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" Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles. "

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" Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. "

" Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. "

" The two offices of memory are collection and distribution. "

" 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. "

" Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. "

" 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. "

" Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent. "

" What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. "

" That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner. "

" Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess. "

" The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it. "

" Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. "

" 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. "

" Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged. "

" To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself. "

" A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him. "

" To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity. "

" There are charms made only for distant admiration. "

" He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts. "

" 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. "

" Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. "

" A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner. "

" Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. "

" Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking. "

" Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. "

" The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne. "

" By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time. "

" A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. "

" No man was ever great by imitation. "

" When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live. "