Samuel Johnson
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Samuel JohnsonLife affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
Samuel JohnsonA gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died; it was the triumph of hope over experience.
Samuel JohnsonA family is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions.
Samuel JohnsonThere is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.
Samuel JohnsonLove is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise
Samuel JohnsonTo improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.
Samuel JohnsonKnowledge is more than equivalent to force.
Samuel JohnsonA man has no more right to say an uncivil thing to another man than he has to knock him down.
Samuel JohnsonThe most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.
Samuel JohnsonMarriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
Samuel JohnsonAll knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not.
Samuel JohnsonHope is necessary in every condition.
Samuel JohnsonAdversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
Samuel JohnsonWhile 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.
Samuel JohnsonRead over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
Samuel JohnsonWhat is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Samuel JohnsonEvery quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
Samuel JohnsonSuch is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange 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.
Samuel JohnsonAs I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
Samuel JohnsonPatriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Samuel JohnsonAbstinence is as easy to me, as temperance would be difficult.
Samuel JohnsonIntegrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Samuel JohnsonPatriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self- interest.
Samuel JohnsonTo get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.
Samuel Johnson
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