Samuel Johnson Quotes

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The future is purchased by the present... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery... view

By: Samuel Johnson

That we must all die, we always knew.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy... view

By: Samuel Johnson

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something... view

By: Samuel Johnson

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Small debts are like small shot.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Revenge is an act of passion.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return... view

By: Samuel Johnson

There are charms made only for distant admiration... view

By: Samuel Johnson

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement... view

By: Samuel Johnson

Your manuscript is both good and original.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company... view

By: Samuel Johnson

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword... view

By: Samuel Johnson

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible... view

By: Samuel Johnson

There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern... view

By: Samuel Johnson

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The world is seldom what it seems.. view

By: Samuel Johnson

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity... view

By: Samuel Johnson

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are... view

By: Samuel Johnson