Samuel Johnson Quotes
Men have solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.
It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the readiest method of obtaining her kindness is to praise her beauty.
Hope itself is a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords; but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain.
If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor.
A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed.
Power is gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent.
All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment; he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
No member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what the society holds to be true.
In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied might remove the cause.
Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself
The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.
The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.
Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained
Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying Nature signs the last release, And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.
Advice is offensive, it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ourselves.
There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.
Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without any very accurate inquiry whether it is right.