Our writings are like so many dishes, our readers, our guests, our books, like beauty--that which one admires another rejects; so we are approved as men's fancies are inclined.... As apothecaries, we make new mixtures every day, pour out of one vessel into another; and as those old Romans robbed all cities of the world to set out their bad-cited Rome, we skim off the cream of other men's wits, pick the choice flowers of their tilled gardens, to set out our own sterile plots. We weave the same web still, twist the same rope again and again; or, if it be a new invention, 'tis but some bauble or toy, which idle fellows write, for as idle fellows to read.[8]
Burton.
[8] Ferriar has pointed out, in his Illustrations of Sterne, how these passages from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy have been boldly plagiarised in the introduction to the fragment on Whiskers in Tristram Shandy: "Shall we for ever make new books as apothecaries make new mixtures, by only pouring out of one vessel into another? Are we for ever to be twisting and untwisting the same rope?" And Dr. Johnson, who was a great admirer of Burton, adopts the illustration of the plundering Romans in his Rambler, No. 143.
97.
It is our follies that make our lives uncomfortable. Our errors of opinion, our cowardly fear of the world's worthless censure, and our eagerness after unnecessary gold have hampered the way of virtue, and made it far more difficult than, in itself, it is.
Feltham.
98.
There is not half so much danger in the desperate sword of a known foe as in the smooth insinuations of a pretended friend.
R. Chamberlain.
99.
Nothing is so oppressive as a secret; it is difficult for ladies to keep it long, and I know even in this matter a good number of men who are women.
La Fontaine.
100.
All kinds of beauty do not inspire love: there is a kind of it which pleases only the sight, but does not captivate the affections.
Cervantes.
101.
Contentment consisteth not in heaping more fuel, but in taking away some fire.
Fuller.
102.
It is difficult to personate and act a part long, for where truth is not at the bottom Nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other.
Tillotson.
103.
The truest characters of ignorance Are vanity, pride, and arrogance; As blind men use to bear their noses higher Than those that have their eyes and sight entire.
Butler.
104.
It is better to be well deserving without praise than to live by the air of undeserved commendation.
R. Chamberlain.
105.
He travels safe and not unpleasantly who is guarded by poverty and guided by love.
Sir P. Sidney.
106.
Never put thyself in the way of temptation: even David could not resist it.
Talmud.
107.
Pride is a vice which pride itself inclines every man to find in others and overlook in himself.
Johnson.
108.
By six qualities may a fool be known: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without motive; inquiry, without an object; trust in a stranger; and incapacity to discriminate between friend and foe.
Arabic.
109.
Men are not to be judged by their looks, habits, and appearances, but by the character of their lives and conversations. 'Tis better that a man's own works than another man's words should praise him.
Sir R. L'Estrange.
110.
To exert his power in doing good is man's most glorious task.
Sophocles.
111.
