There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets. – Samuel Johnson
When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints. – Samuel Johnson
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent. – Samuel Johnson
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. – Samuel Johnson
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble. – Samuel Johnson
There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has given him something peculiar to himself. – Samuel Johnson
My diseases are an asthma and a dropsy and, what is less curable, seventy-five. – Samuel Johnson
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetick. – Samuel Johnson
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement. – Samuel Johnson
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it. – Samuel Johnson
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts. – Samuel Johnson
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair. – Samuel Johnson
