FastSaying

More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Related Quotes

It would add much to human happiness, if an art could be taught of forgetting all of which the remembrance is at once useless and afflictive, that the mind might perform its function without encumbrance, and the past might no longer encroach upon the
— Samuel Johnson
ArtHappinessRemembrance
Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.
— Samuel Johnson
FewFrugalityNone
The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope and fear
— Samuel Johnson
EventsRetirementWorld
It was not for me to bandy civilities with my Sovereign
— Samuel Johnson
BandyCivilitiesNot
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
— Samuel Johnson
AliveDieLife