Quotes to inspire and reflect

A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature.

But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let us count our spoons.

Truth, Sir, is a cow, that will yield such people [sceptics] no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

BOSWELL : I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it …

If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.

Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.

They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.

Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords.

Sir, we are a nest of singing birds.

I’ll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities.

I am sorry I have not learned to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness and consolidates society.

A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.

A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.

Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know,

Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

He left the name, at which the world grew pale,

A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,

Let observation with extensive view,

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Example is always more efficacious than precept.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

He [the poet] must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legislator of mankind.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to be right.

I am disappointed by that stroke of death, which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.

An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed.

I rejoice to concur with the common reader.

The father of English criticism.

Language is the dress of thought.

A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

Patron. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

Network. Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.