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Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.


Samuel Johnson

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J.J. MCAVOY If you have carefully examined hundred people you met in your life journey, it means that you have r...
MEHMET MURAT ILDAN I think the only safe medium are books, because people like to hold books in their hand.
H. G. BISSINGER The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that y...
EVELYN WAUGH Relationships-of all kinds-are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the san...
KALEEL JAMISON Relationships-of all kinds-are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the san...
LEO F. BUSCAGLIA This isn't a crush, it's obsession.You are never not in my thoughts. Your scent carries across a roo...
GWEN HAYES At its core, the collection is built around a very wise line from a Beatles song: I want to hold you...
CHERYL JULIA LEE All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w...
JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It...
COLSON WHITEHEAD Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.
HAROLD BLOOM A lot of the records you buy, there's nothing you can hold in your hand, it's all 1's an...
DAVE GROHL ‎~ Carry your anger around in one hand, and a poisonous spider in the other, both are dangerous, t...
NICOLE STRANTZ Youth is, after all, just a moment, but it is the moment, the spark, that you always carry in your h...
RAISA M. GORBACHEV You don't become the best if you aren't willing to stick your hand in the fire.
RACHEL E. CARTER Always buy pornographic books in hardback because they're easier to hold with one hand.
ROBERT CLARK Your hand is cold, mine burns like fire. How blind you are, Nastenka!
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Dreams are like the old stories where wolves are seekers always running, and women carry fire in the...
TAMARA RENDELL It all comes down to serving the ones who are fighting alongside you, watching your back, putting a ...
JAMES LUCENO Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to...
LORD CHESTERFIELD You could handle this stuff, you could hold it in your hand.
JOE CIRINCIONE You hold Jack Johnson to four points and you're a superstar defensively.
DON ALLEN Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something...
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT It is a bittersweet experience to, on the one hand, have to testify against a client on the basis of...
CHARLES OGLETREE It is a bittersweet experience to, on the one hand, have to testify against a client on the basis of...
CHARLES OGLETREE The books are your teacher, after and before school.
DEYTH BANGER If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so ...
RUDYARD KIPLING You cannot hold your head high with your hand out.
YIDDISH PROVERB All we ask is that we have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You are our fathe...
BLACK KETTLE To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we h...
DAVID MCCULLOUGH All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are f...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY That’s what books do. They are the building blocks, the DNA, if you will, of you. Think of everyth...
DAVE EGGERS Sometimes I just wanna hold your hand, look in your eyes and tell you: You're my baby boo.
MAHMOUD EL HALLAB (in response to the question: what do you think of e-books and Amazon’s Kindle?)

Those ...
RAY BRADBURY If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so ...
RUDYARD KIPLING I wondered what that was like, to hold someone’s hand. I bet you could sometimes find all of the m...
BENJAMIN ALIRE SáENZ I wondered what that was like, to hold someone's hand. I bet you could sometimes find all of the mys...
BENJAMIN ALIRE SáENZ We are often let down by the most trusted people and loved by the most unexpected ones. Some make us...
CHANDA KAUSHIK When you play piano, your left hand and right hand are synced. Your brain basically has a clock, so ...
VIJAY KUMAR I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they're better than us.
ALEX FERGUSON Bear in mind, if you are going to amount to anything, that your success does not depend upon the bri...
DR. A. B. MELDRUM Not all princes he had read about in books of legends are beautiful and noble and carry their heads ...
JAMES PURDY GoodReads is fabulous fun, so interesting, so useful ... and the best reviewers are so loving and il...
WILLIAM DONELSON Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
CHANAKYA After you die, a rare friend or family member may carry your memory throughout life. Most will forge...
FAKEER ISHAVARDAS I mean, like most guys, you carry around this girl in your head, who is exactly who you want her to ...
RACHEL COHN During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back afte...
GAUTAMA BUDDHA I do, I’m afraid, understand books far more readily than I understand people. Books are so easy to...
KATHERINE RUNDELL Who says you cannot hold the moon in your hand?

Tonight when the stars come out and the m...
VERA NAZARIAN The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their exces...
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their exces...
CHRISTIAN NEVELL BOVEE The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their exces...
CHRISTIAN NEVELL BOVEE Dove held out a hand to Johnson, and he took it—not because they were fleeing a fire and not becau...
DEBRA ANASTASIA I really think that American gentlemen are the best after all, because kissing your hand may make yo...
ANITA LOOS To be faithful to your instincts and the impulses that carry you in the direction of the excellence ...
GEORGE E. WOODBERRY They had, finally, the only thing anyone really wants in life: someone to hold your hand when you di...
LORRIE MOORE I try to carry things that are hand crafted, hand sculpted, hand painted, hand embroidered and every...
MONICA DIBELLA Elliott is extremely disappointed in your decision to accept a revised Johnson & Johnson offer that ...
IVAN KRSTICEVIC You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the s...
ELIZABETH GILBERT Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. P...
GRETCHEN RUBIN A relationship is like sand in your hand. If held loosely in the palm of your hand it stays there, ...
UNKNOWN Be spectacularly great at what you do. Wear your passion on your sleeve and hold your heart in the p...
ROBIN S. SHARMA Everyone holds fire in their heart; All you ever need to do is to unleash that fire and let the whol...
HARDIK GALA Believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. Never let self-doubt hold you captive. Y...
ROY BENNETT As useful as websites and journals are, there's real value in books, too.
JAMAIS CASCIO The world is filled with so many beautiful people after all and who am I to think that you will hold...
CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it wo...
ANN LANDERS We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?
URSULA K. LE GUIN Hold positive expectancy in the front of your mind and it will appear in the palm of your hand.
LINDA CHANDLER You were never born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Don't think that way. You were born with a di...
ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I love you, my brother, whoever you are - whether you worship in a church, kneel in your temple, or ...
KAHLIL GIBRAN You have gone far and we are proud of you always. I know that you will keep your relationship with y...
HANNAH NIXON The insurance companies hold our feet to the fire to make sure we are complying with all codes,
GARY THOMPSON If you read all your history books, there are no women in them.
CAITLIN MORAN Blood is not all that important. It's what you have in your heart and how you carry it.
ALAN ROBINSON Quoting Samuel Johnson: "Men know that ...
JAMES BOSWELL If you spend all your time reading books that you only pretend to understand, year after year, there...
CATHLEEN SCHINE There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes 'Raise the sail with your stronger hand,' meaning yo...
SOICHIRO HONDA In the road of right and wrong, trust me and hold my hand. Let's walk into the cave none has ever st...
AKSHAY VASU The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.
THEODORE PARKER There are a lot of black-hearted, mean-spirited bastards in the world. It's important that we hold t...
DARREN SHAN Nothing in this world compares to the comfort and security of having someone just hold your hand.
RICHELLE E. GOODRICH Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380 O abyss, O eternal Godhead, O sea profound, w...
CATHERINE OF SIENA We need a spark to lit a fire inside us. A spark is an inspiration to make art, a fear to find coura...
JASZ GILL I did point out that I have no prophetic gifts. I write books because I tried to do something more u...
AYI KWEI ARMAH All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are f...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are f...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you ...
JAMES BALDWIN You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you ...
JAMES BALDWIN Hold onto the knife tight with your whole hand, put your right hand and your knife right on the cent...
JOE SABOL If you put your hand into a fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No...
BYRON KATIE Being present is being connected to All Things.
S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.
Bel...
ROY T. BENNETT Families can be the most detrimental things to have in your life. They are sometimes the most poison...
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the pe...
ROBERT REICH Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the peo...
ROBERT REICH

More Samuel Johnson

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own...
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship i...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Love is only one of many passions.
SAMUEL JOHNSON My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wo...
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehe...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Among the calamities of war, may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the fals...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He who praises every body, praises nobody.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Whatever you have spend less.
SAMUEL JOHNSON There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
SAMUEL JOHNSON What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.
SAMUEL JOHNSON A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little g...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage i...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.
SAMUEL JOHNSON By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so...
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the lev...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talk...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him littl...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illust...
SAMUEL JOHNSON We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond t...
SAMUEL JOHNSON This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The endearing elegance of female friendship.
SAMUEL JOHNSON To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too sle...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Friendship, 'the wine of life,' said Boswell, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continuall...
SAMUEL JOHNSON To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his ut...
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharg...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
SAMUEL JOHNSON I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the publi...
SAMUEL JOHNSON "He was a very good hater."
SAMUEL JOHNSON I like a good hater.
SAMUEL JOHNSON We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it posse...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Read your own compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much...
SAMUEL JOHNSON In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over ha...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purc...
SAMUEL JOHNSON My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispe...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore o...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be sile...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship i...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that w...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignora...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The true art of memory is the art of attention.
SAMUEL JOHNSON What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.
SAMUEL JOHNSON That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
SAMUEL JOHNSON There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want...
SAMUEL JOHNSON This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let u...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagre...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many thing...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but per...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
SAMUEL JOHNSON In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and att...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dr...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the par...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full mea...
SAMUEL JOHNSON As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
SAMUEL JOHNSON I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of t...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, t...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
SAMUEL JOHNSON More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his serva...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external age...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
SAMUEL JOHNSON All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upo...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hangi...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
SAMUEL JOHNSON There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good unti...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effront...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. B...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make fa...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as m...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.
SAMUEL JOHNSON It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be aft...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves wit...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiabl...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
SAMUEL JOHNSON It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
SAMUEL JOHNSON When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.
SAMUEL JOHNSON You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense o...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persu...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, an...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, a...
SAMUEL JOHNSON No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
SAMUEL JOHNSON To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and la...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bul...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly beco...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Suspicion is most often useless pain.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit tho...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's...
SAMUEL JOHNSON We are inclined to believe those whom we don not know because they have never deceived us.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Small debts are like small gun shot; they are rattling around us on all sides and one can scarcely e...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom natur...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.
SAMUEL JOHNSON I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be sile...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors afte...
SAMUEL JOHNSON To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the f...
SAMUEL JOHNSON We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again exp...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying t...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation...
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldo...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: b...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The chains of habit are generally too week to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a years.
SAMUEL JOHNSON While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
SAMUEL JOHNSON The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
SAMUEL JOHNSON He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.
SAMUEL JOHNSON No one ever became great by imitation.
SAMUEL JOHNSON