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

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Such fire was not by water to be drowned, nor he his nature changed by changing ground.
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A man who dares to waste one hour of his life has not discovered the value of life.
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He, who dares seek God's presence, will receive His blessings and favours.
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I'm so proud, because he applied his own tourniquet in the field and saved his own life.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
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Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
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When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
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Whatever you have spend less.
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What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.
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He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and...
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This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.
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The endearing elegance of female friendship.
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The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
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I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
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"He was a very good hater."
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I like a good hater.
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Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.
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Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
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Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
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If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
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Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
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He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
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Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse ...
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Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full mea...
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As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
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Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.
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Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.
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Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
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I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an ...
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What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of t...
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I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
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The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
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More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his serva...
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Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
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Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external age...
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Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
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All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
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Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upo...
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Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hangi...
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A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
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There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a...
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There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good unti...
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Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt...
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The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effront...
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Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
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The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. B...
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Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially ...
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Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make fa...
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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 ...
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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.
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It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be aft...
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Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves wit...
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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.
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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.
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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