Going Alone

“As for writing; invent first, and then embellish. The production of something, where nothing was before, is an act of greater energy than the expansion or decoration of the thing produced. Set down diligently your thoughts as they rise in the first words that occur; and when you have matter, you will easily give it form; nor, perhaps, will this method be always necessary; for by habit, your thoughts and diction will flow together.” -Dr. Johnson

“No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy.” -Dr. Johnson

“There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attained.” -Dr. Johnson

JOHNSON: “Nay, Sir, it was not the wine that made your headache, but the sense that I put into it.” BOSWELL: “What, Sir! will sense make the head ache?” JOHNSON: “Yes, Sir, (with a smile) when it is not used to it.”

“All boys love liberty, till experience convinces them they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined.” -Dr. Johnson

SE’NNIGHT A week ”….he and I dined at Beauclerk’s on the Saturday se’nnight following.” -James Boswell

“Mallet, I believe, never wrote a single line of his projected Life of the Duke of Marlborough. He groped for materials; and thought of it, till he had exhausted his mind. Thus it sometimes happens that men entangle themselves in their own schemes.” -Dr. Johnson

“Friendship, you know, Sir, is the cordial drop, ‘to make the nauseous draught of life go down:’ but if the draught be not nauseous, if it be all sweet, there is no occasion for that drop.” -Dr. Johnson

“If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.” -Dr. Johnson

“DRUNKEN HELOT” Spartan practice of forcing Helot slaves into drunkenness as an object lesson in temperance for Spartan youth

“When any fit of anxiety or gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints, but exert your whole care to hide it; by endeavoring to hide it, you will drive it away. Be always busy.” -Dr. Johnson

“It is a sad thing to pass through the quagmire of parsimony, to the gulph of ruin. To pass over the flowery path of extravagance, is very well.” -Dr. Johnson

“Sir, Mrs. Thrale has a little both of the insolence of wealth, and the conceit of parts.” -James Boswell

COEVAL Roughly the same age “O my coevals! remnants of yourselves.” -Dr. Young

“Sir, it is better to live rich than to die rich.” -Dr. Johnson

“He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.“ -Spanish proverb

“Life is like the Modori River. You wander, lose your way, and come back.”

“We live in a universe dominated by nothing. Seventy percent of the energy of the universe resides in empty space. And we don’t have the slightest idea why it’s there.” -Lawrence Krauss

“Stretch’d on the rack of a too easy chair.” -Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

“The feeling of languor, which succeeds the animation of gaiety, is itself a very severe pain; and when the mind is then vacant, a thousand disappointments and vexations rush in and excruciate.” -Dr. Johnson