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It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure the common practices of mankind


Samuel Johnson

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Critic, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.
AMBROSE BIERCE No one can please a man who is not at peace with himself.
BAMIGBOYE OLUROTIMI Never trust a man who sits, uninvited, at the head of the table in another man's home.
CECELIA AHERN Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. P...
GRETCHEN RUBIN He is a man who has shown himself not to be the Minister for Social Development or actually a minist...
JUDITH COLLINS An ambassador is a man of virtue sent to lie abroad for his country; a news-writer is a man without ...
HENRY WOTTON, SR. An ambassador is a man of virtue sent to lie abroad for his country; a news-writer is a man without ...
HENRY WOTTON SR. I think Brandon has grown up a lot. Nobody said it was going to be easy. But I think Brandon has a b...
ERIC WEDGE The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportuni...
ORISON SWETT MARDEN A Common Man who has Common Sense is better qualified to Lead than a Leader who has no sense of the ...
J.J. BOWLERS He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death...
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death...
WILLIAM GILLMORE SIMMS He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the de...
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
JOHN LOCKE If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON A man of merit owes himself to the homage of the rest of mankind who recognize his worth.
JULES VERNE 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give...
JAMES C. DOBSON Johnson is dead. - Let us go to the next best: - There is nobody; no man can be said to put you in m...
WILLIAM HAMILTON A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits.
WOODROW WILSON The world takes us at our own valuation. It believes in the man who believes in himself, but it has ...
ORISON SWETT MARDEN PEACE IS THE OBJECTIVE TO WAR, BUT THE BLOOD RUNNETH STILL
NATALIE URQUIETA I like a guy who is confident and easy-going, but a man who's a man, not a man who is a little b...
CAROLINE WINBERG When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself...
GERRIT SMITH A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purp...
HENRY WARD BEECHER It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the who...
BAHA'U'LLAH It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the who...
BAHA'U'LLAH A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits.
WOODROW WILSON A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits.
WOODROW T. WILSON A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to c...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of slot...
FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER It is the most common abnormality that mankind has.
DR. RON BUSH The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. H...
STEVEN PRESSFIELD It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN If even God has a hell, which is his love for mankind, then any man has his hell within easy reach, ...
PAULO COELHO Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an ...
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an ...
MARTIN TUPPER A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish...
STEVE ROLAND PREFONTAINE Those who seek to please everybody please nobody.
AESOP A man can know nothing of mankind without knowing something of himself. Self-knowledge is the proper...
BENJAMIN DISRAELI The man who sees two or three generations is like someone who sits in a conjurer's booth at a fair a...
ARNOLD SCHOPENHAUER Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
JONATHAN SWIFT If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle.
ALBRECHT DURER Take me home, take me home, take me home, I need to go home. Please, please, whatever magic is out t...
KRISTEN ASHLEY Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John...
J.J. MCAVOY To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
EDWARD M. HALLOWELL Is it a man walking on the beach, winking at the girls and looking for going to bed? Is it someone w...
ANTONIO BANDARES Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.
HAROLD BLOOM Many a man who has known himself at ten forgets himself utterly between ten and thirty.
CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN Many a man who has known himself at ten forgets himself utterly between ten and thirty.
CATHERINE BOWEN Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself
ANTHONY TROLLOPE 2. Overcommitment and time pressure are the greatest destroyers of marriages. It takes time to devel...
JAMES C. DOBSON Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS Most of us think we're too busy or too important to rest for a day.
CRAIG GROESCHEL Anyways, that very same night there was a fight in the casino on B Deck. Some of the passengers got ...
CHRISTINA ENGELA It is easy for anybody to call himself or herself a “Christian” but the truth is we respond from...
SUNDAY ADELAJA It's real easy for someone on the other side of town to make a judgment call, but this is my home an...
ELIZABETH SCOTT A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.
HAROLD MACMILLAN There is nothing more hostile to a city that a tyrant, under whom in the first and chiefest place, ...
EURIPIDES Each work has to pass through these stages – ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance Each man wh...
PT. SHRI RAM SHARMA AACHARYA A man must fortify himself and understand that a wise man who yields to laziness or anger or passion...
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA The most likely man to go to hell is the man who has nothing to do on earth. Idle people tempt the d...
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C. We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes ...
JOS We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes ...
JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes ...
JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET The basis of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. In other word...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS It’s not the obviousness or the complexity of the things that’s deftly deluding mankind. It’s ...
PAWAN MISHRA Writing itself is a bad enough trade, rightly held up to ridicule and contempt by the greater part o...
HILAIRE BELLOC Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and le...
DAVID BAILEY Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and le...
JAMES BARRIE Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and le...
JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE Many a man who pays rent all his life owns his own home; and many a family has successfully saved fo...
BRUCE BARTON A man generally has the good or ill qualities he attributes to mankind.
WILLIAM SHENSTONE A man who would fight externally and die for his family, although noble, has chosen the easy option....
RODNEY LOVELL Nobody asks anybody to be somebody. Man for himself and be yourself, buddy!
TOBA BETA Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. ...
RAYMOND CHANDLER If a man decides that it is better for him to resist the demands of a present feeble love, in the na...
LEO TOLSTOY But to unite in a permanent religious institution which is not to be subject to doubt before the pub...
IMMANUEL KANT How ironic that Sam Johnson has just returned from a visit to Hanoi yet insults the memory for the m...
BOB JOHNSON An alarm clock is a device to wake a man up who has no plans or intentions for the future that could...
VIKRANT PARSAI Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, ho...
WILLIAM HAZLITT As a man has no right to kill one of his children if it is diseased or insane, so a man who has made...
J.M. SYNGE No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.
DEMOSTHENES It is easy for a somebody to be modest, but it is difficult to be modest when one is a nobody.
JULES RENARD It is easy for a somebody to be modest, but it is difficult to be modest when one is a nobody
JULES RENARD A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist--nothing shields him from the world's gaze except h...
E.B. (ELWYN BROOKS) WHITE The congressman was pleased that the commission was able to clarify important distinctions and commo...
GLENN CAMPBELL The guy who sits in front of the television is unengaged. That man is a bad man.
JOHN ELDREDGE Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink fr...
PLATO Easy is an adjective used to describe a woman who has the sexual morals of a man.
NANCY LINN-DESMOND Easy is an adjective used to describe a woman who has the sexual morals of a man.
GOLDA MEIR It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair t...
SOREN KIERKEGAARD For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself!
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON For God's sake, give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Man has done a lot to make himself dangerous and animals get the worst of all of it. But then, man t...
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters.
JEFFREY FRY 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married.
JAMES C. DOBSON To be, or not to be, that is the question.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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