Samuel Johnson quotes - page 21

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself. (Samuel Johnson)
To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed. View quote
Samuel Johnson
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life. View quote
Samuel Johnson
You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. View quote
Samuel Johnson
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country. (Samuel Johnson)
In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A very unclubable man. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Language is the dress of thought every time you talk your mind is on parade. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties. View quote
Samuel Johnson
None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. . . . There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Power is always gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence. (Samuel Johnson)
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Grief is a species of idleness. View quote
Samuel Johnson
As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor. View quote
Samuel Johnson