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Quotes by

Samuel Johnson

I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise. – Samuel Johnson

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass. – Samuel Johnson

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain. – Samuel Johnson

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man. – Samuel Johnson

Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression. – Samuel Johnson

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. – Samuel Johnson

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford. – Samuel Johnson

I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow. – Samuel Johnson

Dont think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark. – Samuel Johnson

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor. – Samuel Johnson

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. – Samuel Johnson

The luster of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue. – Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors. – Samuel Johnson

There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner? – Samuel Johnson

The greatest part of a writers time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book. – Samuel Johnson

You cant be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute whos for you and whos against you. – Samuel Johnson

The happiest part of a mans life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning. – Samuel Johnson

To love one that is great, is almost to be great ones self. – Samuel Johnson

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any mans virtues the means of deceiving him. – Samuel Johnson

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you havent courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others. – Samuel Johnson