I hate the noise and hurry inseparable from great Estates and Titles, and look upon both as blessings that ought only to be given to fools, for 'Tis only to them that they are blessings.
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Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain the grief is owing to our passion, since the sensation of it vanishes when that is over.
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Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; 'tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself.
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Prudent people are very happy 'tis an exceeding fine thing, that's certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think.
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Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain...
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There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
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We are educated in the grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above their nurses instructions, our knowledge must rest concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine.
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Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked; therefore whoever would argue or laugh it out of the world without giving some equivalent for it ought to be treated as a common enemy.
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We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts.
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I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.
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Civility costs nothing and buys everything.
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I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.
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It has all been very interesting.
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A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.
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People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it...
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'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.
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You can be pleased with nothing when you are not pleased with yourself.
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The ultimate end of your education was to make you a good wife.
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Solitude begets whimsies.
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A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.
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I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.
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I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.
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Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.
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Life is too short for a long story.
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