Top 1762 Quotes & Sayings by Samuel Johnson - Page 26

You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.

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.

No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.

In a Man's Letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirrour of his breast.

I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

Philosophers there are who try to make themselves believe that this life is happy; but they believe it only while they are saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.

There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly-but then less is learned there; so what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.

Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.

All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied might remove the cause.

Change is not made without inconvenience.

He that teaches us anything which we knew not before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master.

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.

Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.

The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.

Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how soon he dies!

Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.

He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.

Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.

Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

Almost all the moral good which is left among us is the apparent effect of physical evil.

Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.

Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly.

For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.

Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.

He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dulness in others.

The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.

Enlarge my life with multitude of days, In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays; Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know, That life protracted is protracted woe. Time hovers o'er, impatient to destroy, And shuts up all the passages of joy.

And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

Learn that the present hour alone is man's.

Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.

Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.

men do not suspect faults which they do not commit

Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good from fear of remote evil; - from fear of its being abused.

Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come.

All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.