Life affords no higher pleasure than that of summoning difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
Samuel Johnson
Related Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of succ... SAMUEL JOHNSON Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship SAMUEL JOHNSON The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson) TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them. JOSEPH DE MAISTRE It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them. JOSEPH MARIE DE MAISTRE I say to life, "You are very hard", and I also say: "We are blind, we prefer to be blind. It is easi... FLORIDA SCOTT-MAXWELL Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than raising of the next generation. C. EVERETT KOOP If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left... SAMUEL JOHNSON To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we h... DAVID MCCULLOUGH It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving t... JOSEPH DE MAISTRE You are the author of your success, daily writing a new page to the book of your life. Everyday you ... MARK LAMOURE Clay in the hands of a good potter suffers so many good turns, but in the end, we see its real and t... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to ... ALAN BENNETT No one comes back from the dead, no one has entered the world without crying; no one is asked when h... SøREN KIERKEGAARD Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. WINSTON CHURCHILL Success has no idle hands; affords no legs at rest. JOHNNIE DENT JR. People are recognizing there is viability in multimedia. CDMA affords higher bandwidth for delivery ... MICHAEL DAVIES Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue. HAROLD BLOOM I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of b... JAMES NAISMITH Coincidences are God's way of guiding us to seeing life from a higher sense of wonder. LORI R TAYLOR Making New Year resolutions is one thing. Remaining resolute and seeing them through is quite anothe... ALEX MORRITT If all of our wishes were gratified, many of our dreams would be destroyed. SOURCE UNKNOWN To work and study is the most difficult thing to do as I had always said,but to be a christian is se... ASARE BEN CHRIS(ABC) When I was in New York it was like a maze, a rat maze, going from one little box to another little b... BRUCE CONNER Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John... J.J. MCAVOY Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know.... HELEN KELLER To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr... EDWARD M. HALLOWELL The sweetest pleasure arises from difficulties overcome. PUBLILIUS SYRUS It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Natio... MARTIN VAN BUREN Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 Why ... T. S. ELIOT when life goes down, don't worry. sometimes you have to go down to learn the things that are down ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in ... MARCEL PROUST Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you k... HELEN KELLER One of the greatest objections which families have to New South Wales, is their apprehension of the ... CHARLES STURT Unrest of the spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presents itself and in the solving... KARL MENNINGER If education, culture, the higher life were shining things to be worshiped from afar, he had still a... MARY ANTIN Death consists, indeed, in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man ... ANNIE BESANT Can't step from one movie set to the next. Only Samuel L. Jackson can do that. All us mere morta... ICE CUBE This would be another step for Boone in biotech and value-added agriculture to push that marketing n... BRENT TROUT God is higher than all wealth and success SUNDAY ADELAJA We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified. AESOP We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified. WOODY ALLEN I'm extremely gratified. I guess it feels validating... people saw the balance and need to protect o... WENDY HUDSON There is no doubt that the hard work of the Johnson staff and district staff as we implement new tea... TOM HICKS There’s nothing more forgiving than a new day; every new day affords new chances. SCOTTIE SOMERS New ideas inspire new life into dry old projects; they make bridges from one moment to another that ... MAICHEE SUMMER Other than damnation I know no magic to satisfy your wishes; for ye believe one thing, desire anothe... AUSTIN OSMAN SPARE As far back as history records people thinking, thinking people
have been befuddled by the mysteries... LEWIS N. ROE The passing years steal from us one thing after another HORACE My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and... ANTHONY ROBBINS My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and... ANTHONY ROBBINS My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and... TONY ROBBINS I gradually realized that I was seeing another example of creative ebb, another step by another art ... STEPHEN KING Without guidance and support for patients and families approaching death, there may be unnecessary c... LISA J. SHULTZ The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead
of having pain and pleasure u... ANTHONY ROBBINS The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure u... ANTHONY ROBBINS Samuel Johnson called it the vanity of human wishes, and Buddhists talk about the endless cycle of d... ALISON GOPNIK We are gratified to bring to justice another member of the DRAM cartel, which is one of the largest ... THOMAS BARNETT Goal in life should be small & specific.Take small step at first go& than go step by step.Doing this... DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA You never begin a new life. It's a mistake to think that you end one part of your life and start... RUDY GIULIANI His passing leaves a huge vacuum of leadership that no one individual can ever fill, ... There will ... ZELL MILLER to read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence... DAVID LODGE What's happened can be explained by the higher cost of crude oil, the difficulties in building new r... BOB SLAUGHTER The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than taking off a heavy backpack at the end o... JONATHAN HAIDT This new one is 5 feet - higher and brighter than the other. We vowed if they tear this one down, we... VERN ANASTASIO If you think of failure in your mind, you are one step farther away from success. VIKRANT PARSAI Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic current... WILLIAM JAMES One tumble from the rock of failure and trial is the first step to climbing the canyon known as succ... JEFFREY LEONARD We have taken another giant step in our march toward Europe, ... The journey will be fraught with di... RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN For if there is anything to one's praise, it is foolish vanity to be gratified at it, and if it ... RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN Decker smiled and shrugged off their laughter. The humour was only barbed if you sat on the outside,... R.D. RONALD No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library. SAMUEL JOHNSON No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. SAMUEL JOHNSON No nobler feeling than this, of admiration for one higher than
himself, dwells in the breast of man... THOMAS CARLYLE The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure u... TONY ROBBINS There's only one definitive offer for Guidant, and that's the one from Johnson & Johnson. JEFF LEEBAW There's only one definitive offer for Guidant and that's the one from Johnson & Johnson. JEFF LEEBAW It is one thing to speak of embracing the new, the fresh, the strange. It is another to feel that on... GREGORY BENFORD Musical compositions can be very sad - Chopin - but you have the pleasure of this sadness. The cheap... UMBERTO ECO There are no random acts...We are all connected...You can no more separate one life from another tha... MITCH ALBOM There is no situation like the open road, and seeing things completely afresh. I'm used to trave... JAMES SALTER You're seeing the effects of an electricity pricing mechanism that's tied to the cost of natural gas... JAMES HALLORAN Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporte... PATRICK FITZGERALD Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporte... PATRICK FITZGERALD Never strive to perceive the outlook of everything you have accomplished in life till date, It'll ne... AKSHARKUMAR DOBARIYA We continue to believe that no company is better positioned to benefit from the success of PlayStati... HEATH TERRY For if there is anything to one's praise, it is foolish vanity to be gratified at it, and if it is a... RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN Life and death; there is no bridge between the two; they are stuck to each other! Death is only a st... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN Apart from the scientific interest attached to my various journeyings, it has been made clear to me ... HOWARD FLOREY ...the pleasures of the world are chiefly folly, and the business of it mostly knavery, and both not... HENRY FIELDING Alas! Alas! Life is full of disappointments; as one reaches one ridge there is always another and a ... FRIDTJOF NANSEN No one wants to mother more vigilantly than a woman who is childless and wishes she wasn’t. ELIZABETH BERG Life is constantly teaching us that we are mirrors of one another and that no one is an island! OSCAR AULIQ-ICE Separate from the pleasure of your company, I don't much care if I never see another mountain in my ... CHARLES LAMB The volume was slightly higher than we were expecting. And they're passing through costs. ELI LUSTGARTEN The least degree of heat, as long as it is slightly higher than boiling water, suffices for uniting ... ANTOINE LAVOISIER We are extremely gratified that the initial launch of our first feature film through Genius has been... BOB WEINSTEIN If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another - and always into a better set - ... ALEXANDER HERZEN If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another -- and always into a better set -... ALEXANDER HERZEN
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