Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 2

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life . . . the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.

In a man's letters his soul lies naked.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself being free from flatterers.

[C]ourage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.

It is foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity of a wife.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses of humanity? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure. Life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.

No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.

our triumphant age of plenty is riddled with darker feelings of doubt, cynicism, distrust, boredom and a strange kind of emptiness

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

Hope is itself a species of happiness and perhaps the chief happiness which this world affords.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Every other author may aspire to praise the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude.

The future is purchased by the present.

Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.

I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

Claret is the liquor for boys port for men but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair.

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

No man is much pleased with a companion who does not increase in some respect his fondness of himself.

Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing. When we have made it the next wish is to change again.

Life is a progress from want to want not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages.

The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.

If the man who turnips cries Cry not when his father dies 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." -

In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth.

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth and that things are the sons of heaven.

It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote.

Man is not weak - knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act which shows that it was conferred without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of virtue than of importance.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears.

O how vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do.

Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't courage you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing when we have made it the next wish is to change again.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate" an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation but will always abundantly repay the labors of industry and generally satisfy the most extensive desires if no part of it be suffered to lie in waste by negligence to be overrun with noxious plants or laid out for show rather than for use.