Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors |
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Page 7
... and some time or other your entertainment will be repaid you , if bashfulness has once softened or turned the edge of that diffidence which ought to be your guard.Plutarch . XXVII . It is a common and just observation , LACONICS .
... and some time or other your entertainment will be repaid you , if bashfulness has once softened or turned the edge of that diffidence which ought to be your guard.Plutarch . XXVII . It is a common and just observation , LACONICS .
Page 8
It is a common and just 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 ...
It is a common and just 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 ...
Page 9
The task of our present writers requires , together with that learning which is to be gained from books , that experience which can never be attained by solitary diligence , but must arise from general converse and accurate observation ...
The task of our present writers requires , together with that learning which is to be gained from books , that experience which can never be attained by solitary diligence , but must arise from general converse and accurate observation ...
Page 12
In order to look into any person's temper , I generally make my first observations upon his laugh , whether he is easily moved , and what are the passages which throw him into that agreeable kind of convulsion .
In order to look into any person's temper , I generally make my first observations upon his laugh , whether he is easily moved , and what are the passages which throw him into that agreeable kind of convulsion .
Page 17
It is an observation of seamen , that if a single meteor or fire - ball falls on their mast , it portends ill suck ; but if two come together , ( which they count Castor and Pollux ) they presage good success .
It is an observation of seamen , that if a single meteor or fire - ball falls on their mast , it portends ill suck ; but if two come together , ( which they count Castor and Pollux ) they presage good success .
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actions affection appear authors bear beauty become better body cause comes common conversation death desire doth excellent eyes face fair fall fear follow fool force fortune friends give gold grace greater grow hand happiness hath head hear heart heaven honour hope hour human Jonson keep kind king learning least leave less light live look lose man's manner matter means mind nature never observed once pains pass passions person play pleased pleasure poet poor present pride reason receive rest rich rules sense serve Shakspeare short sometimes soul speak stand sure tell thee thing thou thought tion true truth turn virtue whole wisdom wise wish write young
Popular passages
Page 189 - 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...
Page 253 - For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Keeps death his court ; and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp...
Page 231 - Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, Then dreams he of another benefice; Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes; And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again.
Page 205 - 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 253 - Let's choose executors and talk of wills : And yet not so — for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own but death, And that small model of the barren earth Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
Page 244 - If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions : I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.
Page 262 - THREE Poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next in majesty •, In both the last. The force of Nature could no further go ; To make a third, she joined the former two.
Page 240 - 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 97 - And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other...
Page 119 - ... our Pride, and four times as much by our Folly; and from these Taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an Abatement. However let us hearken to good Advice, and something may be done for us; God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard says, in his Almanack of 1733.