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Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.


Samuel Johnson

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FRED ALLEN A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own...
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KELLY JONES Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by n...
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ERNEST RENAN They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so m...
SIR THOMAS MORE Who could escape destruction, when he provokes to anger those ,men , by whom the fire was made to co...
GURU NANAK All men on whom the Higher Nature has stamped the Love of Truth, should especially concern themselve...
ROBERT BROWNING I see foxes often, but always they are crossing fallow fields in the distance. Gold flecks on farawa...
SARA BAUME There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
CICERO Our object in these remarks has been not only to account for the slow progress which has as yet been...
NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR He stared at his feet. “I’m still very ignorant,” he said, “but at least I’m ignorant abou...
TERRY PRATCHETT Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 A ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Samuel understood at last why this being hated men and women so much: he hated them because they wer...
JOHN CONNOLLY A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserabl...
JOHN STUART MILL The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.
A. E. HOUSMAN The critic will certainly be an interpreter, but he will not treat Art as a riddling Sphinx, whose s...
OSCAR WILDE He is evil by his very nature.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Those small moments of pleasure men get from sin, from defying God, are perhaps grace - His final gi...
CRISS JAMI Not all men are handsome and strong. There are some who are cowards from birth. There are some who a...
SHūSAKU ENDō It is very, very difficult for a playwright to write a scene in which a young man has his first deep...
PETER SHAFFER It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the lov...
LORD MELBOURNE It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the lov...
WILLIAM LAMB MELBOURNE I tried to think of a vice I want to sacrifice, and ended up reasoning that I need my bad habits, de...
SARA BAUME A man who has nothing for which he willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own per...
ANONYMOUS A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress,...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON For, though every man has sin in him seminally, yet there are some sins which by nature he is more i...
CHRISTOPHER LOVE What bothered me was all of the time he wasted by drumming, and all the time I wasted by listening t...
SARA BAUME A desire is a tether and a few crumbs of pleasure are the lure by which nature keeps human cattle in...
DR HITESH C SHETH Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C. Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is not...
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may ...
SAMUEL ULLMAN He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which ke...
CONFUCIUS Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives by make-believe.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The phonograph and kinetoscope may some day seize and perpetuate all save the magnetic touch, but th...
DAVID JOSIAH BREWER All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself -- civilization, in a word is the fruit...
HENRY MILLER All the lies and evasions by which man has nourished himself / civilization, in a word is the fruits...
HENRY MILLER The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he ...
SIGMUND FREUD The question of manuscript changes is very important for literary criticism, the psychology of creat...
UMBERTO ECO Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and th...
BENJAMIN DISRAELI Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very wea...
ZHOU SHENGXIAN Every art is a church without communicants, presided over by a parish of the respectable. An artist ...
HORTENSE CALISHER You may know a man by the company he keeps
PROVERB Ah vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of fate are, How very weak the very wise, How very sm...
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, wh...
BENJAMIN DISRAELI Though he slay me, yet I will praise him," he began softly, his voice a little tremulous at first. "...
JENNIFER FREITAG When you see a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend on it, that he ke...
C. H. (CHARLES HADDON) SPURGEON Do you want to know why men name their penis? So the most important decisions in their life aren't m...
LINDA HOWARD The time comes when each one of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth,...
SIGMUND FREUD Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
BERTRAND RUSSELL Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
BERTRAND RUSSELL How small regard is had to the oath of God by men professing the name of God.
GEORGE GILLESPIE Gates has kept Apple alive to get the Justice Department off his back. All he has to do is stop maki...
BRUCE TOGNAZZINI Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, ...
GEORGE WASHINGTON Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, ...
GEORGE WASHINGTON Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, ...
GEORGE WASHINGTON A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress,...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the wea...
SAMUEL JOHNSON It is by a wise economy of nature that those who suffer without change, and whom no one can help, be...
F. H. BRADLEY It is by a wise economy of nature that those who suffer without change, and whom no one can help, be...
FRANCIS H. BRADLEY The director of the Road Safety Authority comes on the radio to tell me that today is the day of the...
SARA BAUME Everything is very nearly over. And so none of the normal rules of behavior apply. And so none of my...
SARA BAUME But I know I will do neither; nothing. I have all the time in the world, and yet, I can't be bothere...
SARA BAUME So it's as if,' I say, 'I'm okay in my own bones, but I know that my bones aren't living up to other...
SARA BAUME There really isn't much wrong with me,' I say, 'it's just that, well, I'm not like other people; I d...
SARA BAUME I knew precisely what things I wanted to do—and when and why—and I was deeply resentful of other...
SARA BAUME If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little -- somebody who is obses...
E. E. CUMMINGS If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsess...
E. E. CUMMINGS War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and pat...
JOHN STUART MILL You're still lovely," Mor said a bit gently.
Elain offered a half smile. "I suppose that war m...
SARAH J. MAAS Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning ...
GOETHE When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon i...
CHARLES H. SPURGEON When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon i...
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON If there is a single quality that is shared by all great men, it is vanity. But I mean by "vanity" ...
YOUSEF KARSH If there is a single quality that is shared by all great men, it is vanity. But I mean by vanity onl...
YOUSEF KARSH If there is a single quality that is shared by all great men, it is vanity. But I mean by "vanity" o...
YOUSEF KARSH If there is a single quality that is shared by all great men, it is vanity. But I mean by "vanity" o...
YOUSUF KARSH I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing ...
JOHN MUIR Human nature with all its infirmities and deprivation is still capable of great things. It is capabl...
JOHN ADAMS To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
EDWARD M. HALLOWELL Behold, I am become a reproach to thy holy name, by serving any ambition and the sins of others; whi...
WILLIAM LAUD The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.He may avoid suffering and sorro...
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD (This is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and His Apostle towards those of the idolaters with who...
QURAN She was scarcely a year older than I was, dark-haired, slender, with a face that would break your he...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN ...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one wou...
F.A. HAYEK Being a critic is easy.
But if the critic tries to run the operation, he soon understands that ...
HAEMIN SUNIM What he has done and his contributions to American culture speak for themselves. He is one of a very...
DAVID LETTERMAN In the name of freedom, there has to be a correlation between rights and duties, by which every pers...
POPE BENEDICT XVI At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings...
AYN RAND How do you know about the world is real?...
How?...
How you don't think that you are locke...
DEYTH BANGER Who of us is able to read and understand and be entirely confident of the validity of his title to t...
WILLIAM H. WHARTON What was done today by Johnson is exactly the thing he said he was not going to do. He has shown his...
DENNIS KOEHLER Literary men now routinely tell their readers about their divorces. One literary man who reviews boo...
GEORGE W. S. TROW Quoting Samuel Johnson: "Men know that ...
JAMES BOSWELL Bullock by name, and Bullock by nature.
ALAN BULLOCK [Responding to the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce's question whether he traced his descent ...
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY It is unclear how much money Trump has, but it is not enough to matter in Russia. If he keeps up his...
TIMOTHY D. SNYDER

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