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A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.  
A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar,...  
A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an ...  
A hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted...  
A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge m...  
A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.  
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.  
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads a...  
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of ...  
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of g...  
A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like t...  
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exal...  
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value...  
Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easil...  
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently peru...  
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil sh...  
All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.  
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countrie...  
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will ...  
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who...  
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualiti...  
Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of ...  
As the Spanish proverb says, "He who would bring home the wealth of th...  
At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.  
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.  
Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.  
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gol...  
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.  
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are m...  
Boswell: That, Sir, was great fortitude of mind. Johnson: No, Sir, sta...  
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it i...  
But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtu...  
By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, b...  
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be ...  
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.  
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage...  
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of ...  
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is somethi...  
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the b...  
Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.  
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.  
Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion:...  
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other m...  
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desi...  
Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confiden...  
Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only ho...  
Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy m...  
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he...  
Exercise is labor without weariness.  
Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for...  
Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil but its duty, like...  
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had...  
Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.  
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is r...  
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.  
He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rath...  
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long ret...  
He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the win...  
He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness ...  
He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will freque...  
He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.  
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.  
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by...  
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.  
He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches ca...  
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything...  
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happine...  
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and l...  
Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with ...  
I am aware that by many persons, it is considered in the nature of a j...  
I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in li...  
I can't drink a little, therefore I never touch it. Abstinance is as e...  
I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarm...  
I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his al...  
I hate historic talk, and when Charles Fox said something to me once a...  
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of h...  
I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.  
I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquain...  
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has...  
I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.  
I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves...  
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government ot...  
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, ...  
If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few t...  
If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach the...  
Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.  
In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters a...  
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.  
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without...  
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.  
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has d...  
It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as we...  
It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should ...  
It is better to live rich than to die rich.  
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometime...  
It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examin...  
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying...  
It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can b...  
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always adva...  
It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state...  
It is thus that mutual cowardice keeps us in peace. Were one half of m...  
It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would...  
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is n...  
It would add much to human happiness, if an art could be taught of for...  
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.  
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know whe...  
Language is the dress of thought.  
Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them t...  
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowled...  
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties,...  
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.  
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.  
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberatio...  
Like an image in a dream the world is troubled by love, hatred, and ot...  
Love is only one of many passions.  
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.  
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.  
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grow...  
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.  
Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they cho...  
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of...  
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely give...  
No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent...  
No man was ever great by imitation.  
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into...  
No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyran...  
No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfacti...  
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hop...  
Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk an...  
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is alw...  
Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.  
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first b...  
Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.  
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.  
One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words ...  
Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom; her attendant...  
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sp...  
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up a...  
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.  
Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tabl...  
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes...  
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.   Poetry
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.  
Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will befor...  
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.  
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you thi...  
Reproof on her lips, but a smile in her eyes.  
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a gr...  
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are reven...  
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.  
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.  
Sings. Hope in every sphere of life is a privilege that attaches to ac...  
Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anythin...  
Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.  
Small debts are like small gun shot; they are rattling around us on al...  
So different are the colours of life, as we look forward to the future...  
So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two...  
So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcom...  
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wan...  
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an eq...  
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation...  
Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to ca...  
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong o...  
The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is no...  
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.  
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to w...  
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remem...  
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed...  
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any under...  
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, bu...  
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasur...  
The realisation that one is to be hanged in the morning concentrates t...  
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts wh...  
The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will soo...  
The true art of memory is the art of attention.  
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him abso...  
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.  
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and inste...  
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.  
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one...  
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are go...  
The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities a...  
The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong pri...  
Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a litt...  
There are charms made only for distant admiration.  
There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced ...  
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much...  
There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are...  
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much...  
They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.  
Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter an...  
This man [Lord Chesterfield] I thought had been a Lord among wits; but...  
This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.  
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; f...  
Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single ...  
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to...  
To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore e...  
To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that ...  
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is foll...  
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.  
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human...  
Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.  
Truth, Sir, is a cow, which will yield such people no more milk, and s...  
Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard...  
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have...  
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be foun...  
We could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod of Cooks.  
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or grat...  
Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chamb...  
What is easy is seldom excellent.  
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.  
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a y...  
What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you unde...  
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with dili...  
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in Lo...  
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates hi...  
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversa...  
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered i...  
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.  
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must...  
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.  
Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locke...  
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him ...  
Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor...  
Words are but the signs of ideas.  
You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a m...  
You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. ...  
You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very ...  
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when ...  
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good i...