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A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.


Samuel Johnson

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A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little g...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON If you treat a man as he is, he will remain as he is; if you treat him as he ought to be and could b...
GOETHE I understand his decision as much as I hate to see him leave. He's a fine man, and I just can't say ...
JACKIE ADAMS As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instru...
DIOGENES As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruc...
DIOGENES And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do wh...
BIBLE This is too much reality for a Friday.
AS GOOD AS IT GETS Only fools wait, and only tools bait.
CRE There are approximately two trillion cells in the human body. You are never alone, there are always ...
DWIGHT W. HAYES A great man quotes bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a wor...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant ...
VIRGINIA WOOLF As long as man has pride, he will appear unattractive and no one will be attracted to him. He may ha...
DADA BHAGWAN For, were it not good that evil things should also exist, the omnipotent God would almost certainly ...
SAINT AUGUSTINE If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is; but if you treat him as if he were what ...
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Help a man against his will and you do the same as murder him.
HORACE Every time a man expects, as he says, his money to work for him, he is expecting other people to wor...
DOROTHY L. SAYERS A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances ...
FREDERICK DOUGLASS He's perfect... perfect. You ought to see him. He's just a little thing, but he'll get bigger as tim...
DEBRA ROBINSON If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind ...
CARL BUCHER If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were wh...
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances c...
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances c...
THOMAS AQUINAS In Cloud computing the difference between a dark cloud and a cloud with a silver lining, is the part...
RAJAT MOHAN It's a good test for him, and I expect him to run huge. Nobody scares me if he runs his race. If he ...
ERNIE PARAGALLO A man has to do what a man has to do. But he should bring his wife with him.
SYLVAIN REYNARD A lot of teenagers write to me and say "I want to write a book. I want to get published." And those ...
MAUREEN JOHNSON I was just hoping for three or four good innings from him. We were eager to see what he could do as ...
RON EVANS We knew he would get his shots; it's just a matter of making him take tough shots, staying in his fa...
RAY ALLEN Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he poten...
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE A man will speedily sit down and sympathize with a friend's griefs, but if he sees him honored a...
CHARLES SPURGEON It´s a good thing when a man is different from your image of him. Is shows he isn´t a type. If he ...
BORIS PASTERNAK He that has not religion to govern his morality, is not a dram better than my mastiff-dog; so long a...
JOHN SELDEN I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. ...
DWIGHT D EISENHOWER I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. I...
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. ...
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER It looked like he was galloping, and I thought he was going way too slow. But he went :49 1/5, and I...
DAN HENDRICKS I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look for...
WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him
BIBLE He has a very difficult task before him, ... I fear that as an adviser who lacks statutory mandate, ...
JOSEPH LIEBERMAN He is as self-motivated as you will ever see. That's what makes him a great role model for the young...
ALLAN JOHNSON A person, for example, reads in adulthood a book that is important for him, and it makes him say, "H...
ITALO CALVINO And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; Breac...
BIBLE And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; / Breach...
BIBLE The kids look at him as a leader in terms of work ethic. He?s the kind of kid who would practice as ...
BOB NUTTING One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him...
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY A man's desire is to find a good woman, that can make him smile, a woman that can understand him and...
LIAH BARE I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look for...
WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look f...
WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING I told E before the game that I was going to look for him as much as possible. He deserved a game fo...
DEVAN DOWNEY Last week was quite a hard introduction for him, but I thought he acquitted himself reasonably well....
GRAHAM DAWE A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.
GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552 What is the Christian? ...
PHILLIPS BROOKS But as far as the concept of HAL, who HAL was, his character - I had no role in creating him.
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL They see he has a little bit of that Shane Battier quality about him, both as a player and as a lead...
DAN HURLEY They see he has a little bit of that Shane Battier quality about him, both as a player and as a lead...
DAN HURLEY As soon as [Dominguez] chirped him, he just explodes. As soon as Ramon asked him to ease up, he ease...
ERNIE PARAGALLO Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no h...
DONALD TRUMP Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others ...
ALBERT EINSTEIN Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfac...
JOHANN VON GOETHE When a man runs for office, he ought to expect the roof to fall in on him.
CHARLES FORD He's a good competitor. I probably should've gotten him out a little early, but I just wanted to see...
LARRY BEETS Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles You cannot escape Christ, do what You will. You reject His divini...
A. J. GOSSIP Would you want you as a friend?
PETER STROPLE It should not be surprised by seeing in our weird world that the people for enjoying own bread can a...
ANUJ SOMANY Everyone out there is using you for their entertainment and what you mostly need is to be entertainm...
SUPERNA BATHEJA A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.
WILLIAM PENN A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him
WILLIAM PENN Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desir...
MENCIUS The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes hims...
C.S. LEWIS Whenever he met a great man he groveled before him, and my-lorded him as only a free-born Briton can...
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY His companion said to him while disputing with him: Do you disbelieve in Him Who created you from du...
QURAN If a man leaves little children behind him, it is as if he did not die
MOROCCAN PROVERB Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, w...
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, w...
GOLO MANN The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learn...
WALTER LIPPMANN It will help to define him as just another Republican, and that's not good for him in this state.
GARY JACOBSON What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR. It has a lot to do with his senior confidence. He was a little woozy the last couple starts, especia...
AB DETTORRE It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand h...
F. H. BRADLEY And Michael likes to read a lot. People don't realize that about him but he reads a number of bo...
DAVID GEST A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.
FEOUDE A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.
FEOUDE He's capable. We'll see a lot of good things from him. He's a good defender. He's a good shooter. He...
HAROLD WILSON There was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped...
NEIL GAIMAN Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things ...
JAMES ALLEN Because a man is placed in charge of a club does not make it necessary for him to be a taskmaster or...
JOE TINKER We knew the kid [Johnson] could do it -- he just hadn't done it. He just played outstanding basketba...
HENRY DICKERSON I like him as a man and I think he's proved with his competitive record that he's an extremely good ...
BRIAN BARWICK It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.
SOPHOCLES I tried to show him things, but he didn't seem to study what I showed him. Usually, he just put what...
JOHN ELDER ROBISON Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will ...
GOETHE No matter what happens," Mark said, "I will stay here. I will always, always stay here."
He put...
CASSANDRA CLARE When a man writes on a wall, his instinct leads him to write above the level of his own eyes.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The two studied one another for what seemed hours, neither saying a word. Jaden’s first inclinatio...
COURTNEY KIRCHOFF The New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents hi...
JOHN ORTBERG Do let him read the papers. But not while you accusingly tiptoe around the room, or perch much like ...
MARLENE DIETRICH But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because...
BIBLE

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