Johnson, Samuel
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must behighly gratifying to them.
- Johnson, Samuel
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetick...
- Johnson, Samuel
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
- Johnson, Samuel
Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it.
- Johnson, Samuel
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
- Johnson, Samuel
Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.
- Johnson, Samuel
In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
- Johnson, Samuel
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
- Johnson, Samuel
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.
- Johnson, Samuel
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
- Johnson, Samuel
I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth.
- Johnson, Samuel
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps the chief happiness which this world affords.
- Johnson, Samuel
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
- Johnson, Samuel
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, Never in the tongue of him that makes it.
- Johnson, Samuel
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
- Johnson, Samuel
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts
- Johnson, Samuel
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
- Johnson, Samuel
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
- Johnson, Samuel
It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.
- Johnson, Samuel
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
- Johnson, Samuel
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
- Johnson, Samuel
Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom; her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity; her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
- Johnson, Samuel
The mind is seldom quickened to very vigorous operations but by pain, or the dread of pain. We do not disturb ourselves with the detection of fallacies which do us no harm.
- Johnson, Samuel
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
- Johnson, Samuel
Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. Yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigor three hours a day will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.
- Johnson, Samuel
Men seldom give pleasure where they are not pleased themselves.
- Johnson, Samuel
The first years of man make provision for the last.
- Johnson, Samuel
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
- Johnson, Samuel
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
- Johnson, Samuel
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
- Johnson, Samuel
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
- Johnson, Samuel
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
- Johnson, Samuel
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
- Johnson, Samuel
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
- Johnson, Samuel
Words are but the signs of ideas.
- Johnson, Samuel
