Quotes by Samuel Johnson
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
To 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.
Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
I am aware that by many persons, it is considered in the nature of a joke to to become a candidate and to be elected as a member of the Legislature.
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
