He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
Samuel Johnson
Related He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his o... SAMUEL JOHNSON He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature is less liable than anyone else to... HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else... HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left... SAMUEL JOHNSON The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for th... THOMAS HOBBES The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. ERIC HOFFER Nature has placed his own happiness in each man's hands, if he
only knew how to use it. JOHN CLARKE For anyone is an upstart who rises by his own efforts from his previous position in life to a higher... ADOLF HITLER An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepar... HENRI MATISSE The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little -- or it will seem that his satir... ANTHONY TROLLOPE The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little - or it will seem that his satire... ANTHONY TROLLOPE He who is not aware of his ignorance will only be misled by his knowledge. RICHARD WHATLEY The omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always es... VICTOR HUGO He who has never seen any money in life will betray his own world to have it. QAMAR KHAN QURESHI Life has obliged him to remember so much useful knowledge that he has lost not only his history, but... ALBERT J. NOCK For the first time he considers the full emotional dimensions of the day. His life is changing but h... JUSTIN CRONIN For so long as the Jew has even one ally, he will be convinced - in his smallness of mind - that his... MEIR KAHANE Some of his own closeness to nature, his great love for human beings, was passed on by Whitman to al... ELLA R. BLOOR Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 A ... SAMUEL JOHNSON Thus first of all in His own person He sanctified, restored, and blessed human nature. MARTIN CHEMNITZ As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so... MARGARET MEAD Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste
portion of the earth as is necessary for... SIR THOMAS MORE The knowledge of God that a person has, influences not only his own life, but also the lives of his ... SUNDAY ADELAJA Nothing in human nature is so God-like as the disposition to do good to our fellow-creatures. SAMUEL RICHARDSON Such fire was not by water to be drowned, nor he his nature changed by changing ground. LUDOVICO ARIOSTO The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and ... AYN RAND The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into con... WALTER LIPPMANN It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happi... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of kn... MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the movement of the stars and the turning of t... KATHERINE ANNE PORTER It is not who has the bigger index. We hear a lot about efforts to index all the artifacts of human ... BRADLEY HOROWITZ God was happy without humans before they were made; he would have continued happy had he simply dest... J.I. PACKER I only suggest to you: Will you dwell on killing this man? You wish for revenge? If you do, he has a... LLOYD ALEXANDER Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature. DENNIS GABOR In his voice resonated the timbre of a man who thinks he has convinced himself of an idea, but masks... KATHERINE HOWE And one who is just of his own free will shall not lack for happiness; and he will never come to utt... AESCHYLUS An irony of whole life story is that a person who says or does honestly good for others is not so mu... ANUJ SOMANY A man who dares to waste one hour of his life has not discovered the value of life. CHARLES DARWIN Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200 Frightful this is in a sense, but it is... SØREN KIERKEGAARD God in His wisdom has decided that He will reward no works but His own. JOHANNES TAULER A man who has learnt little, grows old like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowledge does not grow. FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge ... MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and ... THOMAS MERTON Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship: 2. the ministry of meekness ... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life wil... SHELBY STEELE Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his
individual life wil... SHELBY STEELE He has his own little enclosure, KEVIN IRELAND As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the... VIKTOR E. FRANKL I mean, if a person acts irresponsibly in his own life, he will pay the consequences. And it's n... PAT ROBERTSON Samuel understood at last why this being hated men and women so much: he hated them because they wer... JOHN CONNOLLY Nothing is less sincere than our mode of asking and giving advice. He who asks seems to have a defer... FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore h... G.K. CHESTERTON Man’s mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given... AYN RAND How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his nati... MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY She's his own daughter. He (his father) is in recovery, but at the very least, she has shortened his... DAVID HAMILTON A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot co... JAMES ALLEN He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance There never yet has been a country which became powerful without knowledge. A man by his own strengt... ZHANG ZHIDONG The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own ... THOMAS MERTON Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything -- except his own nature. HENRY MILLER At this day... the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to emp... JOHN CALVIN A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has be... JOHN STUART MILL He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own vi... WILLIAM CONGREVE He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own vi... WILLIAM CONGREVE By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ... THOMAS CARLYLE Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water... H. RIDER HAGGARD If a man has the right to self-ownership, to the control of his life, then in the real world he must... MURRAY N. ROTHBARD John is conservative in his political beliefs. He is somebody, though, who has not defined his life ... RICHARD LAZARUS Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is... VIKTOR E. FRANKL Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must
recognize that it is... VIKTOR FRANKL Feast of the Holy Cross Does not every man feel, that there is corruption enough within him to... CHARLES SIMEON What he truly wanted was to be left to his own devices. Not by his actual father, who could no longe... MAGGIE STIEFVATER If we want to know what happiness is we must seek it, not as if it were a part of gold at the end of... W. BERAN WOLFE When we leave people on their own, we are delivering them into the hands of a ruthless taskmaster fr... ERIC HOFFER God wanted to redeem men and open the way of salvation to those who seek Him. But men make themselve... BLAISE PASCAL The source of numerous psychic disturbances and difficulties occasioned by man's progressive alienat... CARL GUSTAV JUNG The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic adventure, an Odyssey throu... JOHN WILLIAMS That young man will either be killed by you or he will spend the rest of his life in prison in a cou... DAVID BAUGH A man can become so accustomed to the thought of his own faults that he will begin to cherish them a... HELEN ROWLAND A man can become so accustomed to the thought of his own faults that he will begin to cherish them... HELEN ROWLAND A man can become so accustomed to the thought of his own faults that he will begin to cherish them a... HELEN ROWLAND As long as a human being worries about when he will die,and what he has that is his,all of his works... KABIR Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871 Devo... WILLIAM LAW By mere burial man arrives not at bliss; and in the future life, throughout its whole infinite range... JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the p... FRANCIS SCOTT KEY Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time... GILBERT K. CHESTERTON Deprive the average human being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness HENRIK IBSEN Nor has he lived in vain, who from his cradle to his grave has
passed his life in seclusion. UNKNOWN But of that day and hour no one knows neither the angels in heaven nor the Son but only the Father.�... JOHN OWEN He who must expend his life to prolong life cannot enjoy it, and he who is still seeking for his lif... MAX STIRNER Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow ... TRYON EDWARDS He, who dares seek God's presence, will receive His blessings and favours. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA I'm so proud, because he applied his own tourniquet in the field and saved his own life. AUDRA FRANKLIN Anyone that says his mind will be probably regarded a fool, but the true artist is not moved by the ... MICHAEL BASSEY JOHNSON A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his... J.C. RYLE He was scarcely then a year old, and knew so little of herding that he had never turned a sheep in h... JAMES HOGG The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he ... SIGMUND FREUD Human ideologies are based on human believe and acceptance of one ideology by all human is not possi... ZAMAN ALI Education from the lowest to the highest form must have for its object the training of the individua... CHARLES A. BEARD
More 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 No one ever became great by imitation. SAMUEL JOHNSON