George Horne - Time Quotes 3 Sourced Quotes
Among the grievances of modern days, much complained of, but with little hope of redress, is the matter of receiving and paying visits, the number of which, it is generally agreed, has been increasing, is increased, and ought to be diminished. … Nor is this complaint by any means peculiar to the times in which we have the honour to live. Cowley was out of all patience on the subject above a hundred years ago. If we engage, says he, in a large acquaintance, and various familiarities, we set open our gates to the invaders of most of our time; we expose our life to a 'quotidian ague of frigid impertinencies,' which would make a wise man tremble to think of. George Horne
Avoid stories, unless short, pointed, and quite apropos. He who deals in them, says Swift, must either have a very large stock, or a good memory, or must often change his company. Some have a set of them hung together like onions: they take possession of the conversation by an early introduction of one; and then you must have the whole rope, and there is an end of everything else, perhaps, for that meeting, though you may have heard all twenty times before. George Horne
