739. Effort; Quality; Value "Where there is no difficulty there is no praise." Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Link 763. Editing; Quality; Writing "In an occasional performance no height of excellence can be expected from any mind, however fertile in itself, and however stored with acquisitions. He whose work is general and arbitrary has the choice of his matter, and takes that which his inclination and his studies have best qualified him to display and decorate. He is at liberty to delay his publication till he has satisfied his friends and himself; till he has reformed his first thoughts by subsequent examination; and polished away those faults which the precipitance of ardent composition is likely to leave behind it. Virgil is related to have poured out a great number of lines in the morning, and to have passed the day in reducing them to fewer." Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,297. Quality "No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness." Johnson: Addison (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,335. Bias; Poverty; Quality "No complaint has been more frequently repeated in all ages than that of the neglect of merit associated with poverty, and the difficulty with which valuable or pleasing qualities force themselves into view, when they are obscured by indigence. It has long been observed, that native beauty has little power to charm without the ornaments which fortune bestows, and that to want the favour of others is often sufficient to hinder us from obtaining it." Johnson: Rambler #166 (October 19, 1751) Link 1,350. Quality; Vanity "No vanity can more justly incur contempt and indignation than that which boasts of negligence and hurry." Johnson: Rambler #169 (October 29, 1751) Link 1,353. Humility; Quality "They who most deserve praise are often afraid to decide in favour of their own performances; they know how much is still wanting to their completion, and wait with anxiety and terror the determination of the public." Johnson: Rambler #169 (October 29, 1751) Link 1,480. Quality "Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness." Johnson: Rambler #206 (March 7, 1752) Link 1,771. Quality; Regret "Little can be done well to which the whole mind is not applied; the business of every day calls for the day to which it is assigned; and he will have no leisure to regret yesterday's vexations who resolves not to have a new subject of regret to-morrow." Johnson: Idler #72 (September 1, 1759) Link 1,840. Affectation; Quality "Whatever is useful or honourable will be desired by many who can never obtain it; and that which cannot be obtained when it is desired, artifice or folly will be diligent to counterfeit. Those to whom fortune has denied gold and diamonds decorate themselves with stones and metals, which have something of the show, but little of the value; and every moral excellence or intellectual faculty has some vice or folly which imitates its appearance." Johnson: Idler #92 (January 19, 1760) Link 1,841. Quality; Wisdom "Every man wishes to be wise; and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning." Johnson: Idler #92 (January 19, 1760) Link