Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct.
A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.
The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.
An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.
The general remedy of those who are uneasy without knowing the cause is change of place.
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Want of tenderness is want of parts, and is no less a proof of stupidity than depravity.
Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.
There is nothing so minute, or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.
What I gained by being in France was learning to be better satisfied with my own country.
The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise.
Almost all the moral good which is left among us is the apparent effect of physical evil.
In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
Now ... that you are going to marry, do not expect more from life, than life will afford.
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive .
Wit will never make a man rich, but there are places where riches will always make a wit.
How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.
Few things are so liberally bestowed, or squandered with so little effect, as good advice.
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.
Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.
Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections their author.
Domestic discord is not inevitably and fatally necessary; but yet it is not easy to avoid.
The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today
A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.
I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night, and then the nap takes me.
No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
Reason will by degrees submit to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness.
The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity.
From Bard, to Bard, the frigid Caution crept, Till Declamation roar'd, while Passion slept.
Where there is emulation, there will be vanity; where there is vanity, there will be folly.
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigor to resolution.
The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.
As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.
The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve.