Samuel Johnson Quotes
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To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
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There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.
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It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them. ... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.
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Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength.
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The first years of man must make provision for the last.
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Of all the Griefs that harrass the Distrest,Sure the most bitter is a scornful Jest
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GRUBSTREET - The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.
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From Thee, great God: we spring, to Thee we tend,Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
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He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning.
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Was there ever yet any thing written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?
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Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
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A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.
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No man is much pleased with a companion, who does not increase, in some respect, his fondness for himself.
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Pleasure of itself is not a vice.
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It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.
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PENSION - An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.
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Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
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To a poet nothing can be useless.
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But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.
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Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
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Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.
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Sir, you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both.
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Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.
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He that thinks himself capable of astonishing may write blank verse: but those that hope only to please must condescend to rhyme.