Samuel Johnson Quotes
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Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.
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It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say.
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The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
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Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy!
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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.
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Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
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Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
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He was a very good hater.
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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.'
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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.
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Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
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I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
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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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New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
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Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
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My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character as an author, he deserved to have his merit handsomely allowed.
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A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
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To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.