On Love:
Love is only one of many passions.
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
Love has no great influences upon the sum of life.
Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others.
On Kindness:
Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
On Life:
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.
God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I.
Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.
Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.
The joy of life is variety the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.
The whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death.
We took tea, by Boswell’s desire and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously. When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed, why do I yet try to resolve again I try, because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in humble hope of the help of God.
There are multitudes whose life is nothing but a continuous lottery who are always within a few months of plenty and happiness, and how often soever they are mocked with blanks, expect a prize from the next adventure.
Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship
He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar and many fold in their passage while they lie waiting for the gale.”
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
On Happiness:
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern… No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
Happiness is nothing if it is not known, And very little if it is not envied.
Such is the constitution of man that labor may be styled its own reward nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body
On Honesty:
Honesty is not greater where elegance is less.
On Fear:
Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize
On Courage:
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
On Learning:
Their learning is like bread in a besieged town every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.
On Knowledge:
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
Man is not weak knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.
On Christianity:
Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.