When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life . . . the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye in time is accommodated to darkness.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A soldier's time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption. — 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
Though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deserve the censure of being more averse from learning… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As to precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the more precedents there are, the less occasion… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
History can be formed from permanent monuments and records; but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favorer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced that whoever hopes to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every error in human conduct must arise from ignorance in ourselves, either perpetual or temporary; and happen either because we do not… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best recommended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
How many may a man of diffusive conversation count among his acquaintances, whose lives have been signalized by numberless escapes; who never… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always… — 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
He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not indeed certain, that the most refined caution will find a proper time for bringing a man to the knowledge… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Reason will by degrees submit to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few moments are more pleasing than those in which the mind is concerting measures for a new undertaking. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controversy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rise again… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity… — 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
Enlarge my life with multitude of days, In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays; Hides from himself his state, and shuns… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In proportion as our cares are employed upon the future, they are abstracted from the present, from the only time which we… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that,… — 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
