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A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety.


Samuel Johnson

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A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Gods, he was brilliant. Cunning and wicked and brilliant.
Even when he beat the hell out of her...
SARAH J. MAAS The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT I think after I beat Ryan Bader, he should have to go get beat up by Anthony Johnson for being so di...
DANIEL CORMIER Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.
HAROLD BLOOM It is a lie.
ARTHUR MILLER Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John...
J.J. MCAVOY Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. P...
GRETCHEN RUBIN When you think about it, it makes sense because McCain is the candidate most likely to beat Hillary....
RICHARD QUINN If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
EDWARD M. HALLOWELL Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his ta...
CHARLES DICKENS . . . although a skilful flatterer is a most delightful companion, if you can keep him all to yourse...
CHARLES DICKENS It is a statistical fact that the wicked work harder to reach hell than the righteous do to enter he...
JOSH BILLINGS It is a statistical fact that the wicked work harder to reach hell than the righteous do to enter he...
JOSH BILLINGS I've always believed that if you had a fellow who works 150 percent of the time, he's going ...
BERT LANCE The heart of mankind is evil and wicked; it takes the Holy Spirit to change it.
NORM TOMLINSON He beat the hell out of a kid I know, twice.
JACK HARDER Don't ever reject a small
when you can't take it all.
TOBA BETA In the end, the truth will prevail. Good and evil keep at war.
Whichever wins, future will beli...
TOBA BETA When you look at a fellow, if you taught yourself to look for it, you can see his song written on hi...
AUGUST WILSON Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look alon...
TERRY PRATCHETT 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 It is what it is, it is what you make it.
JAMES DURBIN When you think of all that goes into what you write you realize that only you see all that is needed...
BRENT M. JONES When you think you're in hell, hang in there and keep fighting long enough to beat the Devil.
MAHESH BHOGAITA It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.
NAPOLEON HILL My favorite playwright is probably Samuel Beckett, and he was always laughing at the abyss.
JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most hone...
MARTIN VAN BUREN Competition on the market aims at assigning to every individual that function in the social system i...
LUDWIG VON MISES And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
BIBLE It is very difficult to make one's way in this world without being wicked at one time or another, wh...
LEMONY SNICKET It is very difficult to make one's way in this world without being wicked at one time or another, wh...
LEMONY SNICKET To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we h...
DAVID MCCULLOUGH It's like it ain't so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at ...
WILLIAM FAULKNER It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE If the Lord should bring a wicked man to heaven, heaven would be hell to him; for he who loves not g...
CHRISTOPHER LOVE Not only is he a lefty, not only is he a Red Sox killer, but when it comes down to it, has there eve...
WILL CARROLL When I was introduced to Johnson he was a freshman Congressman.
ERICH LEINSDORF Yes, hell exists. It is not a fairy tale. One indeed burns there. This hell is not at the end of lif...
DR. FREDERICK LEBOYER What this is all about is getting a taste of success. It doesn't matter who you beat, once you know ...
ROB DAVIS It makes a lot of sense when you look at the depreciation curve on a typical new car. Most of the de...
JACK NERAD When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the bea...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON He endured all that hell is on the cross, so that you would never know what hell is like.
COLIN S. SMITH Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 A ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Daisy Bowman,” he said unevenly, “I’d spend eternity in hell for one hour with you.” “Is t...
LISA KLEYPAS Any time you come to Charlotte, you've got to beat (Johnson). We've got one up on 'em right now.
ELLIOTT SADLER Man may behold what ugliness he likes if he is sure that he will not worship it; but there are some ...
G.K. CHESTERTON It would have been as though he [President Andrew Johnson] were in a boat of stone with masts of st...
EMERY ALEXANDER STORRS This creature is very wicked. He defends himself when attacked.
FRENCH PROVERB Tis a wicked, wicked world when men take it upon themselves to be God.
CRISTABEL MICHAELS The wicked work harder to preach hell than the righteous do to get to heaven.
PROVERB Even light, which travels so fast that it takes most races thousands of years to realize that it tra...
DOUGLAS ADAMS You are what it takes and matter the most when you decide to accomplish using your true potential.
STEVEN CUOCO This one fellow I met at the gym. I went out to dinner with him and he said, 'I've been watc...
BETH BRODERICK That's fairly typical of him. Most people would consider him the most powerful fellow in movies. You...
JAMES DICKERSON Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 [Dr. Johnson to a Q...
SAMUEL JOHNSON You should regard each meeting with a friend as a sitting he is unwillingly giving you for a portrai...
HOPE MIRRLEES Piety is the most solid goodness, and the vilest of what is evil is vice.
ABU BAKR Dear pious fellow! Our greatest hope for you is that one day you will understand that you have no en...
MEHMET MURAT ILDAN Credit the other teams that have beaten us and everybody that we've played against. At the same time...
DERRICK HARRIS War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always
SOPHOCLES Peter glanced up at the stars and a wicked smile lit his face. "Time to play," he whispered to the s...
BROM Moral values, if you want to use them correctly, begin with love of your fellow man. And if they tea...
ARTHUR HERTZBERG You don't have to believe in Hell. All you need is to hear someone who really does, who believes in ...
PETER S. BEAGLE The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.
HAROLD COFFIN God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. When God looks at a painful or wicked ...
JOHN PIPER A lot of people say, 'It takes a lot to beat him,' or whatever. I'm trying to show you i...
DEAN AMBROSE When you beat Argentina like that and play so well you start to think you can beat anyone. It is pro...
STEVEN GERRARD The worst behaved students turn out to be the most pious preachers.
PROVERB He's a tough kid. You have to want to beat the hell out of the kid; that's the attitude you need.
JACK GARRISON I had to do whatever it takes to beat 'em. We should've beat 'em.
CORY MOUNTAIN The album takes you on a real roller-coaster ride. It's very different from anything out there right...
JADA PINKETT SMITH We are more wicked together than separately. If you are forced to be in a crowd, then most of all yo...
SENECA It's an old cliche, but I'm an old coach so I can use it: All it takes is all you got. You look at h...
AL VISCONTI All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it. -Samuel Butler.
SAMUEL BUTLER Capitalism is not wicked or cruel when the commodity is the whore; profit is not wicked or cruel whe...
ANDREA DWORKIN If evil is inevitable, how are the wicked accountable? Nay, why do we call men wicked at all? Evil i...
HORACE MANN The most intimidating world leader was Lyndon Johnson, who became U.S. President when John Kennedy w...
PAUL JOHNSON We were all talking about it when we came into the dugout. He's Barry Bonds. I don't know how he hit...
JOHN PATTERSON I look at you and my heart pounds, when for years, I don't think it beat at all. You fill the cracks...
KELLY MORAN It takes both courage and talent to stand up in front of fellow human beings and make them crack a s...
RAY COMFORT I love you," he said, holding her close and running his fingers through her tangled hair as if he co...
DEBORAH BLAKE All that damn therapy you made me go through — and sometimes, Dad, it takes going through hell to ...
RACHEL VAN DYKEN He runs the same routes. It's a 'go' route, and he throws his hand up if he feels he has you beat . ...
BRIAN DAWKINS I'm a senior and I know how it is. When you win as much as we win, everybody either wants to beat yo...
RASHAD ANDERSON J-F (Racine) was the fellow I'm most happy with. It's very difficult to sit there with one shot thro...
PAUL MAURICE The past is all holy to us; the dead are all holy; even they that were wicked when alive.
THOMAS CARLYLE I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; a...
JOHN STUART MILL When you look at people like Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Maurice Greene, the key to their success w...
JUSTIN GATLIN When you look at people like Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Maurice Greene, the key to their success w...
JUSTIN GATLIN When you look at it, it is the most logical thing to do.
FRED HUMES He's such an explosive player. He does things at the right time for us. When the game is on the line...
GEORGE PORRITT He clearly is aiming at the jury pool and aiming at voters, hoping to generate as much sympathy as h...
LARRY NOBLE He clearly is aiming at the jury pool and aiming at voters, hoping to generate as much sympathy as h...
LARRY NOBLE Maybe you've never fallen into a frozen stream. Here's what happens.
1. It is cold. So cold tha...
MAUREEN JOHNSON When you hear sirens, that's all it takes to take something seriously.
DAVID LANG His father is governor of Media, and though he has the greatest command given him of all the rest of...
ALEXANDER THE GREAT The love you get, is equal to the love you give.
BEN OAK

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