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An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
Topic: Absurdity
Source: None
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Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
Topic: Admiration
Source: None
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Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.
Topic: Admiration
Source: None
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Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!
Topic: Apparitions
Source: Cato (act II, sc. 1)
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Much might be said on both sides.
Topic: Argument
Source: in the "Spectator", no. 122
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The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these
great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals;
or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they
please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.
Topic: Authorship
Source: in the "Spectator", no. 166
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Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
Topic: Beauty
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 4)
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A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
Topic: Bigotry
Source: None
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Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind,
which are delivered down from generation to generation, as
presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
Topic: Books
Source: in the "Spectator", no. 166
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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Topic: Books and Reading
Source: None
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There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
Topic: Business
Source: The Drummer (act V, sc. 1)
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It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.
Topic: Censure
Source: None
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It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of ;antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.
Topic: Censure
Source: None
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Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.
Topic: Charity
Source: in the "Guardian", no. 166
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A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty
attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured.
Topic: Cheerfulness
Source: in the "Tatler", no. 192
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Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!
Topic: Conscience
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 3)
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Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in
writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.
Topic: Conversation
Source: in the "Spectator", no. 476
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There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
Topic: Country
Source: None
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I think the Romans call it Stoicism.
Topic: Courage
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 4)
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The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
Topic: Courage
Source: Cato (act V, sc. 1)
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The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace,
the best of circumstances.
Topic: Courage
Source: Cato (act V, sc. 1)
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner.
Topic: Courage
Source: None
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner.
Topic: Courage
Source: None
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When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after
the works of the author who has written them, and by that means
discover what it is he likes in a composition.
Topic: Criticism
Source: in the "Guardian", no. 115
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The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Topic: Death / Immortality
Source: None
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I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
To all the pangs and fury of despair.
Topic: Despair
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 3)
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My death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me.
Topic: Destiny
Source: Cato (act V, sc. 1)
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If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.
Topic: Difference
Source: None
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Thanks to the gods! my boy has done his duty.
Topic: Duty
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 4)
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In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our
duty.
Topic: Duty
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 4)
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Let echo, too, perform her part,
Prolonging every note with art;
And in a low expiring strain,
Play all the comfort o'er again.
Topic: Echo
Source: Ode for St. Cecelia's Day
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The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in great danger of soon living beneath them; or as the Italian proverb says, "The man that lives by hope, will die by despair.".
Topic: Economy
Source: None
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Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.
Topic: Education
Source: None
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Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
Topic: Eternity
Source: Cato (act V, sc. 1)
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If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.
Topic: Experience
Source: None
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Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be
sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.
Topic: Fame
Source: in "The Spectator", no. 255
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When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman.
Topic: Familiarity
Source: None
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The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day, big with the fate
Of Cato, and of Rome.
Topic: Fate
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 1)
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Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn.
Topic: Friendship
Source: The Campaign (l. 102)
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The friendships of the world are oft
Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure;
Ours has severest virtue for its basis,
And such a friendship ends not but with life.
Topic: Friendship
Source: Cato (act III, sc. 1)
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The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.
Topic: Friendship
Source: None
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I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
Topic: Garden
Source: None
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Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?
Topic: Grief
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 1)
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There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
Topic: Grief
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 1)
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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
Topic: Happiness
Source: None
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Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.
Topic: Health
Source: in the "Spectator", no. 387
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A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own
heart, his next to escape the censures of the world.
Topic: Heart
Source: Sir Roger on the Bench
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The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it
is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in
such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined
education.
Topic: Honor
Source: in the "Guardian", no. 161
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Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.
Topic: Honor
Source: Cato (act I, sc. 4)
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Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of honor is a private station.
Topic: Honor
Source: Cato (act IV, sc. 4)
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