Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.
Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.
Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.
I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.
Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.
We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Most men think indistinctly, and therefore cannot speak with exactness . . .
An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.
The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure.
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking
The resolution of the combat is seldom equal to the vehemence of the charge.
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.
Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.
Invention is almost the only literary labour which blindness cannot obstruct.
None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falsehood.
The relief of enemies has a tendency to unite mankind in fraternal affection.
Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade.
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.
Such is the constitution of Man that labor may be said to be its own re-ward.
As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal.
Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.
Probably no one will ever know whether it is better to wear a nightcap or not.
Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed.
The finest landscape in the world is improved by a good inn in the foreground.
It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain.
If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
My diseases are an asthma and a dropsy and, what is less curable, seventy-five.
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.
I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.
Wise married women don't trouble themselves about infidelity in their husbands.
We go from anticipation to anticipation, not from satisfaction to satisfaction.
It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.
The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
See nations slowly wise, and meanly just, to buried merit raise the tardy bust.
Men who cannot deceive others are very often successful at deceiving themselves.
Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.
The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.
About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.