Samuel Pepys Quotes

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• I went out to Charing Cross to see Major General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition.

  Samuel Pepys

  Happiness, Men, Cheerful

  'Diary' 13 October 1660

  22 Copy quote

• I know not how to abstain from reading.

  Samuel Pepys

  Reading, Knows

  12 Copy quote

• Fight the good fight; and always call to mind that it is not you who are mortal, but this body of ours. For your true being is not discerned by perceiving your physical appearance. But 'what a man's mind is, that is what he is' not that individual human shape that we identify through our senses.

  Samuel Pepys

  Fighting, Men, Mind

  28 Copy quote

• Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.

  Samuel Pepys

  Inspirational, Dinner, Strange

  'Diary' 9 November 1665

  101 Copy quote

• Thanks be to God, since my leaving drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.

  Samuel Pepys

  God, Drinking, Wine

  Diary 26 January (1662)

  26 Copy quote

• Strange to say what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition.

  Samuel Pepys

  Love, Funny, Marriage

  'Diary' 25 December 1665

  52 Copy quote

• The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and, out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it.

  Samuel Pepys

  Men, Knowing, Age

  Samuel Pepys (2012). “Diary of Samuel Pepys: Selected Passages”, p.143, Courier Corporation

  20 Copy quote

• As happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!

  Samuel Pepys

  Happiness, Smile, Men

  Samuel Pepys (1997). “The Concise Pepys”, p.173, Wordsworth Editions

  42 Copy quote

• But Lord! To see the absurd nature of Englishmen that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at everything that looks strange.

  Samuel Pepys

  Laughing, Looks, Jeering

  'Diary' 27 November 1662

  8 Copy quote

• Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.

  Samuel Pepys

  Friendship, Real Friends, Bed

  Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (1985). “The Shorter Pepys”, p.651, Univ of California Press

  11 Copy quote

• Unlike God the artist does not start with nothing and make something of it. He starts with himself as nothing and makes something of the nothing with the things at hand.

  Samuel Pepys

  Artist, Hands, Doe

  14 Copy quote

• And it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plagueisdoneastoperiwigs, fornobody will daretobuy any haire for fear of the infectionthat it had been cut off the heads of people dead of the plague.

  Samuel Pepys

  Fashion, Cutting, People

  7 Copy quote

• He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound.

  Samuel Pepys

  Pounds, Classroom, Pins

  Samuel Pepys (1858). “Diary and Correspondence: The Diary deciphered by the K. J. Smith from the original Shorthand Ms. in the Pepysian Library. With a life and notes by Richard Lord Braybrooke. In four volumes”, p.341

  5 Copy quote

• Poorpeoplestaying intheir houses aslong astill thevery fire touched them, and then running into boats or clambering from one pair of stair by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons I perceive were loath to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies till they were some of them burned, their wings, and fell down.

  Samuel Pepys

  Running, Wings, Fire

  1666 Diary entry, 2 Sep.The Great Fire of London continued for four days, destroying four-fifths of the total area of the city.

  8 Copy quote

• I find my wife hath something in her gizzard, that only waits an opportunity of being provoked to bring up; but I will not, for my content-sake, give it.

  Samuel Pepys

  Opportunity, Giving, Wife

  Samuel Pepys (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Pepys (Illustrated)”, p.2195, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

• It having been a very cold night last night I had got some cold, and so in pain by wind, and a sure precursor of pain is sudden letting off farts, and when that stops, then my passages stop and my pain begins

  Samuel Pepys

  Pain, Night, Wind

  Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (1985). “The Shorter Pepys”, p.397, Univ of California Press

  8 Copy quote

• I do still see that my nature is not to be quite conquered, but will esteem pleasure above all things, though yet in the middle of it, it has reluctances after my business, which is neglected by my following my pleasure. However musique and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.

  Samuel Pepys

  Business, Giving, Way

  Diary, 9 Mar. 1666

  7 Copy quote

• Music [is] a science peculiarly productive of a pleasure that no state of life, publick or private, secular or sacred; no difference of age or season; no temper of mind or condition of health exempt from present anguish; nor, lastly, distinction of quality, renders either improper, untimely, or unentertaining.

  Samuel Pepys

  Differences, Mind, Age

  Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (1983). “The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Companion”, p.259, Univ of California Press

  11 Copy quote

• But it is pretty to see what money will do.

  Samuel Pepys

  'Diary' 21 March 1667

  7 Copy quote

• Before I went to bed, I sat up till 2 a-clock in my chamber, reading of Mr. Hooke's Microscopical Observations, the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life.

  Samuel Pepys

  Reading, Book, Bed

  Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham (1985). “The Shorter Pepys”, p.464, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• My wife, who, poor wretch, is troubled with her lonely life.

  Samuel Pepys

  Lonely, Wife, Poor

  'Diary' 19 December 1662

  8 Copy quote

• The best of a bad bargain.

  Samuel Pepys

  Bargains

  11 Copy quote

• I see it is impossible for the King to have things done as cheap as other men.

  Samuel Pepys

  Kings, Men, Done

  'Diary' 21 July 1662

  6 Copy quote

• At the Royall Oake Taverne, I drank a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with.

  Samuel Pepys

  Wine, Taste, Mets

  Samuel Pepys (1876). “Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F. R. S.: From His Ms. Cypher in the Pepysian Library, with a Life and Notes by Richard Lord Braybrooke. Deciphered, with Additional Notes, by Rev. Mynors Bright ...”, p.183

  8 Copy quote

• But me thought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain.

  Samuel Pepys

  Leadership, Kings, Rain

  'Diary' 19 July 1662

  5 Copy quote

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