A. Johnson
A. Johnson
chiefs policy avarice
It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be the chief good.
sorrow may sometimes
Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.
personal-knowledge forever records
History can be formed from permanent monuments and records; but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and in a short time is lost forever.
writing mind biographies
The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.
and-love admiration judgment
Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship are like being enlivened.
envy easy clergymen
I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life.
unhappiness authority controversy
It is almost always the unhappiness of a victorious disputant to destroy his own authority by claiming too many consequences, or diffusing his proposition to an indefensible extent.
curiosity desire demand
Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.
cowardice higher company
Cowardice encroaches fast upon such as spend their lives in company of persons higher than themselves.
vigor may improvement
Peevishness may be considered the canker of life, that destroys its vigor and checks its improvement; that creeps on with hourly depredations, and taints and vitiates what it cannot consume.
fancy degrees madness
All power of fancy over reason is a degree of madness.
father mad sober
I inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.
parent reverence wells
In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it; for he that lives well cannot be despised.
pleasure mankind counterfeit
The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.