Samuel Johnson quotes - page 17

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us. (Samuel Johnson)
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities. View quote
Samuel Johnson
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression. View quote
Samuel Johnson
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I have found men more kind than I expected, and less just. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy. (Samuel Johnson)
I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. View quote
Samuel Johnson
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman in marriage. View quote
Samuel Johnson
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage. View quote
Samuel Johnson
To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself. View quote
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 quote
Samuel Johnson
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes. (Samuel Johnson)
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates. View quote
Samuel Johnson