Hester Lynch Piozzi Quotes

• A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Physicians, Scythes, Sometimes

  Letter to Fanny Burney, 22 November (1781)

  63 Copy quote

• Nothing is so fatiguing as the life of a wit.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Wit

  5 Copy quote

• I think character never changes; the Acorn becomes an Oak, which is very little like an Acorn to be sure, but it never becomes an Ash.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Character, Thinking, Ashes

  Hester Lynch Piozzi, Edward Alan Bloom, Lillian D. Bloom (1991). “The Piozzi Letters: 1792-1798”, Univ of Delaware Pr

  9 Copy quote

• Every one in this world has as much as they can do in caring for themselves, and few have leisure really to think of their neighbours distresses, however they may delight their tongues with talking of them.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Caring, Thinking, Talking

  Hester Lynch Piozzi (1822). “Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson: During the Last Twenty Years of His Life”, p.142

  4 Copy quote

• 'Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest, or for their wit that one loves the wittiest; 'tis for benevolence, and virtue, and honest fondness, one loves people...

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Love, People, Honest

  "Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay" edited by Charlotte Barrett, (vol. 2, p. 3), 1854.

  7 Copy quote

• [Samuel] Johnson's conversation was by much too strong for a person accustomed to obsequiousness and flattery; it was mustard in a young child's mouth!

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Strong, Children, Mouths

  4 Copy quote

• Women bear Crosses better than Men do, but bear Surprizes - worse.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Men, Bears, Crosses

  "The Piozzi Letters: Correspondence of Hester Lynch Piozzi, 1784-1821", vol. 6, (p. 130), 2002.

  5 Copy quote

• Friendship is far more delicate than love.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Delicate

  Hester Lynch Piozzi, Penelope Pennington (2005). “The Intimate Letters of Piozzi and Pennington”, Nonsuch Pub

  8 Copy quote

• Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest...

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Wisdom, Intelligence, One Love

  "Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay" edited by Charlotte Barrett, (vol. 2, p. 3), 1854.

  8 Copy quote

• No companion however wise, no friend however useful, can be to me what my mother has been: her image will long pursue my fancy; her voice for ever hang in my ears: may her precepts but sink into my heart!

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Wise, Mother, Heart

  Hester Lynch Piozzi (1926). “The letters of Mrs. Thrale”

  5 Copy quote

• What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to beggars? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco. "And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence (says Johnson)? it is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Taken, Acceptance, Giving

  "Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson".

  5 Copy quote

• We look on those approaching the banks of a river all must cross, with ten times the interest they excited when dancing in the meadow.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Rivers, Dancing, Age

  Hester Lynch Piozzi (1861). “Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale)”, p.367

  5 Copy quote

• Friendship is far more delicate than love. Quarrels and fretful complaints are attractive in the last, offensive in the first. And the very things which heap fewel on the fire of ardent passion, choke and extinguish sober and true regard. On the other hand, time, which is sure to destroy that love of which half certainly depends on desire, is as sure to increase a friendship founded on talents, warm with esteem, and ambitious of success for the object of it.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Passion, Fire, Hands

  Hester Lynch Piozzi, Penelope Pennington (2005). “The Intimate Letters of Piozzi and Pennington”, Nonsuch Pub

  4 Copy quote

• ... one should know the value of Life better than to pout any part of it away.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Value Of Life, Should, Knows

  Hester Lynch Piozzi, Penelope Pennington (2005). “The Intimate Letters of Piozzi and Pennington”, Nonsuch Pub

  5 Copy quote

• If truth can be found in any sublunary science, numbers will produce it, for to that at last almost all other sciences refer for confirmation.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Data, Numbers, Lasts

  Samuel Johnson (écrivain), Hester Lynch Piozzi (1788). “Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson LL.D., to which are Added Some Poems Never Before Printed”, p.336

  4 Copy quote

• I am perpetually bringing or losing babies, both very dreadful operations to me, and which tear mind and body both in pieces very cruelly.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Baby, Mind, Tears

  Samuel Johnson (écrivain), Hester Lynch Piozzi (1788). “Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson LL.D., to which are Added Some Poems Never Before Printed”, p.302

  4 Copy quote

• The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped on the first favourable opportunity.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Friendship, Party, Opportunity

  Hester Lynch Piozzi (1861). “Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale)”, p.100

  4 Copy quote

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