Samuel Johnson quotes - page 8

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. (Samuel Johnson)
Much may be made of a Scotsman if he be caught young. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night and then the nap takes me. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Wickedness is always easier than virtue for it takes the short cut to everything. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Sir, what is poetry Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is but it is not easy to tell what it is. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. View quote
Samuel Johnson
There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Of Garrick's death That stroke of death, which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure. (Samuel Johnson)
The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Lexicographer A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge. View quote
Samuel Johnson
This man Chesterfield, I thought, had been a Lord among wits but I find he is only a wit among Lords. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both. View quote
Samuel Johnson
EXCISE, n.' A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom the excise is paid. View quote
Samuel Johnson
He is the richest author that ever grazed the common of literature. View quote
Samuel Johnson
All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. (Samuel Johnson)
CLUB - An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions. View quote
Samuel Johnson
How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat." View quote
Samuel Johnson
Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay. View quote
Samuel Johnson