It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are suppliedmust admit those of fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who while he was chill was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We took tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and see how it operates upon than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. The acknowledgment of those virtues on which conscience congratulates us is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“It is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
