Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.
The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.
Everything is in motion. Everything flows. Everything is vibrating.
The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
No truly great person ever thought themselves so.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.
If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.
We are not hypocrites in our sleep.
The incentive to ambition is the love of power.
The truly proud man knows neither superiors or inferiors. The first he does not admit of - the last he does not concern himself about.
If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.
Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, however, wrote much and well, but too often by rote.
The perfect joys of heaven do not satisfy the cravings of nature.
