Author · English · 1709 – 1784 · 194 quotes
By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
Samuel Johnson
Author · English · 1709 – 1784
There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.
You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword.
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.
He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.
