Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.
Stand Firm for your country, and become a man Honour'd and lov'd: It were a noble life, To be found dead, embracing her.
In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind.
The liberty of using harmless pleasure will not be disputed; but it is still to be examined what pleasures are harmless.
Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.
If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.
It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.
You cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time contriving not to have tedious hours.
The heroes of literary history have been no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved.
Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding can expect only to improve a single science.
A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.
That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.
The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.
If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.
It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.
That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...
Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly
The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.
I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.
Those who attempt nothing themselves think every thing easily performed, and consider the unsuccessful always as criminal.
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.
It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls.
Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained
Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.
Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, - judgement, to estimate things at their true value.
I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.
The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances.
There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
To excite opposition and inflame malevolence is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousness of strength.
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar
As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.
Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the future.
Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.
In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness - inspissated gloom.
While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.
Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.
In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, and born in bed, in bed we die; the near approach a bed may show of human bliss to human woe.
The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends.
A man, doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote enquiries.
Irresolution and mutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide, and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive.