Samuel Johnson quotes - page 27

Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail. (Samuel Johnson)
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which if not a virtue, is the groundwork of a virtue. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The mind is seldom quickened to very vigorous operations but by pain, or the dread of pain. We do not disturb ourselves with the detection of fallacies which do us no harm. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Hunger is never delicate they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain. (Samuel Johnson)
Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rules of composition it produces vigilance rather than elevation rather prevents loss than procures advantage and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled. View quote
Samuel Johnson
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The mind is refrigerated by interruption the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject the reader is weary, he suspects not why and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself. View quote
Samuel Johnson
About things on which the public thinks long it commonly thinks right. (Samuel Johnson)
Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure the common practices of mankind. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow. View quote
Samuel Johnson
We are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us time to form distinctions in our own favor. View quote
Samuel Johnson