Samuel Johnson Quotes
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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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Catch then, O! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short Summer - man a flower, He dies - alas! how soon he dies!
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Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,And Swift expires, a driv'ler and a show.
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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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Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
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All this wealth excludes but one evil,-poverty.
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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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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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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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There is now 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.
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While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
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A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.
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Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.
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Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.
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To let friendship die away by negligence and silence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage.
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A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.
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The poet must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.
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Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England.
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Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
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English superiority and American obedience.
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Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
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Those writers who lay on the watch for novelty, could have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
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A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.
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Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.