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“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.”
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“I give myself sometimes admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.”
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“Philosophy is the toil which can never tire persons engaged in it. All ways are strewn with roses, and the farther you go, the more enchanting objects appear before you and invite you on.”
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“There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.”
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“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.”
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“Civility costs nothing and buys everything”
― The Selected Letters
― The Selected Letters
“In short I will part with anything for you but you.”
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“I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.
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“None strive to know their proper merit
But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit
And lose the praise that is their due
When they've the impossible in view”
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But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit
And lose the praise that is their due
When they've the impossible in view”
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“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689 - 1762)”
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“Knowing too much is very apt to make us troublesome to other people”
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“The government here is entirely in the hands of the army. The Grand Signor [Ottoman Sultan], with all his absolute power, is as much a slave as any of his subjects, and trembles at a janissary's frown.”
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“Considering what short lived, weak animals men are, is there any study so beneficial as the study of present pleasure?”
― The Turkish Embasy Letters
― The Turkish Embasy Letters
“Oh! was there a man (but where shall I find
Good sense and good nature so equally join'd?)
Would value his pleasure, contribute to mine;
Not meanly would boast, nor would lewdly design;
Not over severe, yet not stupidly vain,
For I would have the power, tho' not give the pain.
No pedant, yet learned; no rake-helly gay,
Or laughing, because he has nothing to say;
To all my whole sex obliging and free,
Yet never be fond of any but me;
In public preserve the decorum that's just,
And shew in his eyes he is true to his trust;
Then rarely approach, and respectfully bow,
But not fulsomely pert, nor yet foppishly low.
But when the long hours of public are past,
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last,
May ev'ry fond pleasure that moment endear;
Be banish'd afar both discretion and fear!
Forgetting or scorning the airs of the crowd,
He may cease to be formal, and I to be proud.
Till lost in the joy, we confess that we live,
And he may be rude, and yet I may forgive.
And that my delight may be solidly fix'd,
Let the friend and the lover be handsomely mix'd;
In whose tender bosom my soul may confide,
Whose kindness can soothe me, whose counsel can guide.”
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Good sense and good nature so equally join'd?)
Would value his pleasure, contribute to mine;
Not meanly would boast, nor would lewdly design;
Not over severe, yet not stupidly vain,
For I would have the power, tho' not give the pain.
No pedant, yet learned; no rake-helly gay,
Or laughing, because he has nothing to say;
To all my whole sex obliging and free,
Yet never be fond of any but me;
In public preserve the decorum that's just,
And shew in his eyes he is true to his trust;
Then rarely approach, and respectfully bow,
But not fulsomely pert, nor yet foppishly low.
But when the long hours of public are past,
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last,
May ev'ry fond pleasure that moment endear;
Be banish'd afar both discretion and fear!
Forgetting or scorning the airs of the crowd,
He may cease to be formal, and I to be proud.
Till lost in the joy, we confess that we live,
And he may be rude, and yet I may forgive.
And that my delight may be solidly fix'd,
Let the friend and the lover be handsomely mix'd;
In whose tender bosom my soul may confide,
Whose kindness can soothe me, whose counsel can guide.”
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“Nähtyäni osia Aasiasta ja Afrikasta ja kierrettyäni miltei koko Euroopan uskon, että rehellinen englantilainen heppu on muita onnellisempi, kun hän pitää kreikkalaisia viinejä vähemmän maukkaina kuin maaliskuussa pantua olutta, ajattelee etteivät afrikkalaiset hedelmät maistu yhtä hyviltä kuin kullankeltaiset pikkuomenat, uskoo naudan takaselästä leikatun pihvin olevan parempaa kuin Italian viikunoiden ja punnitsee muutenkin kaiken kaikkiaan ettei tästä elämästä voisi mitenkään nauttia vanhan kunnon Englannin ulkopuolella. Rukoilen Jumalaa, että ajattelisin itsekin samoin lopun elämääni, ja koska minun on tyydyttävä tämän maan suomaan viheliäiseen päivänvalon määrään toivon, että unohtaisin pian Konstantinopolin eloisan auringon.”
― Elämänmenoa Kultaisessa sarvessa
― Elämänmenoa Kultaisessa sarvessa
“The vulgar Turk is very different from what is spoken at court, 'tis as ridiculous to make use of the expressions commonly used in speaking to a great man or lady, as it would be to talk broad Yorkshire or Somershetshire in the drawing room.”
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“But the fruit that can fall without shaking,
Indeed is too mellow for me.”
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Indeed is too mellow for me.”
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