Samuel Johnson Quotes

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.

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.

Nothing at all will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Moderation is commonly firm and firmness is commonly successful.

Abstinence is as easy for me as temperance would be difficult.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that is makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

For a man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly but then less is learned there so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.

Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Example is more efficacious than precept.

He that has much to do will do something wrong.

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

A fishing-rod was a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.

The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.

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

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.

An old friend never can be found and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.

A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love like being enlivened with champagne.

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

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

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life he will soon find himself left alone.

Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.

Friendship is a union of spirits a marriage of hearts and the bond there of virtue.

Men only become friends by community of pleasures.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef.

Friendship peculiar boon of Heaven The noble mind's delight and pride To men and angels only given To all the lower world denied.

The true genius is a mind of large general powers accidentally determined to some particular direction.

I have found men more kind than I expected and less just.

Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?

No man ever yet became great by imitation.

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

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

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.

I like a good hater.

Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not.

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

In all pleasure hope is a considerable part.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty sickness and captivity would without this comfort be insupportable.

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

A fly Sir may sting a stately horse and make him wince but one is but an insect and the other a horse still.

Knowledge is of two kinds we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it.

A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

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

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it.

It is the just doom of laziness and a gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquillity.

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.

The joy of life is variety the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.