Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost. – Samuel Johnson
Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others… This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts. – Samuel Johnson
Round numbers are always false. – Samuel Johnson
It was his peculiar happiness that he scarcely ever found a stranger whom he did not leave a friend; but it must likewise be added, that he had not often a friend long without obliging him to become a stranger. – Samuel Johnson
The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied. – Samuel Johnson
There mark what ills the scholars life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron. – Samuel Johnson
I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world. – Samuel Johnson
He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor. – Samuel Johnson
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price. – Samuel Johnson
Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man. – Samuel Johnson
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. – Samuel Johnson
Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it. – Samuel Johnson
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath. – Samuel Johnson
They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master. – Samuel Johnson
Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. – Samuel Johnson
Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity. – Samuel Johnson
A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still. – Samuel Johnson
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel. – Samuel Johnson
When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped. – Samuel Johnson
I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society. – Samuel Johnson
