May quotes
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"It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence."
"It may be no less dangerous to claim, on certain occasions, too little than too much. There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself."
"You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful income."
"There may be other reasons for a man's not speaking in publick than want of resolution: he may have nothing to say."
"It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification. This is so evidently true with regard to the whole of our existence that all precepts of theology have no other tendency than to enforce a life of faith; a life regulated not by our senses but by our belief; a life in which pleasures are to be refused for fear of invisible punishments, and calamities sometimes to be sought, and always endured, in hope of rewards that shall be obtained in another state."
"Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience."
"A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical regard to morals and religion; he may be learning not to live but to reason... while the chief use of his volumes is unthought of, his mind is unaffected, and his life is unreformed."
"Pointed axioms and acute replies fly loose about the world, and are assigned successively to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate."
"It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls."
"There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either."
"Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can; and conquered they must be, or neither wisdom nor happiness can be attained: but those who are not yet subject to their influence may, by timely caution, preserve their freedom."
"Of many, imagined blessings it may be doubted whether he that wants or possesses them had more reason to be satisfied with his lot."
"To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence."
"We may have many acquaintances, but we can have but few friends; this made Aristotle say that he that hath many friends hath none."
"He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans; we may therefore subject them to government."
"From all our observations we may collect with certainty, that misery is the lot of man, but cannot discover in what particular condition it will find most alleviations."
"The complaint, therefore, that all topicks are preoccupied, is nothing more than the murmur of ignorance or idleness, by which some discourage others, and some themselves; the mutability of mankind will always furnish writers with new images, and the luxuriance of fancy may always embellish them with new decorations."
"Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle; for the calamities of life, like the necessities of Nature, are calls to labor and diligence."
"The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be scarcely sensible of it."
"Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement."
