Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
— Samuel Johnson
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.
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.
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.
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.
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.
So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
It is better to live rich than to die rich.
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.
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
There are charms made only for distant admiration.
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
