Laconics, Or The Best Words of the Best AuthorsH.G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1856 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ęsop Apicius bagnio beauty Ben Jonson better body Bruyere Butler Chesterfield Churchill Codrus common conversation death delight dicebox doth dress enemy Epictetus Euripides evil eyes false fame fancy fear folly fools fortune friends genius gentleman give greatest happiness hath heart honest honour Hudibras human humour ignorance inns of court judgment keep kind knave laugh learning less live look Lord Lord Bacon man's mankind manner marriage Massinger matter merit mind Montaigne nature neral never numbers observed opinion pain pass passion pedants person philosopher pleasure Plutarch poet poor praise pride proud racter reason rich ridiculous Roman triumph satire seldom sense Shaftesbury Shakspeare Shenstone soul speak stand sure Swift tell thing thou thought tion true truth turn Twill vanity vice virtue whilst whole wise words write young
Popular passages
Page 14 - We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed: for Prosperity doth best discover vice, but Adversity doth best discover virtue.
Page 80 - Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?
Page 24 - Tam was glorious, o'er a' the ills o' life victorious ! " But pleasures are like poppies spread : you seize the flower, its bloom is shed; or like the snow falls in the river, a moment white — then melts for ever; or like the Borealis' race, that flit ere you can point their place; or like the rainbow's lovely form evanishing amid the storm. Nae man can tether time or tide; the hour approaches Tam maun ride: that hour, o...
Page 350 - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date...
Page 350 - And summer's lease hath all too short a date ; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest ; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
Page 67 - I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there ; if I take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand hold me,
Page 102 - Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide...
Page 47 - In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise.
Page 34 - A word to the wise is enough, and many words wont fill a bushel, as Poor Richard says." They joined in desiring him to speak his mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows; "Friends," says he, and neighbours, "the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the Government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride,...
Page 127 - The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit, are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer ; but if he sees you at a billiard table, or hears your voice at a tavern, -when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day : demands it before he can receive it in a lump.