There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.
A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of of being in danger.
A soldier’s time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption.
It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier’s breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth much, when it has suffered the devastations of a siege.
The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.
Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotch man happy!
The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.
But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happiness for fear of losing it, yet it must be confessed, that in proportion to the pleasure of possession, will be for some time our sorrow for the loss.
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
To do nothing is in everyone’s power.
The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.
On Sir Joshua Reynolds’s observing that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Yes, Sir, no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.
From all our observations we may collect with certainty, that misery is the lot of man, but cannot discover in what particular condition it will find most alleviations.
Much mischief is done in the world with very little interest or design.
The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.
Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes.
Frequent discontent must proceed from frequent hardships.
Misery and shame are nearly allied.
Ah! Sir, a boy’s being flogged is not so severe as a man’s having the hiss of the world against him.
Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.