Mar 12, 1672 - Sep 1, 1729
Irish writer, journalist, politician
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A Daughter: The companion, the friend, and the confidant of her mother, and the object of a pleasure something like the love between the angels to her father.
You see, among men who are honored with the common appellation ogentleman, many contradictions to that character.
I love to consider an Infidel, whether distinguished by the title of deist, atheist, or free-thinker, by three different lights, in his solitude, his afflictions, and his last moments.... [In these situations such people show themselves] in solitude, incapable or rapture or elevation, ... in distress, [with] a halter or a pistol the only refuge [they] can fly to, ... [and liable to conversion] at the approach of death.
When a man has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass.
Will. Honeycomb calls these over-offended ladies the outrageously virtuous.
Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.
Though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; to love her was a liberal education.
I was going home two hours ago, but was met by Mr. Griffith, who has kept me ever since. . . . I will come within a pint of wine.
It is to beoted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.
People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.
There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery.
A healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living.
One common calamity makes men extremely affect each other, though they differ in every other particular
The fool within himself is the object of pity, until he is flattered.
The married state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of heaven and hell we are capable of receiving in this life.
A Woman is naturally more helpless than the other Sex; and a Man of Honour and Sense should have this in his View in all Manner of Commerce with her.
Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.
To behold her is an immediate check to loose behavior; to love her is a liberal education.
Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.
We are always doing, says he, something for Posterity, but I <br />would fain see Posterity do something for us.
The survivorship of a worthy man in his son is a pleasure scarce <br />inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life.
The man is mechanically turned, and made for getting. . . . It <br />was verily prettily said that we may learn the little value of <br />fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It is wholesome and bracing for the mind to have its faculties kept on the stretch.
To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.
That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart.
Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratification.
I know of no manner of speaking so offensive as that of giving praise, and closing it with an exception.
