-
A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.
Samuel Johnson -
Round numbers are always false.
Samuel Johnson
-
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Samuel Johnson -
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.
Samuel Johnson -
Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
Samuel Johnson -
I Boswell happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON: 'Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here.'
Samuel Johnson -
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.
Samuel Johnson -
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
Samuel Johnson
-
To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.
Samuel Johnson -
Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.
Samuel Johnson -
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.
Samuel Johnson -
A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.
Samuel Johnson -
When learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foesFirst reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose;Each change of many-colored life he drew,Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new:Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,And panting Time toiled after him in vain.
Samuel Johnson -
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
Samuel Johnson
-
Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
Samuel Johnson -
Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.
Samuel Johnson -
It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.
Samuel Johnson -
Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.
Samuel Johnson -
Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do.
Samuel Johnson -
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
Samuel Johnson
-
Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
Samuel Johnson -
'Enlarge my life with multitude of days!'In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays:Hides from himself his state, and shuns to knowThat life protracted is protracted woe.
Samuel Johnson -
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Samuel Johnson -
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.
Samuel Johnson