A. Johnson
A. Johnson
happiness hours pleasure
So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.
happiness flower flames
Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.
happiness next hours
We seldom require more to the happiness of the present hour than to surpass him that stands next before us.
daughter son ideas
Words are daughters of earth but ideas are sons of heaven.
wish add may
I wish you would add an index rerum, that when the reader recollects any incident he may easily find it.
knowledge solitude may
The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.
elegance manners breeding
Good breeding consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners.
should expected misfortunes
Misfortunes should always be expected.
oratory argument adversaries
Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.
past political politics
He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.
devil firsts politics
I have always said the first Whig was the Devil.
power want resistance
He that has once concluded it lawful to resist power, when it wants merit, will soon find a want of merit, to justify his resistance to power.
punishment silence
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
long genius useless
Remember that nothing will supply the want of prudence, and that negligence and irregularity long continued will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.