A thousand trills and quivering sounds In airy circles o'er us fly, Till, wafted by a gentle breeze, They faint and languish by degrees, And at a distance die. Votes: 0

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel. Votes: 0

Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful. Votes: 0

Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it. Votes: 0

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement. Votes: 0

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. Votes: 0

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. Votes: 0

Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs. Votes: 0

True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. Votes: 0

A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. Votes: 0

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age. Votes: 0

My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me. Votes: 0

An idol may be undeified by many accidental causes. Marriage, in particular, is a kind of counter apotheosis, as a deification inverted. When a man becomes familiar with his goddess she quickly sinks into a woman. Votes: 0

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves. Votes: 0

Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves. Votes: 0

To this end, nothing is to be more carefully consulted than plainness. In a lady's attire this is the single excellence; for to be what some people call fine, is the same vice, in that case, as to be florid is in writing or speaking. Votes: 0

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man. Votes: 0

The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves. Votes: 0

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness. Votes: 0

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin! Votes: 0

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage. Votes: 0

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. Votes: 0

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend. Votes: 0

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies. Votes: 0

The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome. Votes: 0

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations. Votes: 0

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.' Votes: 0

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. Votes: 0

Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age itself is not unamiable while it is preserved clean and unsullied; like a piece of metal constantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new vessel cankered with rust. Votes: 0

Cleanliness may be defined to be the emblem of purity of mind. Votes: 0

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world. Votes: 0

Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. Votes: 0

It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belongto his Neighbour. Votes: 0

Every man in the time of courtship and in the first entrance of marriage, puts on a behavior like my correspondent's holiday suit. Votes: 0

Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible. Votes: 0

The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. Votes: 0

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object. Votes: 0

An opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention in the audience. Votes: 0

But silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them. Votes: 0

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others. Votes: 0

From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow. Votes: 0

When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions. Votes: 0

There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion. Votes: 0

Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. Votes: 0

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it. Votes: 0

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. Votes: 0

For ever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine. Votes: 0

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. Votes: 0

The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Votes: 0

The lives of great men cannot be writ with any tolerable degree of elegance or exactness within a short time after their decease. Votes: 0

Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit. Votes: 0

When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman. Votes: 0

I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it. Votes: 0

The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Votes: 0

Without constancy there is neither love, friendship, nor virtue in the world. Votes: 0

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair. Votes: 0

They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it. Votes: 0

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. Votes: 0

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. Votes: 0

Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature. Votes: 0

Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature. Votes: 0

There are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of Nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great. Votes: 0

A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of a great author every time he peruses him; besides that he naturally wears himself into the same manner of speaking and thinking. Votes: 0

A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality. Votes: 0

All well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter Votes: 0

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount. Votes: 0

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority. Votes: 0

The Gods in bounty work up storms about us, that give mankind occasion to exert their hidden strength, and throw our into practice virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed in the smooth seasons and the calms of life. Votes: 0

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor. Votes: 0

The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined education. Votes: 0

The post of honour is a private station. Votes: 0

The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship. Votes: 0

Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever. Votes: 0

Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity. Votes: 0

Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency. Votes: 0

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind. Votes: 0

Wine displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity. Votes: 0

There is more of turn than of truth in a saying of Seneca, "That drunkenness does not produce but discover faults." Common experience teaches the contrary. Wine throws a man out of himself, and infuses dualities into the mind which she is a stranger to in her sober moments. Votes: 0

From social intercourse are derived some of the highest enjoyments of life; where there is a free interchange of sentiments the mind acquires new ideas, and by frequent exercise of its powers, the understanding gains fresh vigor. Votes: 0

In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud. Votes: 0

In the founders of great families, titles or attributes of honor are generally correspondent with the virtues of the person to whom they are applied; but in their descendants they are too often the marks rather of grandeur than of merit. The stamp and denomination still continue, but the intrinsic value is frequently lost. Votes: 0

One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it. Votes: 0

A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him. Votes: 0

T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile. Votes: 0

The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in great danger of soon living beneath them; or as the Italian proverb says, "The man that lives by hope, will die by despair. Votes: 0

A jealous man is very quick in his application: he knows how to find a double edge in an invective, and to draw a satire on himself out of a panegyrick on another. Votes: 0

The disease of jealously is so malignant that is converts all it takes into its own nourishment. Votes: 0

Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is always, therefore, represented as blind. Votes: 0

Knavery is ever suspicious of knavery. Votes: 0

Great souls by instinct to each other turn, demand alliance, and in friendship burn. Votes: 0

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. Votes: 0

The statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. Votes: 0

God discovers the martyr and confessor without the trial of flames and tortures, and will hereafter entitle many to the reward of actions which they had never the opportunity of performing. Votes: 0

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee. Votes: 0

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. Votes: 0

Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth. Votes: 0

E'en the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom, and trodden weeds send out a rich perfume. Votes: 0

Nature is full of wonders; every atom is a standing miracle, and endowed with such qualities, as could not be impressed on it by a power and wisdom less than infinite. Votes: 0

Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer. Votes: 0

There are greater depths and obscurities, greater intricacies and perplexities, in an elaborate and well-written piece of nonsense, than in the most abstruse and profound tract of school divinity. Votes: 0

Even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labor under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him. Votes: 0

Novelty serves us for a kind of refreshment, and takes off from that satiety we are apt to complain of in our usual and ordinary entertainments. Votes: 0

The gloomy months of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves. Votes: 0

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity. Votes: 0

I am wonderfully pleased when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon, and which I have never met with in any quotation. Votes: 0

When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? My Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it. Votes: 0

I believe that everyone, some time or other, dreams that he is reading papers, books, or letters; in which case the invention prompts so readily that the mind is imposed upon, and mistakes its own suggestions for the composition of another. Votes: 0

How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party Votes: 0

This party spirit has so ill an effect on our morals, it has likewise a very great one upon our judgments. Votes: 0

The peacock in all his pride does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed. Votes: 0

Learning, like traveling and all other methods of improvement, as it finishes good sense, so it makes a silly man ten thousand times more insufferable by supplying variety of matter to his impertinence, and giving him an opportunity of abounding in absurdities. Votes: 0

Pedantry in learning is like hypocrisy inn religion--a form of knowledge without the power of it. Votes: 0

In that disputable point of persecuting men for conscience sake, I see such dreadful consequences rising, I would be as fully convinced of the truth of it, as a mathematical demonstration, before I would venture to act upon it or make it a part of my religion. Votes: 0

Every passion gives a particular cast to the countenance, and is apt to discover itself in some feature or other. I have seen an eye curse for half an hour together, and an eyebrow call a man a scoundrel. Votes: 0

There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato's description of the Supreme Being,--that truth is His body and light His shadow. According to this definition there is nothing so contradictory to his nature as error and falsehood. Votes: 0

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter. Votes: 0

The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature. Votes: 0

Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scipio's ghost walks unaveng'd amongst us! Votes: 0

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us. Votes: 0

One of the most important but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is to be its own master. Votes: 0

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life. Votes: 0

Every one knows the veneration which was paid by the Jews to a name so great, wonderful, and holy. They would not let it enter even into their religious discourses. What can we then think of those who make use of so tremendous a name, in the ordinary expression of their anger, mirth, and most impertinent passions? Votes: 0

Let echo, too, perform her part, Prolonging every note with art; And in a low expiring strain, Play all the comfort o'er again. Votes: 0

The ways of heaven are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes, and perplex'd with errors; Our understanding traces them in vain, Lost and bewilder'd in the fruitless search; Nor sees with how much art the windings run, Nor where the regular confusion ends. Votes: 0

There is no kind of false wit which has been so recommended by the practice of all ages, as that which consists in a jingle of words, and is comprehended under the general name of punning. Votes: 0

It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occasion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation. Votes: 0

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed. Votes: 0

Must one rash word, the infirmity of age, throw down the merit of my better years? Votes: 0

Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness. Votes: 0

Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant; a marriage of interest, easy; and a marriage where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the sweets of life. Votes: 0

The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers. Votes: 0

Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view. Votes: 0

It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works; they have eyes only for spots and blemishes. Votes: 0

A wealthy doctor who can help a poor man, and will not without a fee, has less sense of humanity than a poor ruffian, who kills a rich man to supply his necessities. Votes: 0

Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world. Votes: 0

Through all eternity to thee, a joyful song I'll raise; for oh! Eternity's too short to utter all thy praise Votes: 0

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body it preserves constant ease and serenity within us and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without Votes: 0

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity Votes: 0

Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity Votes: 0

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress. Votes: 0

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune. Votes: 0

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality. Votes: 0

If you wish success in life, make perseverance you bosom friend, experience your wise councellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius. Votes: 0

A satire should expose nothing but what is corrigible, and should make a due discrimination between those that are and those that are not the proper objects of it. Votes: 0

Should a writer single out and point his raillery at particular persons, or satirize the miserable, he might be sure of pleasing a great part of his readers, but must be a very ill man if he could please himself. Votes: 0

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction. Votes: 0

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without. Votes: 0

Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire. Votes: 0

I have often reflected within myself on this unaccountable humor in womankind of being smitten with everything that is showy and superficial, and on the numberless evils that befall the sex from this light fantastical disposition. Votes: 0

It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards. Votes: 0

Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. Votes: 0

Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments. Votes: 0

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch. Votes: 0

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species. Votes: 0

I think a Person who is thus terrified with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless. Votes: 0

It is pleasant to see a notorious profligate seized with a concern for religion, and converting his spleen into zeal. Votes: 0

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment. Votes: 0

We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull. Votes: 0

Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes. Votes: 0

Artificial intelligence will never be a match for natural stupidity. Votes: 0

When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view I'm lost, in wonder, love and praise. Votes: 0

Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor. Votes: 0

Jesters do often prove prophets. Votes: 0

True fortitude is seen in great exploits That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides; And all else is tow'ring phrenzy and distraction. Votes: 0

Who rant by note, and through the gamut rage; in songs and airs express their martial fire; combat in trills, and in a fugue expire. Votes: 0

Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness. Votes: 0

Our Grub-street biographers watch for the death of a great man like so many undertakers on purpose to make a penny of him. Votes: 0

Amidst the soft variety I'm lost. Votes: 0

The passion for praise, which is so very vehement in the fair sex, produces excellent effects in women of sense, who desire to be admired for that which only deserves admiration. Votes: 0

Unbounded courage and compassion join'd, Tempering each other in the victor's mind, Alternately proclaim him good and great, And make the hero and the man complete. Votes: 0

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man. Votes: 0

The voice of reason is more to be regarded than the bent of any present inclination; since inclination will at length come over to reason, though we can never force reason to comply with inclination. Votes: 0

Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians. Votes: 0

Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. Votes: 0

Round-heads and Wooden-shoes are standing jokes. Votes: 0

It is of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions at some laudable end. Votes: 0

There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. Votes: 0

There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal. Votes: 0

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity. Votes: 0

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud. Votes: 0

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture. Votes: 0

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below. Votes: 0

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel? Votes: 0

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved. Votes: 0

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young. Votes: 0

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. Votes: 0

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol. Votes: 0

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense. Votes: 0

No one is more cherished in this world than someone who lightens the burden of another. Thank you. Votes: 0

When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. Votes: 0

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed. Votes: 0

Encourage innocent amusement. Votes: 0

Nature seems to have taken a particular care to disseminate her blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to their mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, that the nations of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another and be united together by their common interest. Votes: 0

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance Votes: 0

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other. Votes: 0

Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies. Votes: 0

Talk not of love: thou never knew'st its force. Votes: 0

All of heaven we have below. Votes: 0

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side. Votes: 0

Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse. Votes: 0

Let freedom never perish in your hands. Votes: 0

One hope no sooner dies in us but another rises up in its stead. We are apt to fancy that we shall be happy and satisfied if we possess ourselves of such and such particular enjoyments; but either by reason of their emptiness, or the natural inquietude of the mind, we have no sooner gained one point, but we extend our hopes to another. We still find new inviting scenes and landscapes lying behind those which at a distance terminated our view. Votes: 0

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought. Votes: 0

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world. Votes: 0

When a woman comes to her class, she does not employ her time in making herself look more advantageously what she really is, but endeavours to be as much another creature as she possibly can. Whether this happens because they stay so long and attend their work so diligently that they forget the faces and persons, which they first sat down with, or whatever it is, they seldom rise from the toilet the same woman they appeared when they began to dress Votes: 0

Music raises in the mind of the hearer great conceptions: it strengthens and advances praise into rapture. Votes: 0

Colors speak all languages. Votes: 0

Faith is kept alive in us, and gathers strength, more from practice than from speculations. Votes: 0

We find the Works of Nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of art. Votes: 0

Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding. Votes: 0

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart. Votes: 0

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities. Votes: 0

There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice. Votes: 0

Thus I live in the world rather as a Spectator of mankind, than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part of life. Votes: 0

Good-breeding shows itself most where to an ordinary eye it appears the least. Votes: 0

Our friends don't see our faults, or conceal them, or soften them. Votes: 0

Fame is a good so wholly foreign to our natures that we have no faculty in the soul adapted to it, nor any organ in the body to relish it; an object of desire placed out of the possibility of fruition. Votes: 0

'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle, and makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile... 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, and hold in balance each contending state, To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, and answer her afflicted neighbours' prayer... Soon as her fleets appear their terrors cease. Votes: 0

A source of cheerfulness to a good mind is the consideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, though we behold Him as yet but in the first faint discoveries of His perfections, we see everything that we can imagine as great glorious, or amiable. We find ourselves everywhere upheld by His goodness and surrounded by an immensity of love and mercy. Votes: 0

Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. Votes: 0

It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion. Votes: 0

The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment. A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy hereafter. Votes: 0

I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words. Votes: 0

The Knight in the triumph of his heart made several 6 reflections on thegreatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that theThames was thenoblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the Seven Wonders of the World; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman. Votes: 0

The moral perfections of the Deity, the more attentively, we consider, the more perfectly still shall we know them. Votes: 0

Our admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him; and we seldom hear of a celebrated person without a catalogue of some notorious weaknesses and infirmities. Votes: 0

It is folly to seek the approbation of any being besides the Supreme. Votes: 0

Who does not more admire Cicero as an author than as a consul of Rome? Votes: 0

What can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being? Votes: 0

I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian may die. Votes: 0

That courage which arises from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. Votes: 0

Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves. Votes: 0

It happened very providentially, to the honor of the Christian religion, that it did not take its rise in the dark illiterate ages of the world, but at a time when arts and sciences were at their height. Votes: 0

A well regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors. Votes: 0

Cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning is a kind of shortsightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Votes: 0

The care of our national commerce redounds more to the riches and prosperity of the public than any other act of government. Votes: 0

Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him. Votes: 0

What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries? Votes: 0

Charity is the perfection and ornament of religion. Votes: 0

Hudibras has defined nonsense, as Cowley does wit, by negatives. Nonsense, he says, is that which is neither true nor false. These two great properties of nonsense, which are always essential to it, give it such a peculiar advantage over all other writings, that it is incapable of being either answered or contradicted. Votes: 0

A religious hope does not only bear up the mind under her sufferings but makes her rejoice in them. Votes: 0

It must be a prospect pleasing to God Himself to see His creation forever beautifying in His eyes, and drawing nearer Him by greater degrees of resemblance. Votes: 0

The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest station, in a human figure. Votes: 0

Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies. Votes: 0

Complaisance, though in itself it be scarce reckoned in the number of moral virtues, is that which gives a lustre to every talent a man can be possessed of. It was Plato's advice to an unpolished writer that he should sacrifice to the graces. In the same manner I would advise every man of learning, who would not appear in the world a mere scholar or philosopher, to make himself master of the social virtue which I have here mentioned. Votes: 0

Persons in great stations have seldom their true character drawn till several years after their death. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunities of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it. Votes: 0

The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener. Votes: 0

Complaisance renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable. Votes: 0

My heart leaps at the trumpet's voice. Votes: 0

I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution of his country's laws can overcome all private fear, resentment, solicitation, and even pity it self. Whatever passion enters into a sentence or decision, so far will there be in it a tincture of injustice. In short, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind, that we may suppose her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a cause, without being diverted or prejudiced by objects foreign to it. Votes: 0

We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful. Votes: 0

There is nothing which strengthens faith more than the observance of morality. Votes: 0

The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounceit true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn. Votes: 0

If our zeal were true and genuine we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic. Votes: 0

What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me. Votes: 0

The English Writers of Tragedy are possessed with a Notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent Person in Distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his Troubles, or made him triumph over his Enemies. Votes: 0

Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of human Nature; I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth. Votes: 0

Honor's a fine imaginary notion, that draws in raw and unexperienced men to real mischiefs. Votes: 0

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul. Votes: 0

The English delight in Silence more than any other European Nation, if the Remarks which are made on us by Foreigners are true. Votes: 0

A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down with neglect on the censures and applauses of the multitude. Votes: 0

A contemplation of God's works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility only, denominate men great and glorious. Votes: 0

Whilst I yet live, let me not live in vain. Votes: 0

Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects. Votes: 0

A great large book is a great evil. Votes: 0

Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels. Votes: 0

An honest man, that is not quite sober, has nothing to fear. Votes: 0

Hunting is not a proper employment for a thinking man. Votes: 0

As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest. Votes: 0

Troops of heroes undistinguished die. Votes: 0

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles. Votes: 0

Supposing all the great points of atheism were formed into a kind of creed, I would fain ask whether it would not require an infinite greater measure of faith than any set of articles which they so violently oppose. Votes: 0

I consider time as an in immense ocean, in which many noble authors are entirely swallowed up. Votes: 0

I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasures and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world. Votes: 0

Nations with nations mix'd confus'dly die, and lost in one promiscuous carnage lie. Votes: 0

The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impossible for him to be alone. Votes: 0

Peaceable times are the best to live in, though not so proper to furnish materials for a writer. Votes: 0

Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, and intimates eternity to man. Votes: 0

I have often wondered that learning is not thought a proper ingredient in the education of a woman of quality or fortune. Since they have the same improvable minds as the male part of their species. Votes: 0

There is no passion that is not finely expressed in those parts of the inspired writings which are proper for divine songs and anthems. Votes: 0

Nothing that is not a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency, especially when it regards religion or party. In either of these cases, though a man perhaps does but his duty in changing his side, he not only makes himself hated by those he left, but is seldom heartily esteemed by those he comes over to. Votes: 0

Nothing makes a woman more esteemed by the opposite sex than chastity; whether it be that we always prize those most who are hardest to come at, or that nothing besides chastity, with its collateral attendants, truth, fidelity, and constancy, gives a man a property in the person he loves, and consequently endears her to him above all things. Votes: 0

It is the duty of all who make philosophy the entertainment of their lives, to turn their thoughts to practical schemes for the good of society, and not pass away their time in fruitless searches, which tend rather to the ostentation of knowledge than the service of life. Votes: 0

The Fear of Death often proves Mortal. Votes: 0

How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue! Votes: 0

Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour. Votes: 0

A money-lender--he serves you in the present tense; he lends you in the conditional mood; keeps you in the conjunctive; and ruins you in the future. Votes: 0

It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances. Votes: 0

The first race of mankind used to dispute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rule of art. Votes: 0

Men who profess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the common interest of their fellow subjects; and act with independence to that constitution into which they are incorporated. The safety of the whole requires our joint endeavours. When this is at stake, the indifferent are not properly a part of the community; or rather are like dead limbs, which are an encumbrance to the body, instead of being of use to it. Votes: 0

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders. Votes: 0

There is no passion that steals into the heart more imperceptibly and covers itself under more disguises than pride. Votes: 0

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable. Votes: 0

I do not propose to our British ladies, that they should turn Amazons in the service of their sovereign, nor so much as let their nails grow for the defence of their country. The men will take the work of the field off their hands, and show the world, that English valour cannot be matched when it is animated by English beauty. Votes: 0

It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man. Votes: 0

A common civility to an impertinent fellow, often draws upon one a great many unforeseen troubles; and if one doth not take particular care, will be interpreted by him as an overture of friendship and intimacy. Votes: 0

Justice is that which is practiced by God himself, and to be practiced in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and omnipotence are requisite for the full exertion of it. Votes: 0

There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring virgins into distress, and to ruin innocence. When men of rank and figure pass away their lives in these criminal pursuits and practices, they ought to consider that they render themselves more vile and despicable than any innocent man can be, whatever low station his fortune or birth have placed him in. Votes: 0

The discreet man finds out the talents of those he converses with, and knows how to apply them to proper uses. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divisions of men, we may observe that it is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives measures to the society. Votes: 0

There is sometimes a greater judgement shewn in deviating from the rules of art, than in adhering to them; and?there ismore beauty inthe works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows but scrupulously observes them. Votes: 0

I should think myself a very bad woman, if I had done what I do for a farthing less. Votes: 0

Conspiracies no sooner should be formed Than executed. Votes: 0

Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part; she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making... Votes: 0

A perfect tragedy is the noblest production of human nature. Votes: 0

A few persons of an odious and despised country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not shown undoubted credentials from the divine person who sent them on such a message. Votes: 0

We have in England a particular bashfulness in every thing that regards religion. Votes: 0

Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life. Votes: 0

If I can in any way contribute to the Diversion or Improvement of the Country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret Satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain. Votes: 0

Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind. Votes: 0

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality. Votes: 0

The moderns cannot reach their beauties, but can avoid their imperfections. Votes: 0

Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure. Votes: 0

There is no greater sign of a bad cause, than when the patrons of it are reduced to the necessity of making use of the most wicked artifices to support it. Votes: 0

There is a great amity between designing and art. Votes: 0

Ladies are always of great use to the party they espouse, and never fail to win over numbers to it. Lovers, according to Sir William Petty's computation, make at least the third part of sensible men of the British nation; and it has been an uncontroverted maxim in all ages, that though a husband is sometimes a stubborn sort of a creature, a lover is always at the devotion of his mistress. By this means, it lies in the power of every fine woman, to secure at least half a dozen able-bodied men to his Majesty's service. Votes: 0

It is a great presumption to ascribe our successes to our own management, and not to esteem ourselves upon any blessing, rather as it is the bounty of heaven, than the acquisition of our own prudence. Votes: 0

When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. Votes: 0

If men, who in their hearts are friends to a government, forbear giving it their utmost assistance against its enemies, they put it in the power of a few desperate men to ruin the welfare of those who are much superior to them in strength, number, and interest. Votes: 0

On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait, and from your judgment must expect my fate. Votes: 0

A man governs himself by the dictates of virtue and good sense, who acts without zeal or passion in points that are of no consequence; but when the whole community is shaken, and the safety of the public endangered, the appearance of a philosophical or an affected indolence must arise either from stupidity or perfidiousness. Votes: 0

Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal of his candles on a rejoicing night, let her look to him and keep him out of harm's way; or the world will be apt to say, she has a mind to be a widow before her time. She ought, in such cases, to exert the authority of the curtain lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious disposition, to tame him, as they do birds of prey, by dinning him in the ears all night long. Votes: 0

Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid to a father, a wife, or child. In the same manner, though our love should reach to the whole species, a greater proportion of it should exert itself towards that community in which Providence has placed us. This is our proper sphere of action, the province allotted us for the exercise of our civil virtues, and in which alone we have opportunities of expressing our goodwill to mankind. Votes: 0

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom. Votes: 0

It generally takes its rise either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an ostentation of wit, and vanity of being thought in the secrets of the world; or from a desire of gratifying any of these dispositions of mind in those persons with whom we converse. Votes: 0

Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch the weak, superstitious part of his readers' imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius. Votes: 0

It is always to be understood that a lady takes all you detract from the rest of her sex to be a gift to her. Votes: 0

There is nobody so weak of invention that cannot make some little stories to villify his enemy. Votes: 0

There is a sort of economy in Providence that one shall excel where another is defective, in order to make men more useful to each other, and mix them in society. Votes: 0

Religion prescribes to every miserable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it shows him that the bearing of his afflictions as he ought to do, will naturally end in the removal of them. Votes: 0

For my own part, I am apt to join in the opinion with those who believe that all the regions of Nature swarm with spirits, and that we have multitudes of spectators on all our actions when we think ourselves most alone. Votes: 0

Whether dark presages of the night proceed from any latent power of the soul during her abstraction, or from any operation of subordinate spirits, has been a dispute. Votes: 0

A brother's sufferings claim a brother's pity. Votes: 0

It has been said in praise of some men, that they could take whole hours together upon anything; but it must be owned to the honor of the other sex that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore dissertation on the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup, in all the figures of rhetoric. Votes: 0

Music, among those who were styled the chosen people, was a religious art. Votes: 0

That fine part of our construction, the eye, seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions as the mind itself; and at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out. Votes: 0

The intelligence of affection is carried on by the eye only; good-breeding has made the tongue falsify the heart, and act a part of continued restraint, while nature has preserved the eyes to herself, that she may not be disguised or misrepresented. Votes: 0

Oh, Liberty! thou goddess heavenly bright! Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight! Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign, And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train. Votes: 0

One may know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding. Votes: 0

Honour's a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind's distinguishing perfection That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with. Votes: 0

There is noting truly valuable which can be purchased without pains and labor. The gods have set a price upon every real and noble pleasure. Votes: 0

It is certain that there is no other passion which does produce such contrary effects in so great a degree. But this may be said for love, that if you strike it out of the soul, life would be insipid, and our being but half animated. Votes: 0

Look what a little vain dust we are! Votes: 0

A soul exasperated in ills, falls out With everything, its friend, itself. Votes: 0

Waning moons their settled periods keep, to swell the billows and ferment the deep. Votes: 0

Music is the only sensual gratification which mankind may indulge in to excess without injury to their moral or religious feelings. Votes: 0

Nothing lies on our hands with such uneasiness as time. Wretched and thoughtless creatures! In the only place where covetousness were a virtue we turn prodigals. Votes: 0

The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions. The time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; so is that of the other, because he distinguishes every moment of it with useful or amusing thoughts--or, in other words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it. Votes: 0

I shall endeavour to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality, that my Readers may, if possible, both Ways findtheir Account in the Speculation of the Day. Votes: 0

Women were formed to temper Mankind, and sooth them into Tenderness and Compassion; not to set an Edge upon their Minds, and blowup in them those Passions which are too apt to rise of their own Accord. Votes: 0

Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing their Zeal for the Publick, let it not be against those who are perhaps of the same Family, or at least of the same Religion or Nation, but against those who are the open, professed, undoubted Enemies of their Faith, Liberty, and Country. Votes: 0

Those who were skillful in Anatomy among the Ancients, concluded from the outward and inward Make of an Human Body, that it was the Work of a Being transcendently Wise and Powerful. As the World grew more enlightened in this Art, their Discoveries gave them fresh Opportunities of admiring the Conduct of Providence in the Formation of an Human Body. Votes: 0

It is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to persuade his Mistress he has a Passion for her, and to succeed in his Pursuits, than for one who loves with the greatest Violence. True Love hath ten thousand Griefs, Impatiencies and Resentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Person whose Affection he sollicits. Votes: 0

The Obedience of Children to their Parents is the Basis of all Government, and set forth as the measure of that Obedience which weowe to those whom Providence hath placed over us. Votes: 0

The Fashionable World is grown free and easie; our Manners sit more loose upon us: Nothing is so modish as an agreeable Negligence. In a word, Good Breeding shows it self most, where to an ordinary Eye it appears the least. Votes: 0

Flying would give such occasions for intrigues as people cannot meet with who have nothing but legs to carry them. Votes: 0

The moral virtues, without religion are but cold, lifeless, and insipid; it is only religion which opens the mind to great conceptions, fills it with the most sublime ideas, and warms the soul with more than sensual pleasures. Votes: 0

Content has a kindly influence on the soul of man, in respect of every being to whom he stands related. It extinguishes all murmuring, repining, and ingratitude toward that Being who has allotted us our part to act in the world. It destroys all inordinate ambition; gives sweetness to the conversation, and serenity to all the thoughts; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them. Votes: 0

Good Nature, and Evenness of Temper, will give you an easie Companion for Life; Vertue and good Sense, an agreeable Friend; Love and Constancy, a good Wife or Husband. Where we meet one Person with all these Accomplishments, we find an Hundred without any one of them. Votes: 0

Marriage enlarges the Scene of our Happiness and Miseries. Votes: 0

It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them. Votes: 0

Nothing makes men sharper than want. Votes: 0

A thousand glorious actions that might claim Triumphant laurels, and immortal fame, Confus'd in crowds of glorious actions lie, And troops of heroes undistinguished die. Votes: 0

In the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character. Votes: 0

A virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed a fine picture in a food light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful sex all over charms. Votes: 0

I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and I believe he will often find that what be calls a zeal for his religion is either pride, interest, or ill-repute. Votes: 0

Physic is, for the most part, only a substitute for temperance and exercise. Votes: 0

Most of the trades, professions, and ways of living among mankind, take their original either from the love of the pleasure, or the fear of want. The former, when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter into avarice. Votes: 0

Health and happiness give rise to each other. Votes: 0

Nothing, says Longinus, can be great, the contempt of which is great. Votes: 0

Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light. Votes: 0

In the loss of an object we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies set upon it. Votes: 0

Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant. Votes: 0

In rising sighs and falling tears. Votes: 0

The ungrown glories of his beamy hair. Votes: 0

The world is so full of ill-nature that I have lampoons sent me by people who cannot spell, and satires composed by those who scarce know how to write. Votes: 0

How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created? Votes: 0

The schoolboy counts the time till the return of the holidays; the minor longs to be of age; the lover is impatient till he is married. Votes: 0

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently both friends and foes. Votes: 0

Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser. Votes: 0

Fables take off from the severity of instruction, and enforce it at the same time that they conceal it. Votes: 0

A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality. Votes: 0

One would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started into discourse; but, instead of this we find that conversation is never so much straightened and confined, as in numerous assemblies. Votes: 0

The pleasantest part of a man's life is generally that which passes in courtship, provided his passion be sincere, and the party beloved kind with discretion. Love, desire, hope, all the pleasing emotions of the soul, rise in the pursuit. Votes: 0

I never knew a critic who made it his business to lash the faults of other writers that was not guilty of greater himself--as the hangman is generally a worse malefactor than the criminal that suffers by his hand. Votes: 0

It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less. Votes: 0

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm. Votes: 0

A statue lies hid in a block of marble, and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone; the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero,--the wise, the good, or the great man,--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light. Votes: 0

There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm. Votes: 0

Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance. Votes: 0

Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species. Votes: 0

We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. Votes: 0

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them. Votes: 0

Contentment produces, in some measure, all those effects which the alchemist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire for them. Votes: 0

A fine coat is but a livery when the person who wears it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman. Votes: 0

Virgil has very finely touched upon the female passion for dress and shows, in the character of Camilla; who though she seems to have shaken off all the other weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a woman in this particular. Votes: 0

By anticipation we sugar misery and enjoy happiness before they are in being. We can set the sun and stars forward, or lose sight of them by wandering into those retired parts of eternity when the heavens and earth shall be no more. Votes: 0

It is observed by Cicero, that men of the greatest and most shining parts are most actuated by ambition. Votes: 0

The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible. Votes: 0

The memory is perpetually looking back when we have nothing present to entertain us. It is like those repositories in animals that are filled with food, on which they may ruminate when their present pastures fail. Votes: 0

Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above or below him are serious. Votes: 0

Virtue which shuns, the day. Votes: 0

One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty. Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation, or the continuance of his species. Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding. Votes: 0

Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in. Votes: 0

True religion and virtue give a cheerful and happy turn to the mind, admit of all true pleasures, and even procure for us the highest. Votes: 0

The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill action. Votes: 0

An evil intention perverts the best actions, and makes them sins. Votes: 0

Adulterers, in the first stages of the church, were excommunicated forever, and unqualified all their lives for bearing a part in Christian assemblies, notwithstanding they might seek it with tears, and all the appearances of the most unfeigned repentance. Votes: 0

He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor. Votes: 0

Men who cherish for women the highest respect are seldom popular with them. Votes: 0

Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable. Votes: 0

It is impossible for us, who live in the latter ages of the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or in any art or science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little else left us but to represent the common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. Votes: 0

The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo. Votes: 0

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of; it heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure and makes the colors more beautiful, though not so glar ... Votes: 0

Man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and next to escape the censures of the world. If the last interfere with the first it should be entirely neglected. But if not, there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind than to see its own approbation seconded by the applause of the public. Votes: 0

An honest private man often grows cruel and abandoned when converted into an absolute prince. Give a man power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguish his fear, and consequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality. Votes: 0

There is no defense against reproach, but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness. Votes: 0

Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in. Votes: 0

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. Votes: 0

As vivacity is the gift of woman, gravity is that of men. Votes: 0

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Votes: 0

A man's reputation draws eyes upon him that will narrowly inspect every part of him. Votes: 0

There is not a more pleasante exercise of the mind than gratitude. Votes: 0

The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness. Votes: 0

A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. - Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant; accommodates itself to the meanest capacities; silences the loud and clamorous, and cringes over the most obstinate and inflexible. - Philip of Macedon was a man of most invincible reason this way. He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens; confounded their statesmen; struck their orators dumb; and at length argued them out of all their liberties. Votes: 0

Husband a lie, and trump it up in some extraordinary emergency. Votes: 0

Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands. Votes: 0

I think I may define taste to be that faculty of the soul which discerns the beauties of an author with pleasure, and the imperfections with dislike. Votes: 0

It must be so,-Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; 'T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! Votes: 0

The woman that deliberates is lost. Votes: 0

The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out of a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which, a good thing may pass over unobserved, or lost among commissions of bankrupt. Votes: 0

I 'm weary of conjectures,-this must end 'em. Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me: This in a moment brings me to an end; But this informs me I shall never die. The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. Votes: 0

There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. Votes: 0

The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger. Votes: 0

This not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it. Votes: 0

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage. Votes: 0

Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness. Votes: 0

If gratitude, when exerted towards another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture when it is employed on this great object of gratitude to the beneficent Being who has given us everything we already possess, and from whom we expect everything we yet hope for. Votes: 0

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country. Votes: 0

My voice is still for war. Votes: 0

Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes. Votes: 0

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude. Votes: 0

Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below. Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle love; 40 With unsuspected eloquence can move, And manage all the man with secret art. When Orpheus strikes the trembling lyre The streams stand still, the stones admire; The listening savages advance, The world and lamb around him trip The bears in aukward measures leap, And tigers mingle in the dance The moving woods attended as he played And Rhodope was left without a shade. Votes: 0

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another. Votes: 0

When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault to love; The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise, Sink in the soft captivity together. Votes: 0

There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and satires that are written with wit and spirit are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable. Votes: 0

Instability of temper ought to be checked when it disposes men to wander from one scheme to another: since such a fickleness cannot but be attended with fatal consequences. Votes: 0

My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death? Votes: 0

For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground. Votes: 0

Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts, Or carry smiles and sunshine in my face, When discontent sits heavy at my heart. Votes: 0

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it. Votes: 0

Why, a spirit is such a little, little thing, that I have heard man, who was a great scholar, say that he'll dance ye a hornpipe upon the point of a needle. Votes: 0

There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply its place. For this reason mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word Good-Breeding. Votes: 0

Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts and that it should last no longer than is necessary for the preservation of the young? Votes: 0

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. Votes: 0

When I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with other innumerable distempers lying in ambuscade among the dishes. Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Every animal but man keeps to one dish. Herbs are the food of this species, fish of that, and flesh of a third. Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him. Votes: 0

Love is a second life ... Votes: 0

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind. Votes: 0

It must be so, Plato, thou reason'st well! Votes: 0

Our forefathers looked upon nature with more reverence and horror, before the world was enlightened by learning and philosophy, and loved to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms, and inchantments. There was not a village in England that had not a ghost in it, the church-yards were all haunted, every large common had a circle of fairies belonging to it, and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit. Votes: 0

I... recommend to every one of my Readers, the keeping a Journal of their Lives for one Week, and setting down punctually their whole Series of Employments during that Space of Time. This kind of Self-Examination would give them a true State of themselves, and incline them to consider seriously what they are about. One Day would rectifie the Omissions of another, and make a Man weigh all those indifferent Actions, which, though they are easily forgotten, must certainly be accounted for. Votes: 0

A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts Votes: 0

Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul, Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee, Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine! Votes: 0

A vast space naturally raises in my thoughts the idea of an Almighty Being. Votes: 0

A state of temperance, sobriety and justice without devotion is a cold, lifeless, insipid condition of virtue, and is rather to be styled philosophy than religion. Votes: 0

Advertisements are of great use to the vulgar. First of all, as they are instruments of ambition. A man that is by no means big enough for the Gazette, may easily creep into the advertisements; by which means we often see an apothecary in the same paper of news with a plenipotentiary, or a running footman with an ambassador. Votes: 0

It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division. [as they realise their problems could be worse!] Votes: 0

We make provisions for this life as if it were never to have an end, and for the other life as though it were never to have a beginning. Votes: 0

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. Votes: 0

Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life. Votes: 0

A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor. Votes: 0

There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings. Votes: 0

Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails. Votes: 0

Wine heightens indifference into love, love into jealousy, and jealousy into madness. It often turns the good-natured man into an idiot, and the choleric into an assassin. It gives bitterness to resentment, it makes vanity insupportable, and displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity. Votes: 0

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Votes: 0

A good disposition is more valuable than gold, for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature. Votes: 0

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind Votes: 0

With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhaustible sources of perfection. We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for it. Votes: 0

The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it; and can there be a thought so transporting as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness? Votes: 0

To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine forever with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge,--carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Votes: 0

T is the Divinity that stirs within us. Votes: 0

When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition. Votes: 0

Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass! Votes: 0

There is no talent so pernicious as eloquence to those who have it under command. Votes: 0

Though a man cannot abstain from being weak, he may from being vicious. Votes: 0

Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood. Votes: 0

Oh! think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods, Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Filled up with horror all, and big with death! Votes: 0

The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest pang even at the moment of parting; yea, even the eternal farewell is robbed of half of its bitterness when uttered in accents that breathe love to the last sigh. Votes: 0

The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas. Votes: 0

Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind. Votes: 0

I have but nine-pence in ready money, but I can draw for a thousand pounds. Votes: 0

Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity. Votes: 0

Yet then from all my grief, O Lord, Thy mercy set me free, Whilst in the confidence of pray'r My soul took hold on thee. Votes: 0

O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! The best may err, but you are good. Votes: 0

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing. Votes: 0

Among the writers of antiquity there are none who instruct us more openly in the manners of their respective times in which they lived than those who have employed themselves in satire, under whatever dress it may appear. Votes: 0

Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldest satire that is now extant, and, as some say, of the first that was ever written. Votes: 0

The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for polite learning; and they are those which a sour undistinguishing critic generally attacks with the greatest violence. Votes: 0

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy inflames his crimes. Votes: 0

Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle love, With unsuspected eloquence can move, And manage all the man with secret art. Votes: 0

We cannot be guilty of a greater act of uncharitableness, than to interpret the afflictions which befall our neighbors as punishments and judgments. Votes: 0

Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense. Votes: 0

The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it. Votes: 0

I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter. Votes: 0

There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rise above reason, and yet fall infinitely short of it. Votes: 0

Content thyself to be obscurely good. Votes: 0

There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected. Votes: 0

In my Lucia's absence Life hangs upon me, and becomes a burden; I am ten times undone, while hope, and fear, And grief, and rage and love rise up at once, And with variety of pain distract me. Votes: 0

Plutarch has written an essay on the benefits which a man may receive from his enemies; and among the good fruits of enmity, mentions this in particular, that by the reproaches which it casts upon us, we see the worst side of ourselves. Votes: 0

The Infusion of a China plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian Cane. Votes: 0

Among the several kinds of beauty, the eye takes most delight in colors. Votes: 0

There is nothing touches our imagination so much as a beautiful woman in a plain dress. Votes: 0

Thy steady temper, Portius, Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Cæsar, In the calm lights of mild philosophy. Votes: 0

It is very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards with no conversation but what is made up of a few game-phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots arranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his species complaining that life is short? Votes: 0

When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like. Votes: 0

The Lord my pasture shall prepare, And feed me with a shepherd's care; His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye. Votes: 0

There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence when it has in it a dash of folly. Votes: 0

Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a future state is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news. If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man. Votes: 0

The productions of a great genius, with many lapses and inadvertences, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact, and conformable to all the rules of correct writing. Votes: 0

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of hard luck. A good character, good habits and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all ill-luck that fools ever dreamed. Votes: 0

Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Votes: 0

If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue. Votes: 0

There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, nay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person's advantage, as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet. Votes: 0

Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence, and humanity. Votes: 0

Most of our fellow-subjects are guided either by the prejudice of education or by a deference to the judgment of those who perhaps in their own hearts disapprove the opinions which they industriously spread among the multitude. Votes: 0

The very first discovery of beauty strikes the mind with an inward joy, and spreads a cheerfulness and delight through all its faculties. Votes: 0

No man writes a book without meaning something, though he may not have the faculty of writing consequentially and expressing his meaning. Votes: 0

Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them. Votes: 0

Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Votes: 0

Facts are plain spoken; hopes and figures are its aversion. Votes: 0

A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections Votes: 0

A misery is not to be measure from the nature of the evil but from the temper of the sufferer. Votes: 0

Hope calculates its scenes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; and grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin and dishonor. Votes: 0

I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution of his country Votes: 0

Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves. Votes: 0

We see the pernicious effects of luxury in the ancient Romans, who immediately found themselves poor as soon as this vice got footing among them. Votes: 0

Blesses his stars and thinks it luxury. Votes: 0

The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures. Votes: 0

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep the fire out of the one, and the frost out of the other. Votes: 0

Poverty palls the most generous spirits; it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair. Votes: 0

In England we see people lulled sleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowings and distortions of enthusiasm. Votes: 0

The pride of woman, natural to her, never sleeps until modesty is gone. Votes: 0

See in what peace a Christian can die. Votes: 0

Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end of their lives. Votes: 0

Physic, for the most part, is nothing else but the substitute of exercise and temperance. Votes: 0

Riches are apt to betray a man into arrogance. Votes: 0

Riches expose a man to pride and luxury, and a foolish elation of heart. Votes: 0

If ridicule were employed to laugh men out of vice and folly, it might be of some use. Votes: 0