Samuel Johnson quotes - page 28

Friendship, peculiar boon of Heaven, The noble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only given, To all the lower world denied. (Samuel Johnson)
A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity. View quote
Samuel Johnson
In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at eighteen as I do now. View quote
Samuel Johnson
One of the most pernicious effects of haste is obscurity. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Any of us would kill a cow, rather than not have beef. View quote
Samuel Johnson
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem. View quote
Samuel Johnson
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain. View quote
Samuel Johnson
More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It is unjust to claim the privileges of age and retain the playthings of childhood. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow. (Samuel Johnson)
He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor. View quote
Samuel Johnson
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention and the world therefore swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing. View quote
Samuel Johnson
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No mind is much employed upon the present recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow. View quote
Samuel Johnson
As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Every other enjoyment malice may destroy every other panegyric envy may withhold but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums. View quote
Samuel Johnson
His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real no man thinks much of that which he despises. (Samuel Johnson)
The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness. View quote
Samuel Johnson