It is the fate of almost every passion, when it has passed the bounds of which nature prescribes, to counteract its own purpose. Too much rage hinders the warrior from circumspection, too much eagerness of profit hurts the credit of the trader, too much ardour takes away from the lover that easiness of address with […]
Samuel Johnson Quotes
Nothing is more despicable than the old age of a passionate man. When the vigor of youth fails him, and his amusements pall with frequent repetition, his occasional rage sinks by decay of strength into peevishness; that peevishness, for want of novelty and variety, becomes habitual; the world falls off from around him, and he […]
He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
This doctrine (of ruling passions) is in itself pernicious as well as false: its tendency is to produce the belief of a kind of moral predestination, or overruling principle which cannot be resisted; he that admits it, is prepared to comply with every desire that caprice or opportunity shall excite, and to flatter himself that […]
The passions rise higher at domestic than at imperial tragedies.
Parents are by no means exempt from the intoxication of dominion.
How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives.
Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse, and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
The apparent insufficiency of every individual to his own happiness or safety compels us to seek from one another assistance and support. The necessity of joint efforts for the execution of any great or extensive design, the variety of powers disseminated in the species, and the proportion between the defects and excellences of different persons […]
