Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The hapless wit has his labors always to begin, the call for novelty is never satisfied, and one jest only raises expectation… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the constitution of Man that labor may be said to be its own re-ward. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The labor of rising from the ground will be great, ... but as we mount higher, the earth's attraction, and the body's… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: Endless labor all along, Endless labor to be wrong: Phrase that… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it… — 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
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate"; an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
At length weariness succeeds to labor, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments without any desire… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labor and rest, hurry and retirement, endear… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man. — 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
