Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗
- Author: -
- Performer: -
Book online «Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗». Author -
Johnsoniana. Northcote. 487.
[376]
Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world."
Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 600.
His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly.
Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 604.
Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England.
Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 606.
I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.
Johnsoniana. Seward. 617.
This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.
Prayers and Meditations. Against inquisitive and perplexing Thoughts.
Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 20, 1773.
A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.
Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 30, 1773.
The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.[376:1]
Pitt's Reply to Walpole. Speech, March 6, 1741.
Towering in the confidence of twenty-one.
Letter to Bennet Langton. Jan. 9, 1758.
Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
Letter to Boswell. Dec. 8, 1763.
Wharton quotes Johnson as saying of Dr. Campbell, "He is the richest author that ever grazed the common of literature."
[365:1]
All human race, from China to Peru,
Pleasure, howe'er disguised by art, pursue.
Thomas Warton: Universal Love of Pleasure.
De Quincey (Works, vol. x. p. 72) quotes the criticism of some writer, who contends with some reason that this high-sounding couplet of Dr. Johnson amounts in effect to this: Let observation with extensive observation observe mankind extensively.
[366:1]
Nothing in poverty so ill is borne
As its exposing men to grinning scorn.
Oldham (1653-1683): Third Satire of Juvenal.
[366:2] Three years later Johnson wrote, "Mere unassisted merit advances slowly, if—what is not very common—it advances at all."
[366:3] Var. His ready help was always nigh.
[367:1] Var. Then with no fiery throbbing pain.
[367:2]
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus
Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.
See Chesterfield, page 353.
[367:3] A translation of Boethius's "De Consolatione Philosophiæ," iii. 9, 27.
[368:1] See Bacon, page 168.
[368:2] The italics and the word "forget" would seem to imply that the saying was not his own.
[368:3] Sir William Jones gives a similar saying in India: "Words are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven."
See Herbert, page 206. Sir Thomas Bodley: Letter to his Librarian, 1604.
[369:1] From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.
Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell's intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell's!—Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter.
[369:2] See Pope, page 331.
[370:1] I do not find that the age or country makes the least difference; no, nor the language the actor spoke, nor the religion which they professed,—whether Arab in the desert, or Frenchman in the Academy. I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion of well-doing and daring.—Emerson: The Preacher. Lectures and Biographical Sketches, p. 215.
[371:1] Every investigation which is guided by principles of nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.—Athenæus: Book vii. chap. ii.
[371:2] Mr. Kremlin was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.—Disraeli: Sybil, book iv. chap. 5.
[372:1] See Herbert, page 205.
Do not be troubled by Saint Bernard's saying that hell is full of good intentions and wills.—Francis de Sales: Spiritual Letters. Letter xii. (Translated by the author of "A Dominican Artist.") 1605.
[372:2] Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est (To know where you can find anything, that in short is the largest part of learning).—Anonymous.
[372:3]
Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.
Shenstone: Written on a Window of an Inn.
[373:1] Chapter xlii. is still shorter: "There are no owls of any kind in the whole island."
[374:1] I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.—Edward Moore: The Gamester, act ii. sc. 2. 1753.
[374:2] Usually quoted as "When a nobleman writes a book, he ought to be encouraged."
[374:3] I have not loved the world, nor the world me.—Byron: Childe Harold, canto iii. stanza 113.
[374:4] See Shakespeare, page 88.
[375:1] A parody on "Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free," from Brooke's "Gustavus Vasa," first edition.
[375:2] Carried about with every wind of doctrine.—Ephesians iv. 14.
[375:3] Elsewhere found, "I put my hat."
[375:4] A parody on Percy's "Hermit of Warkworth."
[376:1] This is the composition of Johnson, founded on some note or statement of the actual speech. Johnson said, "That speech I wrote in a garret, in Exeter Street." Boswell: Life of Johnson, 1741.
[377]
LORD LYTTLETON. 1709-1773.For his chaste Muse employ'd her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire,
Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line which, dying, he could wish to blot.
Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus.
Women, like princes, find few real friends.
Advice to a Lady.
What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair.
Advice to a Lady.
The lover in the husband may be lost.
Advice to a Lady.
How much the wife is dearer than the bride.
An Irregular Ode.
None without hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair,
But love can hope where reason would despair.
Epigram.
Where none admire, 't is useless to excel;
Where none are beaux, 't is vain to be a belle.
Soliloquy on a Beauty in the Country.
Alas! by some degree of woe
We every bliss must gain;
The heart can ne'er a transport know
That never feels a pain.
Song.
EDWARD MOORE. 1712-1757.Can't I another's face commend,
And to her virtues be a friend,
But instantly your forehead lowers,
As if her merit lessen'd yours?
The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat. Fable ix.
[378]
The maid who modestly conceals
Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws
Whate'er the Grecian Venus was.
The Spider and the Bee. Fable x.
But from the hoop's bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound.
The Spider and the Bee. Fable x.
Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
The Happy Marriage.
I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.[378:1]
The Gamester. Act ii. Sc. 2.
'T is now the summer of your youth. Time has not cropt the roses from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them.
The Gamester. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Labour for his pains.[378:2]
The Boy and the Rainbow.
[378:1] See Johnson, page 374.
[378:2] See Shakespeare, page 101.
LAURENCE STERNE. 1713-1768.Go, poor devil, get thee gone! Why should I hurt thee? This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. ii. chap. xii.
Great wits jump.[378:3]
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. iii. Chap. ix.
"Our armies swore terribly in Flanders," cried my Uncle Toby, "but nothing to this."
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. iii. Chap. xi.
Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. iii. Chap. xii.
[379]
The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel as he wrote it down dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.[379:1]
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. vi. Chap. viii.
I am sick as a horse.
Tristram Shandy (orig. ed.). Vol. vii. Chap. xi.
"They order," said I, "this matter better in France."
Sentimental Journey. Page 1.
I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, "'T is all barren!"
In the Street. Calais.
God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.[379:2]
Maria.
"Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a bitter draught."
The Passport. The Hotel at Paris.
The sad vicissitude of things.[379:3]
Sermon xvi.
Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.
Sermon xxvii.
[378:3] Great wits jump.—Byrom: The Nimmers. Buckingham: The Chances, act. iv. sc. 1.
Good wits jump.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. Chap. xxxviii.
[379:1]
But sad as angels for the good man's sin,
Weep to record, and blush to give it in.
Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, part ii. line 357.
[379:2] Dieu mésure le froid à la brebis tondue (God measures the cold to the shorn lamb).—Henri Estienne (1594): Prémices, etc. p. 47.
See Herbert, page 206.
[379:3] Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.—R. Gifford: Contemplation.
WILLIAM SHENSTONE. 1714-1763.Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.[379:4]
Written on a Window of an Inn.
[380]
So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.
A Pastoral. Part i.
I have found out a gift for my fair;
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed.
A Pastoral. Part i.
My banks they are furnish'd with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
A Pastoral. Part ii. Hope.
For seldom shall she hear a tale
So sad, so tender, and so true.
Jemmy Dawson.
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblems right meet of decency does yield.
Comments (0)