FastSaying

Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation.


Samuel Johnson

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist; because race implies d...
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 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 The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of...
HENRY DAVID THOREAU With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the ...
ERIC HOFFER What a sense of superiority it gives one to escape reading some book which everyone else is reading
ALICE JAMES Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persu...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Quoting Samuel Johnson: "Men know that ...
JAMES BOSWELL Most of the censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superio...
TRYON EDWARDS The compulsion to work, to be useful, to escape futility's grip--maybe these things foretold a deepe...
SANA KRASIKOV Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is th...
WILLIAM PENN Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is th...
WILLIAM PENN The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
SAMUEL JOHNSON Princeton is no longer a thing for Princeton men to please themselves with. Princeton is a thing wit...
WOODROW WILSON Knowing themselves to be faultless, they make it their mission to detect the myriad faults in others...
HERON CARVIC As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness...
SAMUEL RICHARDSON One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that ...
BERTRAND RUSSELL Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting th...
ELVIS COSTELLO Political leaders and statesmen are serious men even when they appear to be fools, and it is rare to...
NORMAN MAILER Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some peo...
BRAM STOKER You had evil inside you, and you indulged it. Men will always indulge it.
JOHN CONNOLLY For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs,...
BIBLE Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even ...
EDWARD ABBEY There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite ...
WILLIAM OSLER To stand on the
brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli...
ASK AND IT IS GIVEN Children who feel unloved and unprotected are like a half-filled cup. They become incapable of ‘fi...
BEVERLY ENGEL Singing is not indulged in by Rotary clubs of some countries and all clubs are given full privilege ...
PAUL HARRIS The vulgar mind fancies that good judgment is implied chiefly in the capacity to censure; and yet th...
WALTER GILMORE SIMMS Chief justices come and go, ... Some are more influential than others because they are greater lawye...
HUGO BLACK You have to understand that only the very worst end up here: the ones whose anger made them kill, an...
JOHN CONNOLLY All men have more consideration for themselves than for others.
LORD ALFRED TENNYSON If all boys could be made to know that with every breath of cigarette smoke they inhale imbecility a...
HUDSON MAXIM There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others ...
SHANNON L. ALDER When employers tell me they prefer married men, and encourage their men to have homes of their own, ...
ALICE HAMILTON I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain su...
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.
CLIFTON FADIMAN For most men, life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed
CLIFTON FADIMAN He must have been one of those men who doesn't really notice such things and leaves it to others to ...
JAVIER MARíAS It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. I...
JEROME K. JEROME It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. ....
JEROME K. JEROME The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superio...
TRYON EDWARDS Superstitious persons, who know better how to rail at vice than how to teach virtue, and who strive ...
BARUCH SPINOZA No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with w...
SAMUEL JOHNSON The pursuit of goodness leads to greatness, but the pursuit of greatness, whether by a man or a nati...
JOHN KRAMER Men and women also value the Internet for a second strength, as a gateway to limitless vaults of inf...
DEBORAH FALLOWS Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite ...
WILLIAM OSLER But love is blind, and lovers cannot see What petty follies they themselves commit
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE It takes a traveler, not a tourist, to search for something deeper. Travelers want to find the wavel...
DAVID LEVITHAN Male superiority in former days was easily demonstrated, because if a woman questioned her husband's...
BERTRAND RUSSELL I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal.

We'd see wh...
CHERIE PRIEST The thing I have the most problem with is consistency. We saw it already. The equipment isn't consis...
DAVID AEBISCHER I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe ...
EPICTETUS Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because the...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or cen...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There is nothing to which men, while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves.
GEORGE SANTAYANA To linger in the observation of things other than the self implies a profound conviction of their wo...
CHARLES-DAMIAN BOULOGNE To linger in the observation of things other than the self implies a profound conviction of their wo...
CHARLES DAMIAN BOULOGNE Men do not suspect faults which they do not commit.
SAMUEL JOHNSON men do not suspect faults which they do not commit
SAMUEL JOHNSON Vampires have always held a very seductive kind of lore and have always been some variety of attract...
COLIN FARRELL Men often treat others worse than they treat themselves, but they rarely treat anyone better. It is ...
THOMAS SZASZ Some fathers and sons don't get along that well when they're younger because they can't find a way t...
BRAYLON EDWARDS That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make m...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Soldiers have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit; they are never worshippers of force. S...
G. K. CHESTERTON Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings bec...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN I don't see them limiting themselves to search. That is why Microsoft and others are scared of them.
MARC ANDREWS There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape...
KATHERINE DUNN Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it al...
YO-YO MA History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Ve...
B. R. AMBEDKAR History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Ve...
B.R. AMBEDKAR Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by c...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by c...
SAMUEL JOHNSON I think the worst woman that ever existed would have made a man of very passable reputation -- they ...
LORD (GEORGE GORDON) BYRON I think the worst woman that ever existed would have made a man of very passable reputation - they a...
LORD BYRON It is true that men themselves made this world of nations... but this world without doubt has issued...
GIAMBATTISTA VICO It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement �...
SIGMUND FREUD Men were only made into men with great difficulty even in primitive society: the male is not natural...
PERCY WYNHAM LEWIS There is an interesting scientific dispute about realism and optimism. Some find that very optimisti...
MARTIN SELIGMAN At the SEC, the search for fraud was left largely to others -- private auditors and boards of direct...
JOSEPH LIEBERMAN For it was authority that turned men suspicious and stern-faced. Authority and responsibility which ...
CLIFFORD D. SIMAK A servant who serves excellently from his whole heart with due courage and humility is never a serva...
ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Vertical search engines that match your business, service or products with a target market offer you...
MARC OSTROFSKY We look at the way some kids behave and instantly blame the parents, and more often than not we’re...
KARL WIGGINS Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John...
J.J. MCAVOY There is no means by which men so powerfully elude their ignorance, disguise it from themselves and ...
GAMALIEL BRADFORD Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, rememb...
SERGEY BRIN It is always the same: women bedeck themselves with jewels and furs, and men with wit and quotations...
MAURICE CHEVALIER Good men, whether they be Christians or rationalists, do not desire to discriminate between races, b...
ARTHUR KEITH Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth,...
JOHN GREEN Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, think...
JOHN GREEN Some kids are just outgoing, so this is a natural thing for them, and others might have problems at ...
MELANIE KASSEN It was this feminine conspiracy which made Southern society so pleasant. Women knew that a land wher...
MARGARET MITCHELL I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or becau...
CHARLOTTE BRONTë To rescue from oblivion even a fragment of a language which men have used and which is in danger of ...
VICTOR HUGO And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel sa...
BIBLE The wise men posit questions to which they may not always find immediate answers, but through their ...
UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA

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 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