If we consider the manner in which those who assume the office of directing the conduct of others execute their undertaking, it will not be very wonderful that their labours, however zealous or affectionate, are frequently useless. For what is the advice that is commonly given? A few general maxims, enforced with vehemence, and inculcated with importunity, but failing for want of particular reference and immediate application. β¨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1834). Murphy's essay. The rambler. The adventurer. The idler. Rasselas. Tales of the imagination. Letters. Irene. Miscellaneous poems, p.139
More Author Quotes
- Then with no throbs of fiery pain, No cold gradations of decay, Death broke at once the vital chain, And freed his soul the nearest way. β¨ On the death of Mr Levett, in James Boswell 'The Life of Sam β¦ βΆ
- Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.
- Sir, what is poetry? Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is. β¨ In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3 β¦ βΆ
- That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be appr β¦ βΆ
- Advice is offensive, not because it lays us open to unexpected regret, or convicts us of any fault which had escaped our notice, but because it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ours β¦ βΆ
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