524. Cards
"My business has been to view, as opportunity was offered, every
place in which mankind was to be seen; but at card tables,
however brilliant, I have always thought my visit lost, for I
could know nothing of the company, but their clothes and their
faces. I saw their looks clouded at the beginning of every game
with a uniform solicitude, now and then in its progress varied
with a short triumph, at one time wrinkled with cunning, at
another deadened with despondency, or by accident flushed with
rage at the unskilled or unlucky play of a partner. From such
assemblies, in whatever humour I happened to enter them, I was
quickly forced to retire; they were too trifling for me when I
was grave, and too dull when I was cheerful."
Johnson: Rambler #10 (April 21, 1750)
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999. Cards; Conviviality;
Society
"I am very sorry I have not learned to play at cards. It is very
useful in life: it generates kindness and consolidates
society."
Boswell: Tour to the Hebrides
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