Samuel Johnson quotes - page 16

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time. (Samuel Johnson)
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. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. View quote
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. (Samuel Johnson)
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed. View quote
Samuel Johnson
When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity. View quote
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 quote
Samuel Johnson
Love is only one of many passions. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. View quote
Samuel Johnson
If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it? View quote
Samuel Johnson
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it. (Samuel Johnson)
No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Actions are visible, though motives are secret. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either. View quote
Samuel Johnson