Joseph Ritson Quotes
1752–1803 England
Joseph Ritson (October 2, 1752 – September 23, 1803) was an English antiquarian noted more for his caustic style than for his scholarship.
Random Joseph Ritson quote
38 quotes
Of every species of pride or expence I abominate and detest that most which is lavished on the dead.
Does the expression Jugulatio, orjugulatus est, in the Ulster annals, imply strictly the cutting of a mans throat, or merely the putting him to death?
Copies honestly come by are a thousand times more eligible than swindled originals.
It has been frequently said that fools make knaves; it is equally true, I believe, that credulity is the parent of falsehood.
Your reflections are still worse founded, and could only arise from your considering me in the light of a pettyfogging attorney.
I confess it is a case I know not how to handle, since the actor can bear raillery no worse than the action will applause.
I do not think that man honest who would avail himself of a quirk of law to obtain what in reason and justice he can possibly have no right to.
Damn the king and all his adherents. Fox and Liberty for ever!
Like a skilful husbandman you must force the soil which nature has left sterile; and depend upon it the produce will be answerable to the cultivation.
I am quite sick of the modern writers of ancient history, who think to make amends by their fine language for the total want of industry, truth and candour.
You may give Citizen Equality a hint that I find it prudent to say as little as possible upon political subjects, in order to keep myself out of Newgate.
But I am sure you will agree with me that truth should be preferred to all things and sacrificed to nothing; and that a single fact is worth a hundred conjectures.
The modern practice of authors is rather to rival than assist one another; and indeed a mysterious jealousy on one side seems naturally enough to generate a secret hostility on the other.
It may be impossible to prolong life, but it is frequently in our power to smooth the approaches of death; and they who die happily are certainly more to be envied than those who live otherwise.
You would see my name in the last Gentlemans Magazine. The scoundrel of an editor had the impertinence to omit the best part of my letter.
You talk of sending me the pebbles of the brook in exchange for the gold of Ophir: you return me the pearls of the Ocean for the mud of the Thames.
Such a shuffleing, nonsensical paragraph was, I firmly believe, never put together since the invention of letters. That which I do not, and which, I think, no one can, understand. I shall not meddle with.
To establish yourself at Stockton you have nothing to do but, by dint of evidence, &c. to gain a desperate cause or two, ruin two or three honest, and hang two or three innocent men, and your fortune is made.
You complain, I see, that I have too much acidity in my composition; and, I think, you have too much puritanism. St. Matthew, vii. 5.
By heaven, I verily believe if he were only to employ you to draw him up a lease for a year, he would never be able to get out of your clutches as long as he lived. ...Old Slangy was a fool to you.