Samuel Johnson Quotes
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So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
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He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.
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The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.
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'Some,' answered Imlac, 'have indeed said that the soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
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Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.
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What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
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'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.
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I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.
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It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.
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The endearing elegance of female friendship.
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As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.
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Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
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Ah! let not Censure term our fate our choice, The stage but echoes back the public's voice; The drama's laws the drama's patrons give, For we that live to please must please to live.
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The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.
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Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
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The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
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Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility.
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By Numbers here from Shame or Censure free,All Crimes are safe, but hated Poverty.This, only this, the rigid Law persues,This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse.
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Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
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Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies.
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There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.
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A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.
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'I fly from pleasure,' said the prince, 'because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.'
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But, scarce observ'd, the knowing and the boldFall in the gen'ral massacre of gold.