A Quote by Samuel Johnson
Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.
Related Quotes
Why would I make one woman so miserable when I can make so many women very happy?
That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is most often unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.
Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool; - and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable.
Many drops make a bucket, many buckets make a pond, many ponds make a lake, and many lakes make an ocean.
A happy but miserable state in which man finds himself from time to time; sometimes he believes he is happy by loving, then suddenly he finds how miserable he is. It is all joy, it sweetens life, but it does not last. It comes and goes, but when it is active, there is no greater virtue, because it makes one supremely happy.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
We all have direct experience with things that do or don't make us happy, we all have friends, therapists, cabdrivers, and talk-show hosts who tell us about things that will or won't make us happy, and yet, despite all this practice and all this coaching, our search for happiness often culminates in a stinky mess. We expect the next car, the next house, or the next promotion to make us happy even though the last ones didn't and even though others keep telling us that the next ones won't.
In the '50s, too many women, even though they were very smart, they tried to make the man feel that he was brainier. It was a sad thing.
Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.
Why get married and make one man miserable when I can stay single and make thousands miserable?
Many possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions.
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
I, like many women, buy into patriarchal standards of beauty every day. I very rarely leave the house without make-up. I dye my hair. I wear clothes that I choose carefully for how they make me look to the outside world.
It is not the smallest use to try to make people good, unless you try at the same time - and they feel that you are trying - to make them happy. And you rarely can make another happy, unless you are happy yourself.
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