Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Greed
It is easy to talk of sitting at home contented, when others are seeing or making shows. But not to have been where it is supposed, and seldom supposed falsely, that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing when everyone is talking; to have no opinion when everyone is judging; to hear exclamations of rapture without power to depress; to listen to falsehoods without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness, than supported by fortitude. If the world be worth winning let us enjoy it, if it is to be despised let us despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Attachment
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Goals
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Night
A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Wealth
Your giving a reason for it will not make it right.—You may have a reason why two and two should make five, but they will still make but four.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Reason
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defence.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Slander
A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Self-Discovery, Identity, Focus, Concentration
An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Friendship
Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: The Future, Future, Cheating
We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.—It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Encouragement
Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Law, Lawyers
It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Hunting
It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit; he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Affectation
The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Friendship
He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Self-Esteem, Self Respect
Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Acting, Actors
Tradition is but a meteor, which, if it once falls, cannot be rekindled. Memory, once interrupted, is not to be recalled. But written learning is a fixed luminary, which, after the cloud that had hidden it has passed away, is again bright in its proper station. So books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when opened again, will again impart instruction.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Reading, Books
Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Vanity
Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Secrecy, Evil, Secrets
The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Praise
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the full value of time and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Forgiveness
Security will produce danger.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Danger, Security
Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Disappointment, Belief
Suspicion is most often useless pain.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Doubt
Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Anger
There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Gratitude, Obligation
The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Busy
Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Sorrow, Exercise
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
—Samuel Johnson
Topics: Conversation
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Joseph Addison English Poet, Playwright, Politician
- Lytton Strachey British Biographer
- William Hazlitt English Essayist
- Gladys Bronwyn Stern British Novelist
- A. C. Benson English Essayist
- Arthur Helps British Essayist, Historian
- Lawrence Durrell British Biographer
- V. S. Pritchett British Short Story Writer
- Rudyard Kipling British Children’s Books Writer
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson British Poet
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