Quote#Friendship
A young lady, being on a visit at a noble friend's mansion, was…
Quote byAlexander Bryan Johnson · 1786–1867
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841).
English (original)
A young lady, being on a visit at a noble friend's mansion, was betrayed by complaisance into an admission that she was very fond of potted sprats, though she abhorred the sight, taste, and smell of them. This little falsehood brought her into a false position as respects her noble friend, who, to oblige her young guest, provided for her nothing but potted sprats.
— Alexander Bryan Johnson
More from Alexander Bryan Johnson
Success but sharpens his avidity, and facility but augments his impatience.
when my language or positions shall, in a casual perusal, seem absurd
I request the reader to seek some more creditable interpretation. The best which he can conceive should be assumed to be my intention: as on an escutcheon, when a figure resembles both an eagle and a buzzard, heraldry decides that the bird …
Man exists in a world of his own creation.
All that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept: namely, to interpret language by nature. We [generally and incorrectly] reverse the rule and interpret nature by language.
To fix the fluctuating mass of theories, no man has suggested any other expedient than the construction of some new theory, to whose authority... all persons shall submit. The remedy is constantly augmenting the disease.