Great Throughts Treasury

"I remember a passage in Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."

"I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task."

"I take the true definition of exercise to be, labor without weariness."

"I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received."

"I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession."

"I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual."

"I will be conquered; I will not capitulate."

"I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney."

"I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works."

"If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards."

"If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair."

"If a man's wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away ever so little, he must begin again."

"If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."

"If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?"

"If misery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice, not to be insulted, because it is, perhaps, itself a punishment adequate to the crime by which it was produced; and the humanity of that man can deserve no panegyric who is capable of reproaching a criminal in the hands of the executioner."

"If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system."

"If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim."

"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."

"Ignorance is a mere privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction."

"If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father."

"Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent."

"Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance."

"In a man's letters his soul lies naked."

"Impatience of study is the mental disease of the present generation."

"In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness."

"In all pleasure hope is a considerable part."

"In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause."

"In ancient days the most celebrated precept was, know thyself; in modern times it has been supplanted by the more fashionable maxim, Know thy neighbor and everything about him."

"In civilized society external advantages make us more respected. - A man with a good coat on his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. - You may analyze this and say, what is there in it? - But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system."

"In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind."

"In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it; for he that lives well cannot be despised."

"In misery's darkest caverns known, His useful care was ever nigh, Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die."

"In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath."

"In traveling: a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

"In the decline of life, shame and grief are of short duration."

"Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?"

"In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it."

"Inconsistencies cannot both be right; but, imputed to man, they may both be true"

"It is a common error, and the greater and more mischievous for being so common, to believe that repentance best becomes and most concerns dying men. Indeed, what is necessary every hour of our life is necessary in the hour of death too, and as long as one lives he will have need of repentance, and therefore it is necessary in the hour of death too; but he who hath constantly exercised himself in it in his health and vigor, will do it with less pain in his sickness and weakness; and he who hath practiced it all his life, will do it with more ease and less perplexity in the hour of his death."

"It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability."

"It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck only at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends."

"It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say."

"It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality."

"It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

"It is better to live rich than to die rich."

"It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges, and intent upon future advantages. Life, however short, is made shorter by waste of time."

"It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see."

"It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm."

"It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure the common practices of mankind."