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James Wood, comp.  Dictionary of Quotations.  1899.
 
Arliss’ Literary Colllection
 
  Flattery is the food of pride, and may be well assimilated to those cordials which hurt the constitution while they exhilarate the spirits.  1
  Friendship is like a debt of honour; the moment it is talked of, it loses its real name, and assumes the more ungrateful form of obligation.  2
  Happiness is deceitful as the calm that precedes the hurricane, smooth as the water on the verge of the cataract, and beautiful as the rainbow, that smiling daughter of the storm.  3
  Happiness is like the mirage in the desert; she tantalises us with a delusion that distance creates and that contiguity destroys.  4
  Happiness travels incognita to keep a private assignation with contentment, and to partake of a tête-à-tête and a dinner of herbs in a cottage.  5
  Happiness, like Juno, is a goddess in pursuit, but a cloud in possession, deified by those who cannot enjoy her, and despised by those who can.  6
  Happiness, that grand mistress of ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.  7
  Happiness, when unsought, is often found, and when unexpected, often obtained; while those who seek her the most diligently fail the most, because they seek her where she is not.  8
  Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible vicissitudes of life.  9
  That circle of beings, which dependence gathers round us, is almost ever unfriendly.  10
  The benevolent heart will not solicit, but command our reverence and applause.  11
  The poet bestrides the clouds, the wise man looks up at them.  12
  The Stoic thought by slandering Happiness to woo her; by shunning to win her; and proudly presumed that, by fleeing her, she would turn and follow him.  13
  There is no greater proof of human weakness than that which betrays itself in the boast of fortune and ancestry; these cannot ennoble us, but our conduct in life may ennoble or degrade them.  14
  Those who regularly undertake to cultivate friendship find ingratitude generally repays their endeavours.  15
  Vanity, however artfully concealed or openly displayed, always counteracts its own purposes.  16
 
 
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