Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.
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Samuel Johnson
Related
The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT
Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.
HAROLD BLOOM
Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John...
J.J. MCAVOY Yes, sir. There's always room for improvement.
BRIAN ROLLE
During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN
During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN What is actually the case is that we've seen this extraordinary improvement across the board in near...
ANDREW MACK
Yes, sir, no, sir, clock in, clock out. Why were you late? Why are you not in today? That's not ...
CONOR MCGREGOR I think the protection schemes that we're calling are very sound,
STEVE MCKINNEY It's Very Important Your Team Understands, Why You Won & Why You Lost After Every Challenge. Underst...
GEORGE M. ETHERIDGE
Why, I don't exactly know about perjury, my dear sir, replied the little gentleman. "Harsh word, my ...
CHARLES DICKENS Quoting Samuel Johnson: "Men know that ...
JAMES BOSWELL
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
EDWARD M. HALLOWELL
You, sir, are the most phantom-like of all; you are a mere dream
CHARLOTTE BRONTë Any political process has to secure an improvement in the Palestinians' quality of life and educ...
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN
The title of the episode is 'Unlikely Allies,' which probably refers to the relationship between mys...
ROGER MOORE Why are some of the best things in life some of the things that hurt us the most?
AMY DAVIS
Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, or opposites at all without opposites
PLATO I had a chance to witness what (Johnson) did. I saw the improvement he made to elevate his stock.
BRODRICK BUNKLEY
The four principal oral instructors to whom I feel my mind indebted for improvement were Joseph Fawc...
WILLIAM GODWIN
Those things that are the most obvious are the very things we've most likely to overlook.
PITTACUS LORE The very idea of true patriotism is lost, and the term has been prostituted to the very worst of pur...
ROBERT WALPOLE
To have people to the White House and worry about the price of things is laughable.
LETITIA BALDRIGE
These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.
JOSEPH ADDISON
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Some dreams we have are nothing else but dreams,
Unnatural and full of contradictions;
Yet oth...
THOMAS HOOD When I first started, I said 'Yes, sir and no, sir.' Now, the lawyers say, 'Yes, sir and no, sir.' N...
RANDY MAY We are very pleased to extend our product line to include firewall protection for 64-bit PCs. A dual...
LAURA YECIES
I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.
RAY BRADBURY
Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES He's very picky. I mean, the littlest things that you wouldn't think would matter, those are the thi...
STEPHEN ALEXANDER John Dos Passos, Raymond Carver, Flaubert and William Maxwell were all very influential when I first...
JONATHAN DEE
Why refer to Lady Crack Pipe or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that t...
DAVID SEDARIS We are the most courageous party, we are the most uncontrolled. We want to create a climate of polit...
EDUARD LIMONOV
These two projects are some of Kansas City's most exciting additions to recent capital improvement p...
PORTER ARNEILL By showing the importance of Seattle Center, it's a very strong argument as to why the Center needs ...
BILL BLOCK When you hear things about yourself that are laughable, it can make you jaded or bitter and make you...
CHRIS WEBBER
There are many things which swallow up men's thoughts while they live, which they will think lit...
J. C. RYLE [One of the issues Starr wants McDougal to testify about is a $5,000 check she wrote and marked] pay...
MARK GERAGOS In the developing world, people often use quite basic technology. Many of the most imaginative schem...
CHARLES LEADBEATER
Most people are slow to champion love because they fear the transformation it brings into their live...
ABERJHANI Why cannot we work at cooperative schemes and search for the common ground binding all mankind toget...
WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS
Most political wives are accidental politicians.
KELLYANNE CONWAY Very few if any of these British land speculators profited from their investments in these schemes.
BERNARD BAILYN
To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we h...
DAVID MCCULLOUGH
I went from wanting to lick his dimples to wanting to get the hell away from him.
COLLEEN HOOVER
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 [Dr. Johnson to a Q...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The political atmosphere in the nation is already very bad and with high poverty there are a lot of ...
ADAMU ABUBAKAR
There are very few persons who pursue science with true dignity.
- Sir Humphrey Davy,
SIR HUMPHREY DAVY
CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which many meritorious persons wish to obtain."Cl...
AMBROSE BIERCE
I expect you'll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir. That's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that g...
EVELYN WAUGH Before you leave here, Sir, you’re going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world ...
PHILIP CAPUTO They are tough, physical. A bunch of tough guys. I'll probably end up guarding Greg Johnson (the Mid...
ZACH WALDHER
I knew a very wise man of Sir Christopher Musgrave
ANDREW FLETCHER
Yes, sir, there are things to see and do on the French Riviera without spending money.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN The market is showing a good improvement. Some points of concern, including in the political sphere,...
MARCELO PORTO
Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
The man of understanding finds everything laughable.
JOHANN VON GOETHE They are very political but that is part of who we are.
MAYIDA ZAAL Most people are rushing around doing things they don't want to do. Why not slow down and do only the...
LORRIN L. LEE
Most people have stereo vision, so why belittle that very, very important element of our existence?
MARTIN SCORSESE
We are here because over billions of years, countless variables fell into place, any of which could ...
WENDY MASS
Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every why hath a wherefore.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE She's a very nice woman and I don't know why people are doing the wrong things.
GOLAM MAOLA He no longer stuck out, his height no longer laughable. But with his head hanging low, he felt most ...
L.S.V. BAKER
Most of us are living at a pace that is not only unsustainable; it's also unbiblical.
CRAIG GROESCHEL We understand some of the things cancer patients go through and the prostheses are so expensive. Tha...
BEA FUENTES Sir Edwin Manton was one of the most generous benefactors in Tate's history,
SIR NICHOLAS SEROTA
Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?
SAMUEL JOHNSON
CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which many meritorious persons wish to obtain. AMBROSE BIERCE
For my part, Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential art...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Keynes eliminated economic theory's ancient role as spoilsport for inflationist and statist sche...
MURRAY ROTHBARD It was a real good day all-around, but especially on defense. In particular the blocking schemes tha...
LAURIE GLASS Down with tyranny!' Bramble cried. 'Aristocracy! Autocracy! Monocracy! Other ocracy things! You are ...
HEATHER DIXON The political killings are one of the most serious human rights issues, but the key problem there is...
IAN MARTIN
The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) m...
STEPHEN KING What we do to impress others are the very things others find most annoying.
BURKE FRANKLIN These are special schemes for transferring capital (abroad) through banks.
ARSENIY YATSENYUK
You will see that the things you desire most are the very things that bring you the greatest sorrow.
CHRISTOPHER PIKE
the laughable is a species of what is disgraceful.
ARISTOTLE
Political chaos is connected with the decay of language... one can probably bring about some improve...
GEORGE ORWELL I don't know of anybody's political bias at CBS News. We try very hard to get any opinion that we ha...
LESLEY STAHL
Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken
him a great deal of pains to becom...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius
WILLIAM BLAKE
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
WILLIAM BLAKE Very unusual in an insurgency to have absolutely no political agenda other than to return to power. ...
JACK KEANE This political senility and this deception by the Syrian security apparatus is a laughable farce and...
WALID JUMBLATT
Our border security is laughable.
PAUL GOSAR
Friendship, 'the wine of life,' said Boswell, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continuall...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Sales are down by half, which is a slight improvement, but really it's still very grim.
BHARAT TANDON [Russell
Johnson, the brainy professor to Denver's brainless wonder on Gilligan's Island , said...
HOWARD JOHNSON
Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 Why ...
T. S. ELIOT There are many recycling schemes, systems, or approaches throughout the EU.
BRUCE CALDER People are getting more creative and sophisticated in their fraud schemes.
DEVORAH GOLDBURG
“When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fe...
CARLOS CASTANEDA
Most astronomical work has to do with things that are very, very far away and don't affect our l...
CARRIE NUGENT
Sir, we are a nest of singing birds
SAMUEL JOHNSON
I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gi...
KENNETH BRANAGH
There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were...
ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY
There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never wer...
ROBERT F. KENNEDY
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