Laconics, Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors: In Three Volumes, Volume 2H.G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1856 - Aphorisms and apothegms |
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Page 8
... observation , that , when the meaning of any thing is dubious , one can no way better judge of the true intent of it , than by considering who is the author , what is his character in general , and his dis- position in particular ...
... observation , that , when the meaning of any thing is dubious , one can no way better judge of the true intent of it , than by considering who is the author , what is his character in general , and his dis- position in particular ...
Page 13
... observations upon his laugh , whether he is easily moved , and what are the passages which throw him into that agreeable kind of convulsion . People are never so much unguarded as when they are pleased ; and laughter being a visible ...
... observations upon his laugh , whether he is easily moved , and what are the passages which throw him into that agreeable kind of convulsion . People are never so much unguarded as when they are pleased ; and laughter being a visible ...
Page 18
... observation of seamen , that if a single meteor or fire - ball falls on their mast , it portends ill luck ; but if two come together , ( which they count Castor and Pollux ) they presage good success . But sure in a family it bodeth ...
... observation of seamen , that if a single meteor or fire - ball falls on their mast , it portends ill luck ; but if two come together , ( which they count Castor and Pollux ) they presage good success . But sure in a family it bodeth ...
Page 31
... observed in several of my intimate friends , who as their memories supply them with a present and entire review of things , derive their narratives from so remote a fountain , and crowd them with so many impertinent circumstances , that ...
... observed in several of my intimate friends , who as their memories supply them with a present and entire review of things , derive their narratives from so remote a fountain , and crowd them with so many impertinent circumstances , that ...
Page 55
... observe his paces , and see what he is able to perform , should , according to the extent of his capacity , induce him to taste , to distin- guish , and to find out things for himself ; sometimes open- ing the way , at other times ...
... observe his paces , and see what he is able to perform , should , according to the extent of his capacity , induce him to taste , to distin- guish , and to find out things for himself ; sometimes open- ing the way , at other times ...
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Common terms and phrases
admire Bacon beauty Ben Jonson better body Butler common Confucius Congreve conversation Cynthia's Revels death delight doth drink Dryden eyes fair fame fear fellow folly fool fortune friends genius give Godfrey Kneller gold Goldsmith gout grace happiness hath hear heart heaven hobby-horse honour Hudibras human humour idle Jonson keep kind king labour laugh learning live look looking-glass Lord Bacon Lord Bolingbroke lover man's mankind marriage Massinger men's mind Mirabel mirth nature never o'er observed once Ovid pains passions person play pleased pleasure Plutarch poet poison'd poor Pope praise pride reason rich seldom sense Shakspeare Shenstone sleep sometimes soul speak sweet taste tell temper thee thing thou art thought tion tongue true truth turn vex'd virtue wealth whole wisdom wise woman words write youth
Popular passages
Page 340 - A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.
Page 291 - O, who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast?
Page 102 - Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together ; Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care : Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather ; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short, Youth is nimble, age is lame. Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold ; Youth is wild, and age is tame.
Page 196 - This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, — often the surfeit of our own behaviour, — we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to...
Page 220 - Be absolute for death ; either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with Life : If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep...
Page 213 - The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark, When neither is attended ; and, I think The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren.
Page 329 - Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not: Let all the ends, thou aim'st at, be thy country's, 4 — — make use — 1 ie make interest. Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a blessed martyr.
Page 256 - Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them ; and, when you have them, they are not worth the search.
Page 188 - Cade. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment ? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man ? Some say, the bee stings ; but I say, 'tis the bee's wax, for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.
Page 220 - Thou art not thyself, For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not; For what thou hast not still thou striv'st to get, And what thou hast forget'st. Thou art not certain ; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon. If thou art rich, thou art poor ; For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee.