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Pleasure Quotes by Samuel Johnson

89 Pleasure quotes by Samuel Johnson

All Pleasure quotes Samuel Johnson’s page

Variety is the great source of pleasure, giving us fresh sparks to enjoy. Often the most delightful moments appear unexpectedly, like a surprise spark in a dark room. Curiosity can bring both pleasure and pain, reminding us that joy and hurt often travel together.

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Men become friends by a community of pleasures.

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The great source of pleasure is variety.

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Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

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Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

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Pleasure itself is not a vice

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In all pleasures hope is a considerable part.

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No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

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Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

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What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

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Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain.

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A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.

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The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.

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It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure.

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The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.

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When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

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Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.

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He said that few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forgo the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to…

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I am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and…

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On Sir Joshua Reynolds's observing that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Yes, Sir, no man…

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Whatever professes to benefit by pleasing must please at once. The pleasures of the mind imply something sudden and unexpected; that which…

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So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed…

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Men who could willingly resign the luxuries and sensual pleasures of a large fortune cannot consent to live without the grandeur and…

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Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

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Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal…

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Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with…

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The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing…

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Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes, and…

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Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good…

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But it is evident, that these bursts of universal distress are more dreaded than felt; thousands and ten thousands flourish in youth,…

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Moral sentences appear ostentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occasions than the journey of a wit to his home town:…

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Knowledge is praised and desired by multitudes whom her charms could never rouse from the couch of sloth; whom the faintest invitation…

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To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the…

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It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or…

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In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it;…

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“Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory, and…

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When the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and see how it operates upon than…

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In all pleasure hope is a considerable part

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Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.

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The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

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Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

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More by Samuel Johnson

The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

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…

You can never be wise unless you love reading.

If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise

All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it…

The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power.

Words are daughters of earth but ideas are sons of heaven.

“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting…

“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then…

Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt…

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem

The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.