Samuel Johnson quotes - page 4

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice. (Samuel Johnson)
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. View quote
Samuel Johnson
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other. View quote
Samuel Johnson
OATS, 'n'. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds. (Samuel Johnson)
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it. View quote
Samuel Johnson
In misery's darkest cavern known, His useful care was ever nigh Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Among the calamities of war may be numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The true, strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour Improve each moment as it flies Life 's a short summer, man a flower He diesalas how soon he dies. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove The pangs of guilty power and hapless love Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves. View quote
Samuel Johnson
To neglect, at any time, preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege to omit it in old age, is to sleep At an attack. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. (Samuel Johnson)
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves. View quote
Samuel Johnson