Tobias Smollett
Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.Collection: Wisdom
Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.
I think for my part one half of the nation is mad - and the other not very sound.Collection: Thinking
Glory is the child of peril.Collection: Children
One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage.Collection: Zest
Nature and wisdom are not, but should be, companions.Collection: Nature
The capital is become an overgrown monster; which, like a dropsical head, will in time leave the body and extremities without nourishment and support.Collection: Time
Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.Collection: Writing
Opposition is the very spur of love.Collection: Spurs
There is not room to swing a cat.Collection: Cat
To the valiant actions speak alone.Collection: Action
Number three is always fortunate.Collection: Numbers
False as the fowler's artful snare.Collection: Snares
Ridiculous modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.Collection: Ignorance
And hearts resolved and hands prepared The blessings they enjoy to guard.Collection: Heart
True courage scorns to vent her prowess in a storm of words; and to the valiant action speaks alone.Collection: Storm
Thy spirit, Independence, let me share! Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.Collection: Heart
On Leven's banks, while free to rove, And tune the rural pipe to love, I envied not the happiest swain That ever trod the Arcadian plain. Pure stream! in whose transparent wave My youthful limbs I wont to lave; No torrents stain thy limpid source, No rocks impede thy dimpling course, That sweetly warbles o'er its bed, With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread.Collection: Rocks
A mere index hunter, who held the eel of science by the tail. Index-hunter is a term used mockingly, meaning one who acquires superficial knowledge merely by consulting indexes. The '[holding] the eel of science by the tail' allusion was used in 1728 by Alexander Pope (q.v.).Collection: Learning
The bread I eat in London, is a deleterious paste, mixed up with chalk, alum, and bone ashes: insipid to the taste, and destructive to the constitution.Collection: Ashes
The Highlanders regale themselves with whisky. They find it an excellent preservation against the winter cold. It is given with great success to the infants in the confluent smallpox.Collection: Food
I find that the old Roman baths of this quarter, were found covered by an old burying ground, belonging to the Abbey; through which, in all probability, the water drains in its passage; so that as we drink the decoction of the living bodies at the Pump-room, we swallow the strainings of rotten bones and carcasses at the private bath - I vow to God, the very idea turns my stomach!Collection: Ideas
A man's opinion of danger varies at different times, in consequence of an irregular tide of animal spirits; and he is actuated by considerations which he dares not avow.Collection: Animal
The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)Collection: Literature
Of this diversion the Scots are so fond, that, when the weather will permit, you may see a multitude of all ranks, from the senator of justice to the lowest tradesman, mingled together, in their shirts, and following the balls with utmost eagerness.Collection: Golf
A mere index hunter, who held the eel of science by the tail.Collection: Science
Every shot has its commission, d'ye see? We must all die at one time, as the saying is.Collection: War