Incompetence of Reason for There are a thousand familiar disputes Common Life which reason never can decide: questions that elude investigation, and make logic ridiculous. Wretched would be the pair above all names of wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason, every morning, all the minute details of a domestic day.-Rasselas, ch. xxix. Irregular Negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.-Lives of the Poets, Savage. Love of The Mystery of Love of live is necessary to a vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.—Rambler. Life is not the object of science; we see Life a little, very little; and what is beyond our power we only can conjecture.—Adventurer, No. 107. of Life Nothingness Life passes for the most part in petty transactions; our hours glide away in trifling amusements and slight gratifications; and there very seldom emerges any occasion that can call forth great virtues or great abilities.-Rambler, No. 98. Obligations of Life No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.-Life. February, 1766. Life A Parson's The life of a parson, of a conscientious clergyman, is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have Chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls. No, I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life.-Life. April 17, 1778. Life Passing Life admits not of delays; when pleasures can be had, it is fit to catch it : every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.-Life. Letter to Boswell. September 1, 1777 Prime of In life, is not to be counted the ignorance Life of infancy, or imbecility of age. We are long before we are able to think; and we soon cease from the power of acting. The true period of human existence may be reasonably estimated at forty years.-Rasselas, ch. iv. Eminence in It is wonderful with how little real superioPublic Life rity of mind men can make an eminent figure in public life.-Life. Progress of 29, 1776. Shortness of Life Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.-Life. April Life's a short summer-man a flower. Shortness of Life If my readers will turn their thoughts back upon their old friends, they will find it difficult to call a single man to remembrance, who appeared to know that life was short until he was about to lose it.-Rambler, No. 71. Simplicity of Life A wise and good man is never so amiable as in his unbended and familiar intervals.— Rambler, No. 89. Sphere of Man's No mind is much employed upon the Life present recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.-Rasselas, ch. xxx. Uncertainty The distance between the grave and the of Life point of human longevity, is but a very little; and of that little no path is certain.-Letter 342 to Mrs. Thrale. Vacuity of Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.— Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 152. Literature The happiest persons, as well as the most virtuous, are to be found amongst those who unite with a business or profession, a love of literature. The Right of Literature to a Not to name the school or the masters of Place in History men illustrious for literature, is a kind of historical fraud, by which honest fame is injuriously diminished.—Lives of the Poets. Addison. Buildings in It is not in the showy evolutions of buildLondon ings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.-Life. July 1, Definition of London. Economy in London, the needy villain's general home; the common-sewer of Paris and of Rome.— There is no place where economy can be so well practised as in London; more can be had here for the money, even by ladies, than anywhere else.-Life. April 1, 1779. London Knowledge in A man stores his mind better there than any where else; in remote situations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind is starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition.-Life. Collectanea by Maxwell, 1770. Learning in I will venture to say that there is more London learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit, than in all the rest of the kingdom.—Life. September 30, 1769. Life in London When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.-Life. September 20, 1777. Love in A man in London is in less danger of London falling in love indiscreetly than anywhere else; for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects keeps him safe.-Life. Maxwell's Collectanea, 1770. Seeing London By seeing London, I have seen as much. of life as the world can shew.-Journal, October II, Vanity in No place cures a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London; for as no man is either great or good per se, but as compared with others not so good or great, he is sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors.-Life. Maxwell's Collectanea, 1770. Visiting A country gentleman should bring his lady London to visit London as soon as he can, that they may have agreeable topics for conversation when they are by themselves.-Life. September 20, 1777. Comparison Few are placed in a situation so gloomy of Lot and distressful, as not to see every day beings yet more forlorn and miserable, from whom they may learn to rejoice in their own lot.—Rambler, No. 186. Comparison Spartam quam nactus es orna; make the of Lots most and best of your lot, and compare yourself not with the few that are above you, but with the multitudes which are below you.-Life. Boswell, 1784. Love Letter to A passion which has caused the change of empires, and the loss of worlds-a passion which has inspired heroism and subdued avarice.Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 210. Love We must not ridicule a passion which he who never felt never was happy, and he who laughs at never deserves to feel.-Piozzi's Anecdotes, 'p. 209. |