quotes from classic

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,- Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

While 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.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timourous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence a

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

And then, Sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

When first the college rolls receive his name, The young enthusiast quilts his ease for fame;...

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson

There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.

more quotes from Samuel Johnson