There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Samuel Johnson
Related There is nothing too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we... SAMUEL JOHNSON As far as I'm concerned, I want to remain the mean little man I always was. JACK LEVINE This is too much reality for a Friday. AS GOOD AS IT GETS The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as ... EPICTETUS There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death. SAMUEL BUTLER Our goal is to make it so there's as little friction as possible to having a social experience. MARK ZUCKERBERG Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears to be. JEFFREY FRY Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible. SALLUST Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little. EDNA FERBER Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little EDNA FERBER That every person is desirous to obtain, with as little sacrifice as possible, as much as possible o... NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR No creature smarts so little as a fool. ALEXANDER POPE There is nothing as dead and as damned as an important thing. The things that really matter are casu... PATRICK KAVANAGH And if you can’t shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade ... CONSTANTINOS P. CAVAFIS I am a poor man and of little worth, who is laboring in that art that God has given me in order to e... MICHELANGELO So you put a little Jamaica in the fund, a little South Africa, a little Thailand. In a global crisi... CHRISTIAN STRACKE Dear little Swallow,” said the Prince, “you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous th... OSCAR WILDE Dear little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘you tell me of marvelous things, but more marvelous than... OSCAR WILDE Nothing trumps honesty, as far as I'm concerned. DAVID KOECHNER Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles... CHARLES H. SPURGEON Cut as little as possible. We cut to order when it is off of the big wheels. BENJAMIN SCOTT The best thing about Eisenhower's Presidency was his Jeffersonian conviction that there should be as... ALISTER COOKE Promising too much can be as cruel as caring too little. WILLIAM J. CLINTON Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by litt... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as ou... GEORGE BERNARD SHAW The thing that's worked for me is having as much of a connection to the material as possible. An... LARRY WILMORE That my philosophy of life is, as far as possible, one of enjoyment. I'm not nihilistic. ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No,... SAMUEL JOHNSON Nature uses as little as possible of anything. JOHANNES KEPLER 142.—As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little m... FRANçOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday pen... G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Death is not scary enough and not so sweet life of the human foot leaves gentility. IMAM ALI (AS) The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible. T.S. ELIOT The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible. T. S. ELIOT His goal was to say as little as possible without saying nothing, and he was successful at that. ANDREW HARDING That's SHIT! How do you remove it? You just put it inside the trash, easy as that. DEYTH BANGER I think millennials are a generation that's a little bit behind, maybe four or five years behind... DAN GILBERT When you are as athletic as Bobby is and you depend on that so much to do what you do on the floor a... LORENZO ROMAR In Cloud computing the difference between a dark cloud and a cloud with a silver lining, is the part... RAJAT MOHAN If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? THOMAS HUXLEY If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger. THOMAS H. HUXLEY As far as festivals, nothing tops Cannes. SASHA LANE If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can ... SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger? THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY I always do my own stunts, as much as possible. I'm a little stubborn about it. LAURA VANDERVOORT We put as little money as possible into Internet ventures, which we feel is the best approach. DANA MCCLINTOCK I have so little patience with the whole Y.A. book thing. As far as I'm concerned, you either re... RICHARD K. MORGAN 'Homeland' is necessarily open-ended since the idea behind television is to spend as much ti... STEVE ERICKSON People see what they want to see SUSAN BETH PFEFFER It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures... GEORGE ELIOT I'm trying to spend as little as possible, DAVID GREEN This part of the house is about 150 years old, so we tried to do as little as possible to maintain i... JOE HUTTON Selfishness comes from too little self-love, not too much, as we compensate for our lack. There's no... ANITA MOORJANI I just meant as far as coming to the games on time; it was just like I was under the microscope, eve... LATRELL SPREWELL If you're in the WWE, it's like show business boot camp. You learn a little bit about everyt... CHRIS JERICHO Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves JAMES MADISON Scandinavia is boring. People living there apparently have little to do. And as European history tea... ELLIOTT ABRAMS Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for y... DAVID SARNOFF Repentance is as much a mark of a Christian, as faith is. A very little sin, as the world calls it, ... CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON Science is Christian, not when it condemns itself to the letter of things, but when, in the infinite... EDGAR QUINET Science is Christian, not when it condemns itself to the letter of things, but when, in the infinite... EDGAR QUINET Only fools wait, and only tools bait. CRE There are approximately two trillion cells in the human body. You are never alone, there are always ... DWIGHT W. HAYES Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the wor... JOSEPH ADDISON A pie dough comes together exactly like a biscuit only there is very, very little liquid and no leav... ALTON BROWN There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a... SAMUEL JOHNSON If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a littl... WILLIAM COWPER There is little in life so reassuring as a genuine welcome. ROBIN HOBB There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so
much happiness is produced as by ... SAMUEL JOHNSON All is extremely genteel; and there is almost as much repose as in the golden saloons of the contigu... ISAAC D'ISRAELI All is extremely genteel; and there is almost as much repose as in the golden saloons of the contigu... ISAAC D'ISRAELI The taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Private enterprise can do things in many ways much more efficiently, ... As small as we are and as l... MIKE MELVILL Happiness is a natural emotion but people think they can get happiness through objects and money but... GARY F EVANS... We have very little faith in the Lord, very little trust. If we trusted the Lord as much as we trust... THADDEUS OF VITOVNICA We had very little time -- Bob and Felt in the garage together had very little time to have meetings... CARL BERNSTEIN The (United States) needs to stop issuing such nonsense as soon as possible. They have so little cre... ANTHONY CORDESMAN Too little light and man can’t see, just as too much light and man is blinded. Love is a light, an... JAROD KINTZ We are just a little bit beside ourselves with pride. And at the same time, we are trying to show as... DALE SMITH Do all the good you can, and make as little fuss about it as possible. CHARLES DICKENS I try to give as little information as possible. No. 1, the draft is a competitive situation. BILL POLIAN Say as little as possible while appearing to be awake. WILL ROGERS Do whatever comes your way to do as well as you can. Think as little as possible about yourself. Thi... ELEANOR ROOSEVELT Your mind is like a rubberband - you can expand it as much or as little as you want. ROXE It's okay to love something a little too much,as long as it's real to you. GERARD WAY Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?" Sometimes. One must speak a little, yo... JANE AUSTEN I beat myself a little bit too much sometimes. When you beat yourself a little bit too much, there... CAMILO VILLEGAS From what I've heard, Paris did a little bit more prep work as far as making bike lanes and all ... DAVID BYRNE It's as much fun as it ever was, you know, once I get there. Gettin' there is a little harde... MOSE ALLISON Everything in Venice is just a little bit creepy, as much as it's beautiful. CHRISTOPHER MOORE I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions. LORD (GEORGE GORDON) BYRON I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions. LORD BYRON In Paris, you're as far as possible from the land of pleasant smiles. KANYE WEST So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little ... F. SCOTT FITZGERALD There is much to be learned from the little kids and from the little animals! Little things teach us... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN You don't take things for granted as much as you used to. To be with those seniors ... it means a li... MIKE KUDLA I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a littl... QUEEN VICTORIA I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little... QUEEN VICTORIA I don't know how many customers have come by and asked how that little man is doing. We have had tha... CHARLES FEDERICO
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