Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
Samuel Johnson
Related Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fello... SAMUEL JOHNSON I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing whe... SAMUEL JOHNSON I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Sometimes I think your intellect can get in your way as an actor or an artist. When you come from a ... PAUL DANO There seems to be such a laziness in - and I hate to use this phrase - the modern world. Everything ... CHRIS WARE And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do wh... BIBLE Fear has nothing to do with cowardice. A fellow is only yellow when he lets his fear make him quit. JEROME CADY I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both ... ARTHUR GOLDEN Let any man show the world that he feels Afraid of its bark and 't will fly at his heels: Let him fe... OWEN MEREDITH Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script. ANTHONY HOPKINS There isnt such a reasonable fellow in the world, to hear him talk. He Tom Brown never wants anythin... THOMAS HUGHES I think the World Cup is the priority now, it doesn't matter about the money. I think whether it be ... LUCAS NEILL There is nothing in the world, I tell you, so maddening as a person who doesn't answer when you abus... SHOLEM ALEICHEM He will come out fighting but if he does retire, I would like to think he will be rewarded with an M... ALEC STEWART I mean I think that when you've got a big brain, when you find yourself planted in a world with ... RICHARD DAWKINS I’ve tried so hard to stay away from you,” he whispered one night, cuddling her while the moonli... LISA KLEYPAS Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitte... IAIN THOMAS On a day of burial there is no perspective -- for space itself is annihilated. Your dead friend is s... ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitternes... PLEASEFINDTHIS He is not truly patient who will only suffer as far as seems right to him and from whom he pleases. ... THOMAS à KEMPIS Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never wi... CORMAC MCCARTHY When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, an... BLAISE PASCAL Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. I shall live alone. Always alone. In a house or a tree.' Fuchsia started to chew at a fre... MERVYN PEAKE I just think it is important that you realize, that you're the best in the world. Whether you ar... CLINT EASTWOOD The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, a... PAU (PABLO) CASALS The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, a... PABLO CASALS Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? There is a ... JEANETTE WINTERSON I live on hope and that I think do all Who come into this world. ROBERT BRIDGES A thousand years from now nobody is going to know that you or I ever lived. The cynic is JACKSON BURNETT Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if h... BENJAMIN E. MAYS Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if h... BENJAMIN MAYS Success will come just as a mere wish when cars begin to manufacture and drive themselves. Believe i... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER Now, do I think there has to be shared sacrifice among other nations in the world who want a stable ... CHRIS CHRISTIE When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world. BENJAMIN DISRAELI I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate ... C.S. LEWIS The truth is that the world is full of dragons, and none of us are as powerful or cool as we’d lik... PATRICK ROTHFUSS Do you know what i hate? I hate people who hides behind GOD, it doesn't matter how much u pray or fa... CRYSTAL DEONARINE Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supp... CAITLYN SIEHL My recurring nightmare is that someday I will be faced with a panel: Franklin Roosevelt, John Kenned... DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of... MARY ROBERTS RINEHART The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't bee... PABLO CASALS It goes far toward making a man faithful to let him understand that you think him so; and he that do... SENECA We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have ... SARAH BERNHARDT I realized that day that blessings come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. CRAIG GROESCHEL You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to p... LAUREN OLIVER And then I wonder, does my brother think of me this way? We entered this world together, one after t... LAUREN DESTEFANO I wish I could tell every single woman with depression or anxiety or who has gotten herself into a s... CONSTANCE HALL Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and a... DANIEL KEYES Being a woman writer, I would be deceiving myself if I said I write completely through the eye of a ... BUCHI EMECHETA Dont put yourself and your happiness in a bubble and block the rest of the world out.cause when that... KIMBERLY SHILENJE I still will sit down at the piano and play when I am wrestling with something emotionally or just w... ALAN LIGHTMAN I suggested [in 1966] that we use the panther as our symbol and call our political vehicle the Black... HUEY NEWTON What happens with artists, or people who start off doing things for the right reasons, is that you s... LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM I hate to sound esoteric, but there is something about a house that leads you to that one chair, tha... FRANCISCO COSTA In a perfect world, I only act when I really want to. I don't do most of the stuff that is out t... OLIVIA HUSSEY There will come a time when the public will tire of me and let me know it. That's when I retire.... BARBARA MANDRELL I think that's one of the greatest gifts you get if you're successful at something like musi... ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Nothing is more false than the notion that the triumph of Communism is inevitable or that the Commun... ROBERT KENNEDY As the uneasiness and reluctance to face it cut him off more and more from all real happiness, and a... C.S. LEWIS One of my favorite artists is Tom Waits, whom most people think of as a wonderful singer-songwriter ... JEFF BRIDGES tiny: but there is the word, this word phil wrayson taught me once: weltschmerz. it's the depression... DAVID LEVITHAN A person who understands you very well, will either fall in love with you or feel sorry for you. I h... EPHDAN I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if... WALT WHITMAN I am convinced that the world-wide protests during the Rivonia trial saved Mandela and his fellow-ac... OLIVER TAMBO I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate. JOHN LYDON Is it not eminently just that I should give myself entirely and without reserve to Him Who drew me o... FATHER JOHN NICHOLAS GROU, S.J. Here is the tragedy: when you are the victim of depression, not only do you feel utterly helpless an... GILES ANDREAE I often ask myself, 'Who would Jesus vote for?' Then I start to think that he wouldn't vote at all; ... CRISS JAMI I sit in my little corner and paint until, sometimes, late into the night. And I take my time. And I... HELEN STEWART I hate putting negative energy out into the world. But it's either inside or out. I mean, it'... SHARON VAN ETTEN Depression is a funny thing. Some days you have the strength to get up out of bed and attempt to liv... ASHLEY EARLEY I hate imperialism. I detest colonialism. And I fear the consequences of their last bitter struggle ... SUKARNO I hate imperialism. I detest colonialism. And I fear the consequences of their last bitter struggle ... SUKARNO Daddy - I remember when he first let me drive the cultivator for him, you know... He eased you into ... GLEN CAMPBELL When I was a little girl, everything in the world fell into either of these two categories: wrong or... C. JOYBELL C. Some of these guys will go on walking long after the laws of biochemistry and handicapping have gone... STEPHEN KING He does such a good job at punt holdup, where you put him out on the gunner, (that) we talked about ... JIM MORA When somebody sits and tells you that you can't do this and that, or that you cost the team because ... TED SUNDQUIST I have let half-decades elapse between books because books have to be writte and writing is awful, b... DAVID RAKOFF You don't know how I feel about you, but you know that I do. I from. I feel about you. Knowing that ... KAYLA RAE You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothi... ANONYMOUS You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothi... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time an... LIN YUTANG Whatever one does in this world, he does it out of compulsion; so it is indeed our lack of understan... DADA BHAGWAN it’s as if he were hiding in there and I want to console him, say: “I am sorry, poor fellow, but... CHARLES BUKOWSKI You look up one day and you hate the whiskey, and you hate the women, and you hate the piano. But th... AUGUST WILSON There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shak... WILLIAM GOLDMAN Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You co... ALICE WALKER Be scared. You cant help that. But dont be afraid. Aint nothing in the woods going to hurt you unles... WILLIAM FAULKNER Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed ou... WILLIAM J. CLINTON A baby is born into this world in a state of fear. Total paranoia and awareness. He sees the world w... CHARLES MANSON I feel sorry for little babies... When a little baby is born into this cold world, he's confused! He... CHARLES M. SCHULZ All adoration and glory to God almighty who does as he wish and nothing in this world can question h... OLASOT I can't talk him through the drills, but he can sit back and watch it a time or two, and he gets out... LARRY EASTERWOOD If we come from the water, I conclude that we come from different kinds of it. I will meet a person ... C. JOYBELL C. Are you kidding me? The IRA doesn't care about him. He's just sick and tired of having to save starv... TYLER DURDEN The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks abo... E.B. (ELWYN BROOKS) WHITE I liked Kennedy. So far, he is the only American president who could talk with me and with whom I co... SUKARNO
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 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