quotes from classic

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

The endearing elegance of female friendship.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality they discourse like angels, but they live like men.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

The luster of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson