Quotes by Samuel Johnson
An intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
As 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.
It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure the common practices of mankind
As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which he cannot apply will make no man wise.
Whatever you have spend less.
There are charms made only for distance admiration.
He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
For who is pleased with himself.
I hate mankind, for I think myself to be one of them, and I know how bad I am.
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
That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.
That fellow seems to posses but one idea and that is the wrong one.
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Your aspirations are your possibilities.
Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.
Hope itself is a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.
To preserve health is a moral and religious duty, for health is the basis of all social virtues. We can no longer be useful when we are not well.
To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.
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.
